Technology Magazine March 2023

GONE SPEAR

PHISHING: KEEPING YOUR BUSINESS PROTECTED FROM THREATS AI & DEFENCE: THE NEED FOR RESPONSIBLE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

HOW THE METAVERSE AND VR IS CHANGING THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

HOW THE METAVERSE AND VR IS CHANGING THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

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Metaverse: The future of entertainment

As interest in the metaverse continues to mount, entertainment events, from music to sport, are increasingly taking place in the virtual space. The potential of the metaverse is clear, but users’ safety and privacy needs to be considered.

Discussions about the potential uses of the metaverse are nothing new. The world’s biggest companies, such as Google, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, have each made significant investments in the space, while research from Capgemini has found 93% of adult consumers surveyed are at least ‘metaverse-curious’.

But in the entertainment industry, there are signs that the concept of the metaverse is making its mark. Prompted by COVID-19 and the absence of in-person gigs and concerts, the metaverse has made its presence felt in the music industry, while there are early signs of metaverse concepts being implemented for fans at live sporting events, from the FIFA World Cup to the NBA.

But if the metaverse is to be considered the future of entertainment, safety and ethical aspects will be important to establish the sense of community that is central to its mass adoption.

With the collection and use of consumer data more important now than ever, safeguards will need to be put in place to ensure the success of the metaverse.

marcus.law@bizclikmedia.com

MARCUS LAW

“In the entertainment industry, there are signs that the concept of the metaverse is making its mark”

CONTENTS

UP FRONT

016 BIG PICTURE

SailGP racing to revolutionise competitive sailing with NetSuite

018 THE BRIEF

Tech LIVE Virtual 2023: What to expect

020 TIMELINE

Six inspirational tech pioneers

024 TRAILBLAZER Dave Grow

028 FIVE MINUTES WITH Guido Grillenmeier

FEATURES

056 DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Entertainment industry continues to sound out the metaverse

080 CLOUD & CYBER

Gone spear phishing: how to protect from email threats

112 ENTERPRISE IT

Bigger data leads more companies to take a dip in data lakes

136 OPERATIONS

US military dominates battlefield in a global AI revolution

162 TOP 1 0

AI technology startups to watch in 2023

COMPANY REPORTS

066 SAP SAP’s Sam Castro on AI and risk resilience in manufacturing

CONTENTS

090 RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

Why telecom’s hopes and dreams hinge on software

120 G4S

Embedding sustainable procurement at G4S

144 KINGFISHER PLC Digital innovations building the home improvement journey

174 SWITCH DATACENTERS

Sustainability strategies and getting the public on-board

192 AH4R American homes 4 rent’s Philip Irby on AI use in the home

206 KROGER

Becominga leader with Linda Howard

222 FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

How Fidelity brings digital assets to institutional clients

238 EMIRATES NATIONAL SCHOOLS

Embracing technology on ENS’ second wave of digital transformation

BIG PICTURE

SailGP racing to revolutionise competitive sailing with NetSuite Globally

SailGP has partnered with Oracle NetSuite as it aims to double the league’s size within two years.

Founded by Oracle chairman and CTO Larry Ellison alongside champion sailor Sir Russell Coutts, the high-tech racing league – now in its third season – features nine national teams competing in identical F50 foiling catamarans.

SailGP also uses Oracle Stream Analytics and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to capture and transmit data from 30,000 data points to deliver real-time racing metrics that allow teams to build their optimal strategy and amplify the viewing experience for fans.

THE BRIEF

BY THE NUMBERS

61% 2023 27% 2020

READ MORE

61% of participants in a study by Okta stated that their employees are more productive while working remotely – up from 27% in a 2020 study New Okta research finds that perceptions around hybrid work among business leaders have improved since 2020, with the vast majority (85%) saying that employees who work remotely are at least as productive as when they work in the office.

Small businesses to spend US$1.45tn on technology this year

READ MORE

Small and medium-sized businesses will increase technology spending this year and remain upbeat despite the economic challenges, research claims. Specialist technology consulting and research firm Analysys Mason predicts that 145 million SMBs worldwide are expected to spend US$1.45tn on IT in 2023 (40% from the Americas, 30% from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and 30% from Asia–Pacific), driven by the post-pandemic trend towards digital transformation.

“THE IDEA TO MOVE THE ENTIRE MOBILE ARCHITECTURE INTO A SOFTWARE-CENTRIC PLATFORM ISN’T A SMALL EVOLUTION. IT'S A REVOLUTION OF HOW NETWORKS ARE ENGINEERED, BUILT, AND ARCHITECTED BASED ON NEW, MODERN CLOUD ARCHITECTURE”

Tareq Amin CEO and CTO, Rakuten Symphony

“WE DON'T BRING TECHNOLOGY JUST FOR THE SAKE OF TECHNOLOGY. WE MAKE SURE THAT IT IS PURELY AND 100% ALIGNED WITH OUR MISSION AND VISION”

Abdulrahman Khaiwi Head of IT, Emirates National Schools

Tech LIVE Virtual 2023: What to expect

Tech LIVE is returning for 2023, taking place on the 8th June in a virtual event highlighting the innovators changing and disrupting the technology industry.

From expert keynote speakers to interactive fireside and panel discussions, this exclusive, one-day virtual event – brought to you by Bizclik – is an essential deep-dive into the disruption and the future of Technology, AI and Cyber.

Live-streamed to a global audience from 10:25am-2pm BST, Tech LIVE Virtual will consist of 12 keynote presentations across two live streams, including lively panel discussions from leading experts and influencers in the technology industry.

We will be discussing the biggest topics that are impacting the global technology industry, including:

• The AI Revolution

• Quantum Computing

• Cybersecurity & IoT

• VR & the Virtual Workplace

• Blockchain

• Technology’s Place in Sustainability

To book your free tickets now, click here

 MICROSOFT

Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Fungible, known for producing highefficiency, low-power data processing units (DPUs), in a move to accelerate data centre innovation.

 ACCELERATING SELFDRIVING

Carmaker Stellantis announced the acquisition of aiMotive, a leading developer of advanced AI and autonomous driving software to help advance its autonomous driving ambitions.



PRIVACY SKILLS GAP

94% of global businesses have acknowledged they have a privacy skills gap, according to research by ISACA.

ISACA’s ‘Privacy in Practice’ report found that, despite the agreed importance of privacy and the growing concern over security, 59% of technical privacy teams are understaffed.

 SLOWING SEMICONDUCTOR GROWTH

Revenue from the sale of memory chips was down 10% globally in 2022 from the year before, according to Gartner’s global semiconductor report which revealed a mere 1.1% growth in revenue. The previous year saw a 26% yearon-year revenue growth.

U P D O W N

MAR23

WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL

SIX INSPIRATIONAL TECH PIONEERS

INTERNATIONAL

WOMEN’S DAY:

To coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8th – which has the theme DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality –Technology Magazine looks at some of the inspirational women who have made their mark on the tech landscape

TIMELINE

1842

Ada Lovelace: the first algorithm

Ada Lovelace published the first algorithm to be run by Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, making her the first computer programmer.

Lovelace detailed applications for the Analytical Engine that relate to how computers are used today.

1950s

Pioneering computer programming

An admiral in the United States’ Navy, Grace Hopper was one of the first programmers for the Harvard Mark I computer, which was used in the war effort for WWII. Her work also led to the development of the programming language COBOL, which is still in use today.

1961

Putting humans in orbit

Katherine Johnson was instrumental to calculating the launch window for Alan Shepard’s first space flight. Johnson, who was immortalised in the 2016 film Hidden Figures, worked on calculations for Project Apollo's Lunar Lander, the Space Shuttle, and the Earth Resources Satellite. In 2015, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1960s Software engineering

Credited by NASA with coming up with the term ‘software engineering’, Margaret Hamilton led a team that developed the in-flight software for the Apollo missions and Skylab. Hamilton worked on software development for Apollo 11, the first spacecraft to complete a successful mission that placed humans on the moon in 1969.

1965

The first women with a PhD in computer science

Sister Mary Kenneth Keller became the first American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Creating the programming language BASIC – opening the door for anyone to learn programming – Keller went on to advocate for the use of computers in education and to encourage women to get involved in computer science.

1984

STP: The foundation of the internet

Radia Perlman invented the spanning tree protocol (STP), one of the foundations of the Internet as we know it today.

Perlman holds over 100 issued patents and is the recipient of awards including

Lifetime Achievement awards from Usenix and the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2014, she was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame.

The importance of collaboration in a hybrid working world

Technology Magazine speaks with the CEO of collaboration platform Lucid, Dave Grow, on the importance of not stagnating and how to overcome collaboration challenges

Since joining as the company's first business hire in 2010, Lucid Software CEO Dave Grow has taken on many responsibilities, including VP of Product and Strategy, VP of Operations and Strategy, Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Operating Officer and, prior to his current role, President and COO.

With its products – Lucidchart, Lucidspark and Lucidscale – Lucid helps teams turn ideas into reality, clarify complexity and collaborate visually, no matter where they're located. Lucid's products are used all around the world, with customers including Google, GE and NBC Universal.

Thank you for joining us!

Please introduce yourself

and tell us about your role

My name is Dave Grow, and I am the CEO of Lucid Software. Prior to joining Lucid, I was a management consultant at a global consulting firm after founding my own web-based platform. About 10 years ago, I was approached by co-founder and then-CEO Karl

Sun, who invited me to join Lucid as one of the first business and operations-focused employees. I quickly saw the vision of what Lucid could become and the opportunity we had to bring cloud-based visual collaboration to workers worldwide.

Over the years, I’ve worn a variety of hats across marketing, operations, customer success, sales and more to build the business to what it is today. Currently, we have over 1,000 employees and are serving enterprise organisations across the globe.

How does Lucid help teams collaborate?

At Lucid, our mission is to help teams of all sizes see and build the future faster than ever. We do that through our visual collaboration products, which provide an end-toend experience that helps teams

streamline organisational teamwork and really enables team members to collaborate the way that they work best, whether it’s asynchronous or in real-time, from any location.

Our products can be used across a variety of use-cases where collaboration becomes absolutely critical, including brainstorming and ideation, mapping business processes, creating org charts, and tracking ongoing projects. By using

“Staying stagnant with those prepandemic workflows and tactics just won’t cut it in today’s everchanging market”

visual collaboration, team members can be connected to easily turn their most innovative ideas into reality and stay aligned through all stages of a project.

Research by Lucid found 75% of employees said collaboration suffered the most during the pandemic. How can businesses overcome these challenges? The way we work evolved slowly before the pandemic, and truthfully, staying stagnant with those prepandemic workflows and tactics just won’t cut it in today’s everchanging market. This is an exciting time for companies to reevaluate the tools and processes needed to improve operational resiliency while also keeping employees motivated, productive and aligned to drive success, especially when teams are hybrid or fully remote.

This starts with selecting meaningful workplace solutions that are easy to use and can integrate with other workflows. At Lucid, we truly believe in the power of visual collaboration because we use our products to align and build with each other every single day. It's amazing to see the innovation that has come as we've continued to integrate our own products into our workflows.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced in your career?

One of the most interesting challenges about helping create a new category is earning the support from others who may not understand the opportunity yet.

As Lucid tried to raise money during different junctures, potential investors would question how large the market was and whether our growth might imminently stall. In earlier years, this often resulted in many months of receiving rejections from investors and slowly piecing together our initial rounds of funding. Hearing “no” repeatedly from countless smart and talented investors was undoubtedly a grind and a challenge.

While we’ve been fortunate to partner with some great investors who caught the vision, we’ve had to prove others wrong by executing and growing consistently, year in and year out, and helping paint the vision of what visual collaboration can, and ultimately will, become. That said, it’s been a challenge we’ve welcomed.

What does the future look like for Lucid?

The future is incredibly bright for Lucid as we are still at the early stages in developing this market of visual collaboration. We believe that all teams and knowledge workers — all 1.1 billion of them — can, should and will use visual collaboration in the years to come. There is a massive opportunity and responsibility for us to educate companies and users of how visual collaboration can help them see and build the future faster, and then deliver on that promise through an ever-deepening and broadening product experience.

To do that, we must continue to focus on building an outstanding company with incredible people and preserving the culture that has enabled us thus far. It’s an exciting time to be a Lucid employee and customer.

“While we’ve been fortunate to partner with some great investors who caught the vision, we’ve had to prove others wrong by executing and growing consistently, year in and year out”

GUIDO GRILLENMEIER

TECHNOLOGY

MAGAZINE SPEAKS WITH GUIDO GRILLENMEIER, CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST AT SEMPERIS, ON HOW THE COMPANY PIONEERS IN IDENTITY PROTECTION

A well-established industry veteran, Guido Grillenmeier is Chief Technologist at cyber resilience and threat mitigation platform Semperis –a role he has held since 2021.

Grillenmeier previously worked as Chief Engineer at HP for nearly 20 years, where he was a member of the company’s Advanced Technology Group leading the development and delivery of HP's Windows Server 2008 Academies to HP’s Services division. Most recently, Grillenmeier held the position of Chief Technologist within the Enterprise Services Group at DXC Technology, a spinoff company from the Enterprise Services division of HPE and CSC.

In addition, Grillenmeier is a Microsoft-certified architect and co-author of Microsoft Windows Security Fundamentals, who has spoken at leading Microsoft conferences, including Microsoft Tech-ED, IT Forum, Windows Connections, and the Hybrid Identity Protection conference.

Q. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US GUIDO, PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF AND TELL US ABOUT YOUR ROLE

» My name is Guido Grillenmeier and I am based in Germany. I have

What You Need to Know About Securing Active Directory

devoted my professional career to identity and enterprise security, with a focus on the Microsoft ecosystem that I helped many companies to migrate into and optimise for their needs. A frequent speaker at technology conferences, I have been privileged to receive the Microsoft MVP award for 12 years in a row. I am now the Chief Technologist of Semperis, supporting our customers around the globe.

12

Q. WHAT IS SEMPERIS, AND WHAT DOES IT OFFER?

» Semperis is a pioneer in identity protection, focusing on the Microsoft Directory services – both in the cloud (Azure Active Directory) and on-premises (Active Directory).

Microsoft Active Directory (AD) has been around since 2000 and is an incredibly popular identity management solution. It helps organisations to manage their users, devices, and more. As a tool, it’s ubiquitous, used by approximately 90% of the Fortune 1000. However, it is also a common target for cybercriminals to exploit, with research indicating that 90% of cyberattacks involve AD in some way.

Semperis helps customers to identify their weak spots in AD and discover if there is an intruder in their environment by looking for suspicious activity going on.

“THE BEST APPROACH FOR SECURING ACTIVE DIRECTORY IS IMPLEMENTING A LAYERED DEFENCE STRATEGY THAT PROTECTS AD BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER AN ATTACK”

90% of cyber attacks involved Active Directory in some way

years Awarded Microsoft MVP status in a row

Evaluating Identity

There are many permissions in AD that intruders use to hide, persisting in the environment. Semperis scans all permission changes live. Any change taking place in AD is visualised and recorded in its ‘Directory Services Protector’ (DSP) solution, with which you can undo any changes manually or automatically.

Q. WHAT ARE THE WEAKNESSES OF ACTIVE DIRECTORY?

» The secret of Microsoft Active Directory’s success was its openness. By default, any end-user in your company can read all user- and group-information from your AD, as well as all critical configuration settings. This made it very easy to integrate with all sorts of applications. But today, that is its weak spot, and hardly any company has taken the security steps needed to make AD

harder to attack by reducing those weak permissions.

For many organisations, it’s their Achilles’ heel. It’s so easy to read, which means it’s also easy for attackers to detect vulnerabilities and use them against you. Microsoft has increased AD security over the years, but there’s a variety of settings now that many companies are still not

“WE ARE ENTERING A PHASE OF INCREASED FOCUS ON IDENTITY PROTECTION – AFTER ALL, HACKERS DON’T BREAK IN, THEY LOG IN!”

Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Solutions | Gartner IAM Summit

using to protect themselves, and that’s why they are still very, very vulnerable.

Once a criminal has access to AD, they can move laterally within the networks of the business taking down one system after another reading the data. Companies hold vast amounts of valuable data – critical customer information – and the very secrets of the companies themselves. In this sense, AD is something of a treasure trove. It contains the keys to the kingdom; a map that reveals where their resources that contain value are.

Q. HOW CAN AD SECURITY BE BUILT FOR TODAY’S FASTCHANGING TECH LANDSCAPE?

» The best approach for securing AD is implementing a layered defence strategy that protects AD before, during, and after an attack. Organisations need solutions that address every stage of the attack lifecycle, including identifying and mitigating vulnerabilities, detecting advanced attacks, automatically remediating malicious changes, and ensuring a malware-free AD recovery in the event of a cyberattack.

Given that many AD attacks are successful, organisations should prepare for the worst by having a tested AD forest recovery plan in place so they can resume business operations as quickly as possible after an attack.

Q. WHAT TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT IN FUTURE?

» We are entering a phase of increased focus on identity

Fast 500

In December, Semperis ranked No.64 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies in North America. In a statement, the company said it's more than 2,800% revenue growth was down to high market demand for identity protection in AD environments.

protection – after all, hackers don’t break in, they log in! As such, easily determining unknown vulnerabilities that allow compromising the most critical components of any identitysystem – the so-called “top tier” or “tier 0” objects – is a key capability I am excited about.

Semperis is already offering the powerful Purple-Knight vulnerability scanning tool for validating AD and Azure-AD environments for wellknown misconfigurations.

Semperis will also be releasing a free version of another powerful graph-based security tool, named Forest Druid, which will allow locating those company-specific risks within AD that do not fit into existing patterns. Utilising these technologies in concert will further help to improve the security posture of companies, making life harder for the cybercriminals to succeed on their vicious path of destruction.

Executives from Appian, AWS, and Xebia share their collaborative efforts and excitement about their partnership in low-code, cloud, and sustainability.

Technology is instrumental to achieving next-level capabilities across industries. But organizations that want to operate sustainably must choose technology that lets them adhere to strong environmental, social, and governance principles.

Appian Corporation, a process automation leader, is a critical piece of the digital transformation and sustainability puzzle. The enterprise-grade Appian Low-Code Platform is built to simplify today’s complex business processes, with process mining, workflow, and automation capabilities.

“By quickly building apps that streamline and automate workflows, organizations are using Appian to make their processes for monitoring and reporting on ESG initiatives faster, simpler, and more effective,” says Meryl Gibbs, Emerging Industries Leader at Appian.

“Both AWS and Appcino are amazing partners of ours,” says Michael Heffner, VP Solutions and Industry Go To Market at Appian. “We have an extremely long legacy engagement with AWS as our trusted, go-to-market partner and Appcino builds “meaningful, business-focused applications on the Appian platform and is amazing in all things ESG.”

Digital transformation in ESG.

As an AWS leader enabling sustainability solutions built on the cloud, Mary Wilson, Global Sustainability Lead at AWS, talks about the partnership with Appian.

“Our objective is to help our customers achieve sustainability goals across their business operations,” says Wilson. “[This means] looking at data availability, meaning access to more data, and enabling actionable insights. “Lowcode, cloud-enabled, technologies will allow organizations to build fast, learn fast, iterate, and continue to improve these insights to drive their sustainability outcomes.”

Tarun Khatri, Co-Founder & Executive Director of Appcino (product part of Xebia), explains just how critical ESG is in the face of digital transformation. “The investment community now considers ESG reporting as a major factor for measuring performance,” says Khatri The collaboration will continually uncover new insights and provides customers the opportunity to accelerate their ESG goals with speed and security.

EVOLVING TOWARDS THE FINANCE OF THE FUTURE THROUGH DATA AND ANALYTICS

Nantes Kirsten, Director of Financial Analytics CoE, and Matthew MacEwen, VP of Finance Transformation, detail Finance’s change catalysts via data and analytics

Bell is Canada’s largest communications company, providing advanced broadband wireless, TV, Internet, media and business communication services throughout the country. Their purpose is to advance how Canadians connect with each other and the world, enabled by a strategy that builds on their competitive strengths and embraces the new opportunities of the integrated digital future.

Founded in Montréal in 1880, Bell has a long history of connecting Canadians to the people and things that matter. From their earliest days, starting with the telephone, Bell continues to bring generations of Canadians together with the latest technology. Today, Bell is delivering the future to customers with an unmatched infrastructure investment in the best broadband fibre and wireless technologies, including the country’s growing 5G network. Through Bell for Better, they are investing to create “a better today and a better tomorrow”, by supporting the social and economic prosperity of their communities with a commitment to the highest environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. This includes the Bell Let’s Talk initiative, which promotes Canadian mental health with national awareness and anti-stigma campaigns like Bell Let’s Talk Day, and significant Bell funding of community care and access, research and workplace leadership initiatives throughout the country.

Transformations through Data and Analytics

Beginning their finance transformation journey back in 2019 – Bell Finance saw the potential emerging technologies have to fundamentally transform the way that they work and the services that they provide, discerning that data and analytics (D&A) is core to what they do as a finance function. So fundamental, in fact, that they consider D&A and technology adoption to be a cornerstone of their entire transformation, if not the chief driving force behind it.

If you stop to consider what a finance department or an accounting function actually is, you’ll quickly realise that it begins and ends with data and information – and the packaging up of that information to either produce new insights on performance, help develop business forecasts, or to ultimately provide strategic recommendations and services to the organisation as a whole.

“It's really about being able to develop a leading edge practice by moving away

from a traditionally federated approach, to instead managing data and analytics by channelling it into a centralised team and a centralised system,” says Matthew MacEwen, VP of Finance, and lead of Finance Transformation initiative at Bell, including the Finance Data and Analytics work stream. “This has really helped our finance function to accelerate its transformation and to have a specific focus, ensuring our entire finance community has access to all of the data that they need in order to carry out their day-to-day jobs, and help drive automation of manual processes.”

In 2019, MacEwen was asked by the CFO to help lead their finance transformation initiative, and to help develop their future state roadmap. At that time, the company had started centralising their CoE and MacEwen was – and still is – the leader of that group. In his D&A role, he leads finance transformation, as well as supporting

EXECUTIVE BIO

Nantes Kirsten

TITLE: DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL ANALYTICS COE

INDUSTRY: FINANCE

LOCATION: CANADA

Nantes Kirsten leads the Financial Analytics Centre of Excellence (CoE) at Bell, a specialist team of financial data, strategy and automation experts developing solutions that drive efficiency and are enabling transformation within Bell’s Finance organisation. Kirsten’s involvement at Bell started as a management consultant supporting the formulation of the vision and roadmap for Bell Finance’s D&A transformation program.

Before joining Bell, Kirsten held various hands-on and leadership roles within risk and finance divisions, across Telecommunications, Financial Services and Retail industries.

“It's really important that the entire Centre of Excellence is engaged in the transformational vision, and that all those involved share the same beliefs”

NANTES KIRSTEN DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL ANALYTICS COE, BELL

KPMG in Canada helps telecommunication companies gain a competitive advantage

The sector is undergoing transformation at a rapid pace driven by changing consumer behaviours and new technologies.

Our team offers a forward-looking portfolio of Audit, Tax, Risk, Financial and Strategic Advisory services backed by a global network of skilled industry professionals positioned to help clients anticipate and exceed evolving expectations.

Learn more

KPMG in Canada joins forces with Bell to drive finance transformation

Dan Krausz on how KPMG is one of Bell’s strategic advisors on its finance transformation journey, operating as an integrated team to realize value

As Partner and Telecommunications Sector

Lead at KPMG in Canada, Dan Krausz has played a key role on Bell’s finance transformation journey over the past few years.

Rapid technology innovation in telecommunications

To be successful in the face of huge industry transformation, Krausz explains that one thing is vital: “Telecommunication organizations need access to more data, more frequently, that is well governed. Data is at the core of what finance does, so being able to make informed decisions, fast, is something that finance needs to drive.”

Business-led and technology-enabled finance transformation

By working with Bell on their finance transformation project from the beginning, KPMG has helped shape the related vision and strategy.

“We started out by helping Bell determine what they wanted to achieve and then translated that into a practical roadmap for implementation,” explains Krausz.

An integral aspect of KPMG’s involvement in the transformation is the combined approach of delivering technology outcomes while bringing a business lens to the table, taking a use case approach.

He adds: “There have been several workstreams that we have been involved in. One that I’m most proud of is intelligent forecasting – we were able to develop AI models which use both internal and external data sources to produce forecasts. These not only improved forecast accuracy, but they also continue to learn and become more accurate over time, and drive efficiency into a process which was previously manual in nature. Another use case was for analytical process automation – significantly reducing the number of manual journal entries as part of the financial close process. This also provided additional granularity from a management reporting perspective given the details were maintained in the data warehouse.”

“A common theme throughout this project with Bell has been our collaboration, working shoulder to shoulder to not only deliver transformation outcomes, but to support the enhancement of Bell’s capabilities, helping to ensure that the teams are well equipped to leverage new technologies,” concludes Krausz.

EXECUTIVE BIO

Matthew MacEwen

TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE TRANSFORMATION

INDUSTRY: FINANCE

LOCATION: CANADA

Matthew MacEwen is the Vice President of Finance, Customer Experience and Corporate Planning, Transformation and Finance Analytics at Bell Canada. In addition to supporting various Business Units in achieving their strategic, operational and financial objectives, Matthew is responsible for executing Bell Canada’s digital transformation for the Finance function. This includes advancing the function’s capabilities with the development and

some of their finance operation’s business, including business units from a more financial planning and analysis (FP&A) perspective.

The emerging technologies in question –and central to Bell Finance’s transformation – are, of course, artificial intelligence (AI), the application of machine learning (ML) and predictive analytics within finance processes. These technologies have the potential to provide many organisational benefits, such as providing useful insights to minimise unpredictability, creating sophisticated forecasting capabilities and automating traditionally time-consuming and inefficient processes.

For a finance department, the fiscal knock-on effects of such technologies are able to free up resources that can have a sweeping effect throughout the entire structure of an organisation. This is exactly what Bell finance has set out to do – and they are already seeing the impact of such systems.

Another aspect of this transformation concerns not only technology and data, but also Bell Finance building new capabilities within the actual function, as well as the critical upskilling of their workforce so

MATTHEW MACEWEN VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE TRANSFORMATION, BELL

“One of the things that we learned was to take a more agile approach and to work on smaller developments that we iterate on – and then to build out from there – versus trying to do more big-bang developments from the outset”

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that they are able to leverage these new technologies and provide services in more sophisticated forms. The dynamic balance between the transformation of processes and that of people is a delicate and everpresent one. These are not just changes that take their aim at possibilities with the potential to transpire weeks and months into the future, but incremental shifts that have a fundamental effect on the dayto-day workings within the organisation itself, with the potential to transform organisational processes as a whole. The Finance organisation therefore realises that

this transformation starts with people and people engagement.

“It's really important that the entire CoE engages in the transformational vision, and that all those involved share the same beliefs,” establishes Nantes Kirsten, Director of Financial Analytics & AI, Centre of Excellence.

“I realised early on in my career, as a quantitative risk-management consultant –that I enjoyed data science and the ability to translate data into actionable decisions and insights, and that's when I decided to move into telecommunications where there's an abundance of data and untapped insights.

At Bell, as the Director of Finance and Analytics at the CoE, we are trying to help use data to enable transformation and drive better insights – and there are so many others in the team that share this alignment between what we enjoy and the work we get to do,” he says.

The Financial Analytics CoE is focused on the finance 2025 transformation program data and analytics delivery, seeking to complete its transformation in the next few years; a transformation that will reshape Bell Finance from the bottom up and inevitably evolve the organisation closer to the Finance of the Future.

“I lead the financial data development team,” explains Kirsten, “alongside the solutions development teams that focus on visualisation, reporting automation, and financial data science initiatives like intelligent forecasting; we're currently focused on using the data and technology work-stream within finance 2025 to enable the transformation.”

Asked about the genesis of such a program, MacEwen says: “A program like this starts with leadership support and commitment. We had crucial and very strong support from our senior leadership

MATTHEW MACEWEN VICE PRESIDENT OF FINANCE TRANSFORMATION, BELL

“Beginning with leadership sponsorship, one of the first things we did in the early phases was to focus on people, and to find those within their finance function who had leading-edge skills in some of these technologies and to bring them together, and that really formed the nucleus of our centre of excellence”

team, starting with our CFO all the way through to the actual investment in the Program as well as in bringing people together to provide a different way of working for our finance function.”

Beginning with leadership sponsorship, one of the first things they did in the early phases was to focus on people and to find those within their finance function in possession of leading edge skills in some of these technologies and to bring them together, “and that really formed the nucleus of our centre of excellence”.

“As we gathered those folks, along with some of the work that they were doing, into a single team, we started to build a team vision – and to create a roadmap that we then started to execute as a part of our longer-term strategy.”

The Centre of Excellence’s core capabilities

The CoE acts as the brain as well as the executive centre of the finance transformation’s nervous system at Bell, and there are core capabilities and skills that determine how effective it is in bringing about this transformation.

Kirsten proposes that they are categorised broadly in two areas: “There are behavioural capabilities and technical capabilities that are required.”

“On the behavioural side, for any centre of excellence, you need to have an innovative, strategic and critical thinking cap on. It ensures that we keep driving our transformation mandate, but also helps keep our lives interesting. Also on the behavioural side is solid engagement and stakeholder management capability. It's critical that we have a strong stakeholder engagement capability in the CoE so that we continue to keep our finance partners involved, engaged, testing and adopting

the solution, and of course, collaboration is absolutely key.”

“On the technical side (and I don't think this will come as a surprise), you need to have an intimate understanding of the finance organisation. As we're a finance CoE, this is different from what you would see in other enterprises – typically as a Centre of Excellence with an analytics focus. You naturally need the technical Data mining / Wrangling and Visualisation competence, but the solution development is crisper with a good foundational finance understanding.“

“Finally, it’s important that we are technology agnostic. We should be able to pick up a technology, learn how to code in it, use it, and to make sure that our solutions can be developed in any technology, any coding language and focus more on driving value through the use case, not leading with technology.”

The central data design and architecture principles for the Centre of Excellence In terms of core data design and architecture principles, the Bell Finance CoE began

BELL

NANTES KIRSTEN DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL ANALYTICS COE,

“Pick an impactful use case and find the data that unlocks it”

the transformation journey with a keen understanding that the solution component (that is, the use case) was going to be the driving force at the helm.

“Pick an impactful use case and find the data that unlocks it,” says Kirsten. “And that's one of the principles to which we adhere: find something that’s tangible to our clients and that adds value and then make sure we have centralised data that reconciles with upstream accounting systems that can enable development and automation of that use case.”

The other core aspect that they wanted to retain while reaching their transformation goal was “to develop principles that give us a blueprint, to be able to repeat what we've done”.

The use case would then lead to repeatable principles and processes, (“recipes”) for the Data Development Lifecycle, and then to solid Data Governance around the solutions and lifecycle.

So, in terms of the data lifecycle, Bell Finance wants to make sure that they have core principles in place to answer the data lifecycle questions, for example how they gather requirements, how they develop and how they engage and train their finance users.

“‘How do we start experimenting and have those data lifecycle components at the core of our CoE initiatives?’ – these were all part and parcel of the principles that we needed to put in place. Then there are support considerations, such as the finance support for the end-users, so we needed to make

sure that we had a process in place for them to ask someone for help. We need our CoE as their first-line of support.

“At the core of all of this is easily accessible, curated and centralised data.” For such a transformation, then, the Centre of Excellence was necessary. This Centre of Excellence then had to be formed with systems in place that would sustain it –so that it could then go about forming the transformational process that would feedback into its own operations, like an organisational form of M.C Escher’s ‘drawing hands’.

Essentially, the point is that the systems in place are open-ended and ever-adaptive to change – a necessary requirement for an effective transformation to take place. But,

of course, such a program is no easy feat, to say the least. As part of the CoE, both MacEwen and Kirsten acknowledge that, early on, one of the challenges that arose stemmed from attempting to tackle too much at once and “biting off more than we could chew”, which they both emphasise.

MacEwen says: “One of the things that we learned was to take a more agile approach and to work on smaller developments that we iterate on – and then to build out from there – versus trying to do more big-bang developments from the outset.”

Kirsten adds: “And you should never underestimate the amount of time testing and training of users will take. The endusers sitting in the finance organisation are so critical to adoption,” – (the crucial user-

Bell for Better—Monika

adoption aspect of the transformation)

– “so you want to make sure that they're bought in and brought in from an early stage and that you allow sufficient time in your program plan for that piece.”

He also underlines that finding the right people – those that are passionate about finance, data and analytics, but also about the vision and practicalities of organisational transformation – is key and that, with such a transformation, “it’s critical to choose the right technology and advisors (internally as well as externally) to ensure that your vision is in-line with best practices in the industry and with best in class companies are doing so that, from a solution development and technology point of view, you're not finding yourself on an island.”

The partner ecosystem

Beyond senior support and the obvious financial investment needed in bringing about such a transformation, partners are invariably vital to such a process.

For their finance transformation, a blend of a strategic-advisory type of partner, as well as technology partners were needed.

“Ultimately,” says MacEwen, “we were looking for partners with a proven trackrecord and experience in the field that had demonstrated capabilities in being able to deliver some of the specific work streams on a roadmap – be it around data or new capabilities with reporting or forecasting – as well as wanting to make sure that they were involved from a technology perspective.”

“We also have a core engine of subjectmatter experts that are helping to deliver a lot of the more technical elements of our finance transformation program. A big part of our strategy, though, is to try to scale up as quickly as possible by leveraging the full breadth of our finance function – and this is

a great way to help ensure that we overcome some of those change-management and adoption issues that an organisation can encounter during such a transformation.”

In terms of technology capabilities and partners, Kirsten adds: “And just as ease of use is important, the next consideration is ease of integration.”

“In terms of this side of things, we wanted to pick technology that can speak to –and pull information from – our source

accounting systems, which host critical financial information that we don't share enterprise-wide, as it contains sensitive information relating to our corporate financial reporting. The technology needs to support that vision, but also have native documentation and metadata capability.

“In other words, whether developed by the finance users, or within the CoE - we need to be able to document what has been developed so that we don't build

solutions in a vacuum and just hand it over to finance, or they build solutions and create critical resource risks.

“We also wanted to make sure that the solution isn't just a desktop technology and that you can productionise the workflows that you build onto a server environment – which, again, removes the critical resource risk.

“As you go through this, I think it's clear that Alteryx was one of those technologies

NANTES KIRSTEN DIRECTOR OF FINANCIAL ANALYTICS COE, BELL

“You need to have an innovative, strategic and critical thinking cap on in a CoE"

that really supported our transformation journey; therefore, given the criteria, utilising them was a no-brainer as part of our technology kit to enable automation.”

Orienting to the future

Kirsten says that Bell Finance have completed some of their more foundational development, specifically around their finance-governed data warehouse, but adds that it's an evolution. Now, they’re scaling new capabilities with visualisation and reporting, trying to develop crosscompany insights and analytics for their finance community, as well as starting to look to ML and AI to build new capabilities with intelligent forecasting and analytical process automation.

“We're in an accelerated development phase of being able to leverage these new capabilities,” Kirsten says, “where it's now become real for our finance function, and we're seeing the benefits. We're continuing to grow from that foundation that we’ve built, and scaling the solution is the most important piece over the next 18 months.”

MacEwen adds: “The telecommunications industry is currently going through a rapid transformation. When you think about new services emerging in the marketplace, with things like the launch of 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) and Cloud – these are all new types of services that telecoms globally are launching and trying to take advantage of.

“This is going to bring new and interesting ways for the finance organisation to analyse data and provide insights, bringing new capabilities along the way. We think there's going to be lots of interesting ways for our industry to monetise these emerging services, and finance will play an important role in that process.”

ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO SOUND OUT THE METAVERSE

As interest in the metaverse continues to mount, entertainment events, from music to sport, are increasingly taking place in the virtual space

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

the rise. The world’s biggest companies, such as Google, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, have each made significant metaverse investments. Meanwhile, according to McKinsey, in 2021, internet searches for the metaverse increased by 7,200%, and approximately 60% of consumers said they are excited about the transition of everyday

activities, like shopping, dating, and working

Prompted by COVID-19 and the absence

metaverse has made its presence felt in the music industry too. In April 2020, Epic Games’ battle-royale video game, Fortnite, grabbed the music industry’s attention when a lucrative virtual event starring an avatar of Travis Scott brought in 27.7 million unique players, while a digital gig by Lil Nas X on the Roblox platform attracted an astonishing 33 million viewers. Research conducted by Mastercard last year found that almost a quarter (23%) of people aged 16-24 have already attended a metaverse

STAN SAKHARCHUK CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, INTEREXY

gig. A further step into this new domain was the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) debut of a new category for Best Metaverse Performance.

Entering the metaverse Coined in 1992 by American science-fiction writer Neal Stephenson in his dystopian novel Snow Crash, the metaverse is a fullyrealised digital space existing beyond the physical space in which we live.

“The metaverse is sometimes described as a unified space that combines multiple virtual worlds into a single, interoperable location that can be easily accessed by many users,” according to Stan Sakharchuk, Co-Founder and CEO of software company Interexy. “The metaverse is an entertainment experience by itself, providing many opportunities for users to interact with virtual items and access a variety of events. The fact that it can help users feel like they are in the physical world and engage with unfamiliar, yet acutely familiar, surroundings is entertaining. That’s why providers and developers should consider these capabilities to deliver content that users value and like.”

In October 2021, Facebook rebranded itself Meta to capitalise on the emerging

“The metaverse is an entertainment experience by itself, providing many opportunities for users to access a variety of events”

concept

of the metaverse.

Since then, from gaming to sports to music, brands like high-fashion giants Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana, alongside the likes of Nike, Adidas and Coca-Cola, have embraced the concept of the metaverse.

The potential of the metaverse is clear

According to a report from the Capgemini Research Institute, while meaningful interaction in the metaverse is currently only possible in relatively small groups, the potential for mass interaction is clear.

While the strongest wave of interest for the metaverse comes from tech enthusiasts, who account for only 4% of Capgemini’s survey population, the research also

noted that 93% of adult consumers surveyed are metaverse-curious.

“The way people use the internet is going to change. The metaverse can be understood as a network of different platforms – such as Horizon Workrooms, The Sandbox or Roblox – where we will store, work, communicate, play and educate ourselves in the future,” explains Matt Redman, UK Strategy lead at global business transformation company Valtech. “All this is made possible by digital avatars that we can use, enabled by virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, to interact with other users and enjoy immersive experiences.”

Last year’s FIFA World Cup could be described as the first Web 3.0 World

“The metaverse can be understood as a network of different platforms where we will store, work, communicate, play and educate ourselves in the future”

MATT REDMAN UK STRATEGY LEAD, VALTECH

Cup, with fans in the stadium able to view live information from players’ speed to heatmaps and possession percentage through the FIFA+ app. Meanwhile, the North American National Basketball Association (NBA), in collaboration with Niantic, the maker of Pokémon GO, has announced the launch of NBA All-World, which will overlay a video-game environment on a real-world map, using real-world basketball courts for virtual games and allowing players to choose any location.

Metaverse brings with it rights concerns

Well-known brands such as Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Gucci, IWC, Dolce & Gabbana and Tiffany & Co. are becoming increasingly involved in digital fashion and experimenting with digital collectables or NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Nevertheless, there can be a natural tension between personality rights and copyright when it comes to digital avatars

Quarter of people to spend hour a day in the metaverse

By 2026, 25% of people will spend at least one hour a day in the metaverse for work, shopping, education, social and/or entertainment, according to Gartner, Inc.

“Vendors are already building ways for users to replicate their lives in digital worlds,” said Marty Resnick, Research Vice President at Gartner.

“From attending virtual classrooms to buying digital land and constructing virtual homes, certain activities are currently being conducted in separate environments. Eventually, they will take place in a single environment – the metaverse – with multiple destinations across technologies and experiences.”

The 10 layers of the metaverse

According to McKinsey, today’s metaverse consists of 10 layers, which fall into four categories: content and experiences; platforms; infrastructure and hardware; and enablers.

Content and experiences

• Content – developed by users, creators, and developers – enriches metaverse experiences

• Applications tied to specific metaverse usecases, such as learning or events

• Virtual worlds where groups can gather, interact, and create

Platforms

• Platforms that facilitate access and discovery of content, experiences, and apps

• Platforms designed for creators of 3D experiences

Infrastructure and hardware

• People interface with the metaverse via devices, operating systems (OS), and accessories

• The metaverse is powered with underlying infrastructure such as cloud computing, semiconductors, networks, and more

Enablers

• Security, privacy, and governance are critical for the metaverse to function well and fairly

• Tools and apps that manage digital identity

• Tools to access the metaverse economy via payments and monetisation

MARTY RESNICK RESEARCH VICE PRESIDENT, GARTNER

– especially when it involves a celebrity, explains Holly White, Head of Service Development at Rouse.

“We are expecting to see more and more issues arising from this as entertainment companies in the gaming and music sectors are increasingly utilising digital avatars to carry virtual concerts and events for fans,” comments White.

“Personality rights refer to the right of an individual to control the commercialisation of their identity, and from their perspective, this would include digital avatars. This becomes more complicated because the personality rights of a celebrity are limited if that individual is under a contract with an entertainment company to fulfil a project. Further, a grey area arises if the contract is terminated early or ends at the intended date. When this happens, the question at hand would be who has ownership over the digital avatar.”

Ensuring the safety of the metaverse

If the metaverse is considered to be a network of virtual worlds, safety and ethical aspects will be important to establish the

“From attending virtual classrooms to buying digital land, activities are currently being conducted in separate environments. Eventually, they will take place in a single environment – the metaverse”

sense of community that is central to its mass adoption. Whether for consumer or employee/workplace use cases, brands will need to address these concerns and have a way to regulate them before they create and deploy their virtual spaces, while also balancing privacy, security and data issues.

Based on a social media scan of over 180,000 conversations, research by Capgemini found that concerns around sexual harassment, personal safety, and privacy issues are top of consumers’ minds.

“Regarding data privacy, the collection and use of consumer data are more important now than ever,” White adds. “Data misuse or non-compliance pose big risks to businesses; they can significantly damage a brand’s reputation and even the ability for a business to operate if licences are revoked. With creations like NFTs, non-compliance can feel inevitable because data stored in blockchain technology is not erasable. But it’s vital that businesses understand where they have responsibilities and comply with the law.”

“We are expecting to see more and more issues arise as entertainment companies in the gaming and music sectors utilise digital avatars to carry virtual concerts and events for fans”

HOLLY WHITE HEAD OF SERVICE DEVELOPMENT, ROUSE

SAP’s Sam Castro on AI and risk resilience in manufacturing

WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

SAP’s Sam Castro is a solution manager for Digital Manufacturing. He tells us about AI, risk resilience and supply chain sustainability

SAP is a global software provider and a leader for enterprise business process software, including solutions to manage supply chains. SAP provides technologies, supports the cloud and cloud platform environments, as well as artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) libraries, robotic process automation (RPA) and in-memory technology for high-end computers. SAP’s solutions for manufacturing execution and insights are part of a portfolio of products for supply chain management and leverages these technologies.

“We're an enterprise business software and a technologies company,” says Sam Castro Senior Director, Solution Management, LoB Digital Manufacturing.

Castro is a Senior Director at SAP and a part of the line of business manufacturing solution management team. The line of business covers the 27 manufacturing industries for which SAP provides software solutions.

“All of those industrial companies have needs around operations visibility, control and reporting,” Castro explains. “The different industries have different targets that they're after. Some are heavier on the asset side, some of them are heavier on product quality and yields, others are all about logistics and moving products around on-time through the supply chain.”

SAP is met with a diverse set of requirements and needs from its customers. Solution management takes these industry needs and applies them to market direction and invests them in the portfolio.

“We provide guidance on where to focus and the emphasis for development, and that strategy big picture where we want to take the products,” Castro explains.

In college, Castro completed a Bachelor's in computer engineering and a Master's in computer science at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

“I came from the hardware bridge to the software bridge very naturally after graduating,” says Castro. “I was dropped into the manufacturing floor because that is exactly where the hardware automation side bridges over into the software.”

He was faced with a great deal of information and digital signals from the automation layer and was tasked to turn it into information — how does SAP make that translation?

“I started at the very lowest level and moved my way through Lighthammer Software, which was acquired by SAP back in July 2005,” says Castro. “I worked my way through SAP into the role that I'm in today.”

“Being a sustainable enterprise means that you're an efficient enterprise”

SAM CASTRO SENIOR DIRECTOR, SOLUTION MANAGEMENT, LOB DIGITAL MANUFACTURING, SAP

Sam Castro is Senior Director of Solution Management, LoB Digital Manufacturing at SAP

Don’t be surprised.

Today’s supply chain comes with constant uncertainty. So how are you preparing for whatever comes next?

Discover how Deloitte can help you enable a built-to-evolve digital supply chain that allows you to pivot quickly no matter what surprises the future brings.

Learn more about our Kinetic Supply Chain offerings for embedding flexible capabilities, intelligent insights, and sustainability from end to end.

Contact SAP@deloitte.com to get the conversation started.

Built for impact

Getting ahead of change with a disruption-ready digital supply chain

Digitally driven business is an imperative in today’s uncertain landscape, but to thrive organizations will need digital supply chains that can anticipate disruption and evolve in lockstep with change all while prioritizing sustainability and responsible practices.

At Deloitte, such capabilities are part of our vision for the Kinetic Supply Chain a built-to-evolve supply chain enabled by a clean-core ERP, intelligent technologies, responsive cloud solutions, and an inclusive ecosystem of capabilities. Kinetic Supply Chain capabilities can allow you to see issues and opportunities before they arise and to take action sooner.

Envisioning the future

Ultimately, it’s about flexibility which can be elusive for many organizations. While optimizing supply chains over the years, some companies may have gained efficiencies without gaining the flexibility that they need in today’s environment. For example, they may have gotten down to one or two key suppliers instead of 20,

but they may not have the ability to sense the need for new suppliers, in the event of a regional fuel or material shortage, for example. They also may lack the ability to seamlessly and quickly integrate any new suppliers into their digital ecosystem. And at the same time, they may lack visibility into what those suppliers will mean for their carbon footprint, their sustainability goals, and their impact on the planet.

With a Kinetic Supply Chain covering planning, procurement, distribution, and operations you can proactively address many of those challenges and become “disruption ready.” More than a vision, the Kinetic Supply Chain is real, and you can see it in action at The Smart Factory @ Wichita At this full-fledged manufacturing facility, housed in a net-zero-impact building, Deloitte, SAP, and others are collaborating to solve real business needs and understand what it takes to build and scale flexible digital supply chains. Contact SAP@deloitte.com to schedule a visit or to get more insights on enabling a built-to-evolve digital supply chain.

SAP’s Sam Castro on AI and risk resilience in manufacturing

Risk resilience and sustainability in the supply chain

When you talk about risk resilience at SAP, it’s about how to handle the real world, not setting up a plan and adhering to it day in and day out.

“You would like it to be like clockwork, for sure,” says Castro. “Where everything always aligns and meshes the way that it's supposed to all the time, every second. But we know that's not always the case.”

Weather events, pandemics, labour shortages or large sporting events can cause supply chain issues. For Castro, resiliency is the byproduct of having to have to handle these off-topic or out-of-sync scenarios and the ability to detect that you're out of sync

“Here are the enablers of AI and ML type algorithms that you can use and put together how you see fit”

SAM CASTRO SENIOR DIRECTOR, SOLUTION MANAGEMENT, LOB DIGITAL MANUFACTURING, SAP

with the original plan and react to it in a coordinated manner.

“The faster you can do that, the faster you can correct that problem,” says Castro. “Then you’re able to identify how often those deviations occur — that frequency of occurrence, that is your opportunity.”

Being able to quantify that opportunity and understand what those little deviations actually add up to, and how that impacts the business financially, is one of the key topics around what customers will hear about resiliency from SAP, says Castro.

“Sustainability is an overlay to that, sustainability is a byproduct of efficiency,” says Castro. “Being a sustainable enterprise means that you're an efficient enterprise.

EXECUTIVE BIO

SAM CASTRO

TITLE: GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT, CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

INDUSTRY: MANUFACTURING

LOCATION: PENNSYLVANIA, US

Sam Castro joined SAP in July of 2005 with the acquisition of a small company called Lighthammer. He was responsible for implementation consulting, field enablement, custom development, and training for the core products (Illuminator, Xacute, UDS, CMS). These products have since evolved into the core SAP Connected Manufacturing products (Mfg. Integration & Intelligence or MII and Plant connectivity or PCo) that you see today.

Sam is now part of SAP LoB Manufacturing Solution Management group, which is directly responsible for strategy, direction, and customer adoption of all of the manufacturing products at SAP. He is specifically responsible for Industrial Analytics, that is SAP MII, Digital Manufacturing for insights, and Digital Manufacturing for execution, and he is the solution owner for Process MES products. In this role, he is actively working on mid- and long-term features and deliverables and how they are positioned with the broader SAP portfolio; he also provides guidance for product development investment.

If things are running effectively, things are running safely, and in a very energy-friendly manner as well.”

Castro views the impact of the cloud on manufacturing as a positive one.

“There are benefits for the IT team from a maintenance perspective and a continuous update and management of that software package,” he explains.

Cloud users are not dealing out of sync or outdated documentation, they’re not dealing with security issues that creep into the environment over time. Updates and patches are handled in real-time by the cloud hosting and software provider, that SaaS provider in the cloud environment. Castro views offloading that burden from the manufacturing layer and the IT teams that support them centrally and locally as a big deal for organisations and businesses.

“It keeps that barrier to entry for managing efficient production and tracking off of those teams, and it puts it firmly on the shoulders of the software provider. What does that mean for the business? It means that the end users aren't working with stale software. You're not working with software that has a UI from 15 years ago. You're not working with an ad-hoc analytical environment that used to be cool but now uses plug-ins and stuff that your browser doesn't support and ultimately causes it to have problems,” Castro explains.

As businesses are not dealing with these issues from the end user perspective, they're able to take advantage of a very modern, easy to consume and use software experience and focus on their core business functions.

“Despite not directly interacting with it, the work around you is what's driving that environment for you,” says Castro. “You're not putting that burden of three or four extra clicks on somebody, this is just software that's being driven from digital signals; from

integration, automation, and the tasks that the operator is performing.”

This newer approach to software design is how SAP leverages the industry investment companies have made and it is what's ultimately reducing the impact that end users have on that environment themselves.

How manufacturers can focus on business value versus technology

There are different pillars within organisations, which have their own priorities. CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and CFOs are all working together and have overlapping needs that drive different business cases. But they need to have the right information at the top layer to make the right decision for the lowest layers within the organisation. This doesn't happen unless there is a framework in place for the distribution

and analysis of the data that is generated, from the very edges of the manufacturing and supply chain processes to the shop floor.

“If you don't have a way for that information to work its way up to the top, organisations

really struggle to understand where the priority needs to be,” says Castro.

For manufacturers to focus on business value versus technology, Castro believes that they need to intelligently manage profitability and investments. As a result of that additional profitability, they also need to protect that inflow of money and profitable behaviour for the company.

“Is that a CapEx investment? Is it an OPEX investment? Is it better granularity on product quality and an emphasis on quality for certain products or certain areas within a process that are very tricky and cumbersome?” asks Castro. “Maybe it's a new product that you're introducing and as a result, that process isn't fully stable yet. What is the emphasis in how

“Sustainability is an overlay to that, sustainability is a byproduct of efficiency”

SAM CASTRO SENIOR DIRECTOR, SOLUTION MANAGEMENT, LOB DIGITAL MANUFACTURING, SAP

much we put into that project to stabilise it? Those are the goals that are very coveted from the C-suite down, but they really are reliant from all edges of the supply chain and having that information roll all the way up.”

Enterprise-led manufacturing follows in tune with this exactly.

“The enterprise has to provide guidance to the manufacturing and supply chain teams as a whole,” says Castro. Where they want to see improvements and how much they're willing to invest in those improvements, what's it worth? How do you build that community up?”

To understand the role that manufacturing plays in an organisation’s reinvestment strategy, you must first understand where it matches up with other locales in the manufacturing environment.

112.6K+ employees worldwide (Sept. 30, 2022)

160 number of countries

22K+ partner companies

245mn+ Subscribers in SAP’s cloud-based user base

“Manufacturing isn't just a single-faceted environment. It's often made up of plants that have been around for a long time, some that were built up by your own organisation, some that came into the organisation through acquisition,” says Castro. “So you see different heritages and mentalities. They have this communal approach for how the plant manager wants to lead that group in the business forward.”

SAP’s AI standardisation journey

At SAP, being able to take advantage of AI standardisation in a universal way is important.

“You can take and apply these very technical algorithms in order to get information off them. Here's the technology, here are the enablers of data, here are the enablers of AI- and ML-type algorithms that you can use and put together how you see fit,” says Castro. “Then that carries over into

the application side, which says, we know we have these technologies, we know that this data is being generated from our transacting processes, so we have our own structured analytics pieces and now we can use these structures to drive our own models to influence our execution process.”

SAP has global partners, as well as local partners, who rely on its technology. When Castro talks about partnerships, he does not put one partner over another.

“We try to keep the community as open as possible,” he says. “We try not to promote one partner over another, because they're all very important to us.”

The openness of SAP and the openness of its software is for its customers to take advantage of, but also for their partners to put their own industry expertise behind.

“It is what gives SAP the power that we have to leverage in our own technologies to leverage partner-led innovation using those technologies to intelligently power our applications.”

“ You want it to be like clockwork, where everything always aligns. But we know that that's not always the case”

SAM CASTRO SENIOR DIRECTOR, SOLUTION MANAGEMENT, LOB DIGITAL MANUFACTURING, SAP

GONE SPEAR PHISHING: HOW TO PROTECT FROM EMAIL THREATS

Increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks are on the rise. With an increase in remote working, email accounts are proving a vulnerability for businesses

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

Since COVID-19 kickstarted the remote working revolution, companies have been forced to change how they operate – moving to the cloud and implementing technology to enable employees to work from anywhere.

As with all good things, though, inevitably comes the bad: with the increase in remote working comes an increased risk of cyber threats. The risks of employees falling victim to phishing attacks, in particular, have been heightened under the boom in remote working.

Enabling

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TODD MARLIN

According to Deloitte, this is because cybercriminals are adapting their tactics to target people in their homes, which, in many cases, is now their office, too. “As working from home becomes a gateway to new forms of data theft, companies face increased cyber risk,” it says. Meanwhile,

according to Microsoft’s New Future of Work Report, 80% of security professionals have experienced increased security threats since shifting to remote work. What’s more, 62% of these professionals noted that phishing attacks have increased more than any other type of threat.

“Organisations have long been under the threat of phishing emails that impersonate a co-worker or a manager,” explains Todd Marlin, Global Forensic & Integrity Services Forensic Data Analytics Leader at EY. “You might get an email that appears to be sent by a colleague asking you to follow instructions to ‘transfer money’, ‘send financial data’ or ‘allow access to confidential product information’.”

“In the past, you might have called out to someone in the next cubicle to ask for verification, but if that’s not an option, you may automatically click on the link. As employees

“In the past, you might have called out to someone in the next cubicle to ask for verification, but if that’s not an option, you may automatically click on the link”

GLOBAL FORENSIC & INTEGRITY SERVICES FORENSIC DATA ANALYTICS LEADER, EY

lose face-to-face contact, the risk of being victimised increases exponentially.”

Costly phishing attacks are on the rise

Not only are phishing attacks on the rise, but they are becoming increasingly sophisticated. With such a transformation in how workers operate remotely, the cyber risks faced by organisations have increased significantly. If a remote worker falls victim to a phishing email, the consequences for the business can be significant, ranging from major IT downtime and business disruption to the loss of important data. According to a report by IBM, phishing attacks prove costly for businesses as well as time consuming, costing firms an average of US$4.65mn.

As Josh Yavor, Chief Information Security Officer at Tessian, comments, email accounts represent a valuable target for would-be attackers. “We all rely on email at work and at home,” he explains. “As the gateway to valuable data and access, email accounts are always a valuable target to adversaries –especially those seeking to compromise businesses. We can also expect threats to continue to expand into other communication platforms, like instant messaging tools, personal email or social media accounts, as attackers seek to evade detection.”

Unlike traditional phishing attacks, which prioritise sheer quantity and can be relatively unsophisticated, spear-phishing

What is Spear Phishing? | Tessian Explains

“As the gateway to valuable data and access, email accounts are always a valuable target to adversaries”

JOSH YAVOR CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER, TESSIAN

attacks are highly targeted to a specific potential individual or set of individuals, and often feature highly-detailed personal information intended to deceive.

As this type of attack is more personalised, the success rate for the attacker is higher. According to cybersecurity firm FireEye, spear-phishing emails have an open rate of 70%, with 50% of recipients opening enclosed links.

Spear-phishing attacks can be particularly hard to detect, as network security company Barracuda says. Traditional email security relies on reputation analysis, block lists, and signature-matching of malicious attachments and URLs. Spear phishing attacks are carefully designed to pass these checks and go undetected. They often do not have a malicious payload that traditional security can detect, and they often come from high-reputation sender domains or already compromised accounts.

“It's getting harder and harder for regular users to recognise targeted phishing emails and spear phishing attacks,” Keiron Holyome, BlackBerry’s Vice President – UKI, Middle East & Africa, comments. “This means that when employees are working from home or outside the office, they must be extra vigilant, working with their employer to defend effectively against phishing.

“Employees are essential in preventing phishing attacks by adhering to security policies, ensuring all of their devices are secured by security software, and immediately installing automatic updates,” adds Holyome. “Employers may increase employee knowledge of phishing by providing regular staff training as well as endpoint security measures for both company-owned and employee-owned devices that can be used both online and offline.”

Remote working shift prompts increase in phishing attacks

Research by automation platform

Ivanti has found that the global shift to remote work has exacerbated the onslaught, sophistication and impact of phishing attacks. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents said their organisations have fallen victim to a phishing attack in the last year.

Implementing zero trust

With the rapid increase in remote working, how can organisations overcome security threats? As Srinivas Mukkamala, Ivanti’s Senior Vice President of Security Products, explains, the answer could be in implementing zero trust.

Zero-trust security requires organisations to continually verify any and all devices that are connected to its network every single time with zero exceptions. As part of a zerotrust strategy, organisations should leverage machine learning to conduct continuous device posture assessment, role-based user access control, and location awareness before granting access to data.

Cybersecurity and Zero Trust

“In this new era of remote work, the threat surface has expanded, so implementing zero trust has never been more important,” Mukkamala comments. “There are three simple principles for Zero trust: secure the user, secure the device, and secure access.

“Passwords are the biggest point of weakness for organisations that still use them prolifically. They are easily forgettable, and it is difficult to authenticate users through them as they are quite commonly shared amongst colleagues, and easy to give away through phishing. Passwordless authentication such as the use of biometrics is much more secure and will alleviate the password rest burden on already shortstaffed IT teams.”

AI enabling the future of phishing

With infosec teams needing to move quickly to stay ahead of the curve, AI could also

Spear phishing on the rise

Spear fishing has also gained popularity in recent years according to cybersecurity company Kaspersky. Spear phishing is an email or electronic communications scam targeted towards a specific individual, organisation or business. Although often intended to steal data for malicious purposes, cybercriminals may also intend to install malware on a targeted user’s computer.

prove to be the future of cybersecurity issues, with AI-generated phishing attacks become more convincing. Research by cybersecurity company WithSecure shows that business email compromise (BEC) scams could be generated using AI systems. Through models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, for example, bad actors can automate the creation of credible yet malicious content at incredible speed.

“The generation of versatile natural language text from a small amount of input will inevitably interest criminals, especially cybercriminals – if it hasn’t already,” said WithSecure’s report. “Likewise, anyone who uses the web to spread scams, fake news or misinformation in general may have an interest in a tool that creates credible, possibly even compelling, text at superhuman speeds.”

“By now, everyone has seen fake videos produced by deep learning (DL) and AI

techniques, better known as ‘deepfake’ videos,” says Heather Gantt-Evans, Chief Information Security Officer at identity security firm SailPoint. “However, imagine receiving a phishing email with a deepfake video of your CEO instructing you to go to a malicious URL. Or an attacker constructing more believable, legitimateseeming phishing emails by using AI to better mimic corporate communications.

Modern AI capabilities could completely blur the lines between legitimate and malicious emails, websites, company communications, and videos.”

As Tessian’s Yavor concludes, to keep employees secure on email, organisations should be proactive in delivering security training that addresses the common types of threats on email that’s tailored and personalised to their role and department. “Company cultures also play a significant role in protecting employees,” he says. “Security leaders should emphasise a culture that builds trust and confidence, which will ultimately improve security behaviours.”

“In this new era of remote work, the threat surface has expanded, so implementing zero trust has never been more important”

SRINIVAS MUKKAMALA SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF SECURITY PRODUCTS, IVANTI

WHY TELECOM’S HOPES AND DREAMS HINGE ON SOFTWARE

WRITTEN BY: JESS GIBSON

PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

At a pivotal moment for telecoms, Rakuten Symphony unveils the revolutionary future offered by a Mobile-as-a-Software mindset & modular technology

Cast your mind back over the last forty years of evolution in telecoms – a considerable amount has changed in this time, right?

Though this may appear to be the case, what with the development of mobile phones themselves, the critical layers upon which such evolution has been predicated have actually remained pretty much, well, the same. After all, if it isn’t broken, why fix it?

But it’s this attitude that has the industry trapped in a vice-like grip, reliant on arduously clunky hardware-based systems that should, by now, have been relegated to the past.

With the very nature of mobile services ripe for a revolutionary reimagination, then, Rakuten Symphony was born. Functioning as the telecoms arm of the Rakuten Group – a strategic B2B, digital bank and ecommerce and digital contents group with more than 1.7 billion members worldwide – its entire premise is based on one radical decision: choosing not to build its mobile network on legacy hardware.

“The idea to move the entire mobile architecture into a software-centric platform isn’t a small evolution. It's a revolution of how networks are engineered, built, and architected based on new, modern cloud architecture, in which Open RAN is just one pillar of the many things that we have done,” says Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Symphony.

Anshul-Bhatt Head of Intelligent Ops Product Strategy & Technical Sales

More than happy to prove the naysayers wrong and propel Rakuten Symphony into a leading position within telecoms, Amin set

about building a team, an ecosystem and the network he envisioned.

Truths of telecoms & reimagining mobile networks

It’s a truth universally acknowledged (in the telco world, at least) that in its current state, “the industry is in decline”.

After failing to evolve alongside the global technological landscape for the past few decades, telecoms has proven slow to change, to drive forward, and to differentiate. This has led to declining revenues and returns amid increasing costs and competition, placing the industry in a precarious position.

“Four and a half years ago, the world thought I was crazy, that this would never happen and never succeed”

TAREQ AMIN CEO, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

Meanwhile, across this same 40-year period, cellular networks and enterprise IT have undergone multiple stages of evolution to reach where they are today – so why is it that progress for the infrastructure itself has stymied? One suggestion is the sheer amount of capital invested in data centre real-estate; another is a collective lack of understanding regarding the cloud. Amin had his own ideas.

“For me personally, before Rakuten, my own mindset was completely opened and transformed by a visit I had to Facebook before it was called Meta,” he shares. “Seeing how other enterprise IT companies, hyperscalers, and webscalers run their

TAREQ AMIN

TITLE: CEO

COMPANY: RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOCATION: CALIFORNIA, US

Tareq Amin is a technologist, business leader and entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience driving telecom innovation.

Amin launched Rakuten Symphony, a Rakuten Group company, in August 2021 with a vision to reimagine telecom for a hyperscale era, delivering the convergence of IT and telecom networks. As the CEO of Rakuten Symphony, Amin has taken the company from start-up to industry disruptor, introducing to the market his bold vision of mobile as a software. Believing that traditional tools used by industry incumbents are outdated and do not meet the demands of modern connectivity, and drawing on the proven technologies and operating principles of hyperscale leaders, Amin has overseen the creation of the industry’s first modern, industrial-scale automation platform built specifically for telecom.

EXECUTIVE BIO

A leading voice for the future of telecom and champion for the democratisation of the industry, Amin is dedicated to revolutionising the way we communicate and collaborate in the digital age.

Bluewaves Mobility Innovation

Flexible. Secure. Open RAN Radios Ready for your next complex network deployment.

At Bluewaves Mobility Innovation (BMI), we believe in giving customers the freedom to choose how they build their custom networks. That’s why our advanced Open RAN radio solutions are aligned with the latest Open RAN standards, ensuring compatibility with any DU/CU combination in the marketplace

Mobile Network Operators today are looking for flexible and secure solutions that allow them to quickly customize their radio solutions to meet their unique network requirements. Our advanced Open RAN products are designed to meet these needs

BMI solutions provide the flexibility customers need; built to O-RAN Alliance specifications. Our products are interoperable with any DU/CU combination in the marketplace and can easily be integrated into your chosen baseband set up.

This allows network operators to make cost effective purchasing decisions by selecting the best equipment from any supplier, rather than being tied down to a single vendor.

Additionally, BMI’s RF platforms allow customers to add the feature sets that their end consumers are

demanding, while benefiting from the flexibility and supply chain security that Open RAN offers.

With BMI’s base radio platforms in place, custom frequency radios can be designed in a matter of months, not years. Our implementation services can help customers easily integrate new products into their network.

Low Power Consumption, High Performance

Our lightweight radios have been designed with the latest GaN power amplifier technology ensuring that power consumption is kept to a minimum, helping to reduce the impact on the environment as well as your total cost of operation.

Learn more

operations was honestly probably the biggest fundamental transformation in my thinking that has happened because, to date, I lived in a telco life where I was told what to do by existing large vendors. My mind wasn’t necessarily open yet to exploring the world outside of telecom, until I went to Facebook.

“And then I started looking at the operations of how they run. I started asking, ‘how do they achieve these efficiencies?’. And those questions led me to understand that this is not a technology problem.”

Recognising that it’s more to do with mindset than technology, a seminal moment in itself, Amin saw a whole new future for the development of telco.

“Look at moments in time that changed the way we consume data on mobile; the moment Steve Jobs talked about the iPhone

“In the truly cloudnative, you take that monolithic system, you break it into modules and pieces, and then you deploy, manage, upgrade, and patch each one separately”

CMO Geoff Hollingworth on the power of Rakuten Symphony Service Assurance

RABIH DABBOUSSI CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

– we all know that was a game changer. And we all know the impact that this iPhone had in the creation of the new generation of networks, in terms of driving data consumption and acceleration of a datacentric mobile architecture.

“While consumer devices have evolved substantially since the invention of the 1G mobile network in the 80s, the fundamental foundation of these networks has never changed. They are still run on proprietary hardware, have a strong hardware dependency, require long lead times to build, and bring extremely high operational complexity. And thus, here comes Rakuten.”

Strategy matters: software vs hardware “Mobile networks and telecom networks in general, because of the complexity and

because of the fact that the technology is quite unique, have not gotten to a level of openness as we have in the enterprise world,” explains Rabih Dabboussi, Rakuten Symphony’s Chief Business Officer and a keen technologist with an abundance of experience.

“For example, your email application from Microsoft works with my email application from Apple, a radio site that is offered by vendor X with antenna, a base band unit, and associated ancillaries and components, but that cannot be disaggregated – where you select the antenna from vendor X and the basement unit from vendor Y, and other control planes and user plane functions from vendor Z.

“So the idea behind Mobile-asa-Software is to open up those very interesting and proprietary interfaces that

DABBOUSSI

used to be monolithic, breaking them down and disaggregating them through standard interfaces.

“And that's why Open RAN is not something that Rakuten came up with; it’s something that the industry demanded, it stemmed out of a need. And although

Rakuten advanced it and contributed and participated, this is an industry drive and an industry initiative.”

With this new, disaggregated service platform, software-centricity is built into the framework, meaning a lesser reliance on antiquated hardware that’s expensive to operate and replete with inefficiencies. But what other benefits can a softwarebased operational approach provide over traditional hardware?

Dabboussi says: “It's starting to make it more open so that you fuel and accelerate innovation, bringing in diversity and flexibility to the industry. Eventually, the outcome is also going to be reduced cost, because with openness, you create competition, you create new, better, cheaper ways of doing things, and therefore it will all follow through.

“About 15 years ago, we started talking about using cloud for enterprise workloads,

“The ecosystem and the partnership environment that we have is super important to our success, and very complementary and mutually valuable in our strategies”

RABIH

CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

Symware

and everybody was resistant initially, but then they realised, ‘Hey, wait a minute, it's secure, it's highly available and it's cheaper'.”

Back in telecom's heyday, every company used to invest in their own traditional data centre with custom-built hardware. Similarly, in the telco world, “the radio network is typically the most expensive asset” because you have to deploy thousands of sites, provide coverage, and place antennas near to customers. Just 20 years ago, the radio access network came from 10-15 vendors; now, only a handful of the original number exists. Thus, as the industry’s radio vendors continue to shrink in number, it is coming to resemble “more of an oligopoly with little transparency”.

By moving to software, Dabboussi states a belief that Rakuten Symphony can “leverage the industry’s innovation in compute and

Symworld - The journey through automation to autonomy

general purpose processors”, including silicon chipsets and processors powerful enough for telco workloads.

“Our architectural foundation was around: ‘Let's build the network using the latest in industry innovations, and let's not take steps back because we're new in the industry, we want to build something for the future’.

“The first strategic decision was to use a software-only system for the radio access network. And along that, build a unified cloud layer that supports every function in the network with one operating system, with one virtualisation layer eliminating the complexities, but requiring our suppliers and our partners to convert their systems to software-only in the long-run,” explains Dabboussi.

“Not just a software system that runs in a big, monolithic, virtualised layer, but we want you to follow the mission to convert it to a Kubernetes-based, containerisedbased architecture, because it’s lightweight, efficient, very agile, and modular.”

He continues enthusiastically: “In the truly cloud-native, you take that monolithic

“It's starting to make it more open so that you fuel and accelerate innovation, bringing in diversity and flexibility to the industry”

Symphony Employees

RABIH DABBOUSSI CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

Why Rakuten Chose Rocky

Linux & CIQ For Its Entire Infrastructure

Rakuten Symphony entrusted open source Rocky Linux, supported by CIQ, to help spur a new era of telecom innovation.

In deploying Rocky Linux, we are returning to true open source principles.

Learn how Rocky Linux, supported by deep CIQ expertise, has radically reduced cost and delivered on business outcomes.

Tareq Amin CEO of Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony

Rakuten Symphony, Rocky Linux, & CIQ

system, you break it into modules and pieces, and then you deploy, manage, upgrade, and patch each one separately. And the granularity of your infrastructure becomes wider, but also gains the ability to be agile, fast, adjust, interconnect.”

Welcome to The Symworld Platform

Thus, the concept of Mobile as a Software was born, with Rakuten Symphony planning, designing, and operating “nextgeneration, software-defined networks”. This comes in the form of the Symworld Cloud – the “leading unified telco edge cloud” that links from cell sites to central data centres – and the Symworld Network, with Open RAN 4G, Open RAN 5G, and Symware appliances, leading to the next generation of OSS and BSS.

Dabboussi explains further: “Existing OSS systems are quite complex and quite burdensome, built on element management systems. These are the tools that manage the elements of the network – or the network management system. These are the tools that bring it together at a network level. We eliminated both of these, and we built a complete observability framework that is abstracted from the vendor's specific technologies.

RABIH DABBOUSSI

TITLE: CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER

COMPANY: RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOCATION: UAE

Rabih Dabboussi is Chief Business Officer of Rakuten Symphony, a new business organisation within the Rakuten Group to spearhead the global adoption of cloud-native open RAN infrastructure and services. In this role, Dabboussi is responsible for bringing Rakuten Symphony’s telco solutions, including the Rakuten Communications Platform, to operators, governments and enterprises around the world.

Dabboussi is a seasoned and highly recognised industry expert who brings more than two decades of experience in the mobile industry to Rakuten, including a 20-year progressive career at Cisco Systems in diverse roles of R&D, technology consulting, business development, and sales leadership.

EXECUTIVE BIO

“It's time for a change. And we'd like to have our name and our brand stand in that new chapter of telecom history”

RABIH DABBOUSSI CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

With this software-centric approach, Rabih Dabboussi emphasises that though “hardware isn’t eliminated, it is standardised on common commodity hardware”, describing it as functioning in a way similar to Lego, with moveable, interlocking layers being stacked on top of each other.

Platform Infrastructure layer – open commodity compute systems that Rakuten call “the servers” and Open RAN radio units.

“The foundation of your network is this commodity-based hardware, which immediately solves the problem of being locked into monolithic proprietary systems, because now you're using off-the-shelf compute systems that can come from numerous different vendors around the world.”

Cloud layer – “On top of the foundation, you need the layer that aggregates all of this hardware and makes it look as a pool of compute resources, storage resources and networking resources available for you. That layer is called the cloud layer or the virtualisation layer, which is where you start getting into the software.

“We made a conscious decision from the beginning to unify the cloud, and then, on

top of it, unify the operating system. So we use one single operating system, which is a containerised Kubernetes operating system.”

Open RAN and core network functions layer – “On top of that comes your logic, your network functions, which is all cloud-native software, including Open RAN Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralised Unit, and all core network functions.

“Now you need to manage the network. And again, because everything becomes software, it's much easier for us to build in a unified, abstract way in an observability framework to do config management, performance management, fault monitoring –all the dashboarding, the monitoring and the control of your network.”

Operations layer – “Here, adjacent to this, you need to plan, build, and operate the network while managing customers. The cloud-native Symworld Platform streamlines the complex mesh of support systems and custom integrations that all operators have accumulated. This helps telecom operators scale faster as the cloud sets the pace for speed, innovation, and network expectations.”

MOBILE AS A SOFTWARE: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE LAYERS

“That abstraction layer is through open interfaces and APIs, which allows us now to say, ‘whether you bring a technology from this vendor or that vendor, this supplier or that supplier, as long as they're compliant with those standard ways of managing, monitoring, and configuring those pieces of software in the network, then you don't need anything in between to translate’. And that ultimately resulted in significant agility in our network. This way, we can roll out hundreds of sites a day.”

The speed of this solution cannot be overstated: once the cell site has been constructed, it can take just “four minutes to bring a radio site on air” – from the time the labour team installs the radios through to connecting power and networks – because “everything is done automatically”.

“That helped us improve the productivity of our operations engineers, with over 300,000 cells managed by a team of only 250 people who are powered 20 times by the Symworld platform. A network of that size in North America has probably a few thousand engineers managing it.”

Functioning in individual, virtualised layers allows for a standardised foundation that can be built upon with “off-the-shelfsystems” around the world – adhering, to the nth degree, to Rakuten’s guiding principle of openness and Dabboussi’s “the future is nothing but Open RAN” mindset.

“The other benefit of this is the ability to automate and orchestrate, to make things faster and roll things out better; to troubleshoot in much quicker ways, identify the issues and fix them much quicker and so on. So that was really the drive behind building the network based on software.

“The aspiration is to have Rakuten Symphony become the de-facto platform for managing the whole lifecycle of a mobile network, from the idea of building a network all the way to the decommissioning, upgrade and refresh of the network, as well as everything in between that takes place,” explains Dabboussi.

TAREQ AMIN CEO, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

“The idea to move the entire mobile architecture into a software-centric platform isn’t a small evolution. It's a revolution”

Establishing a disruptive ecosystem

For this to occur, a disruptive ecosystem of partners is needed, all working together to future-proof the industry by driving down operational costs and unlocking static vendor relationships.

“Rakuten couldn't have done this without the ecosystem of partners that participated in our buildout of the network in Japan and that continue to participate with us, globally,” Dabboussi establishes. “These are both big names and small names, and there's many of them; we're very open and our ecosystem is quite large. A few examples of these partners, which are demonstrating with us at Mobile World Congress Barcelona, include BMI, BayTec, and CIQ.

“BMI is a small radio supplier of ours, and they’re only building Open-RAN-compliant radios. I have a lot of aspirations for them. If they continue to execute well, they can bring a real change in the industry.

“BayTec, meanwhile, manufactures and supplies numerous different components for us, from ancillaries and batteries to devices and small radio units.

”Our philosophy about open, software-centric mobile networks is pivotal for a successful transformation of the mobile industry.

“For telecom, Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Symphony are working closely with CIQ to ensure that Rocky Linux is proven at scale in commercial operations. There is a large and growing proactive community of very large technology companies that are ensuring Rocky Linux is leading, in terms of certified software drivers and capability compatibility for telecom. Rocky Linux and the community are ensuring that it is the best alternative for the highly demanding telecom industry, which is seen as a proxy for all industries that require edge-to-core-tocloud solutions.”

The aim of the game here is disruption, which – in terms of partnerships –potentially means moving away from some of the legacy cloud licensing methods in the telco worlds in favour of smaller, more agile and innovative players that are changing the game.

“We feel that these three partners are foundational to what we do, but our partnerships aren’t exclusive to our existing partners. We’re so open and transparent, always looking for new innovators to come and join us in this mission, because we cannot achieve it alone. And the industry is heading that way – the more players and

“Seeing how other enterprise IT companies, hyperscalers, and webscalers run their operations was honestly probably the biggest fundamental transformation in my thinking that has happened”

TAREQ AMIN CEO, RAKUTEN SYMPHONY

the more innovators, the more value and the more efficient the solution will be,” Dabboussi says.

“The ecosystem and the partnership environment that we have is super important to our success and quite complementary to our strategies.”

The future of Mobile as a Software

With Dabboussi envisioning a future that’s “nothing but Open RAN” and enthusing about the growing number of companies embracing a software-centric approach to mobile networks, he is particularly focused upon the four key ways he can turn that envisioned future into reality.

“It's very important for us to continue to stay the course in our mission, continue to improve and innovate in what we do –

both on the technology pieces as well as the operating and commercial model.”

That means encouraging vendors and customers to sign up on “a complete cost transparency basis”. This isn’t to be limited to the technology pieces, it is to also include “the operating and commercial model, and the engagement and go-to market model” as well, due to the increasing volume of customers seeking out face-to-face interactions and resources located in the same time zone.

“So, ramping up our capabilities globally is super important, and we need to be a little more crisp in describing ourselves to the industry in general, but most importantly, to the stakeholders of our customers and decision-makers – which is exactly what this disruption is about and

what the value behind that disruption is,” states Dabboussi.

“Last but not least is the call to the industry to come and join us in this journey. The more partnerships we establish and the more adoption of Software as a Service and Mobile as a Software architecture, the stronger this ecosystem becomes and the more value the whole industry will harness from it.

“I'm very bullish, very positive and very hopeful about what the future looks like for us.”

In the more immediate future, Dabboussi notes that there’s a focus on raising awareness and knowledge of Mobile as a Software through widespread education, feeding into this notion of a constantly evolving, disruptive ecosystem that’s synonymous with innovation.

“I'd like to see, hopefully very soon, some announcements around large, tier one national operators adopting our solutions. We're very close to making really good headways with a few of them – they're currently trialling and testing our systems, and we feel very positive about what's coming.

“We will continue to see improvement in the performance of the networks we're building. Rakuten’s network is considered in the top sixth percentile globally on performance and customer experience. On the engineering side, I see us introducing very interesting, innovative products and reference designs.”

Dabboussi concludes: “The next two years are our window of opportunity to lead the disruption in the industry and open a new chapter in the history of the telecom world. It's time for a change. And we'd like to have our name and our brand stand in that new chapter of telecom history.”

BIGGER DATA LEADS MORE COMPANIES TO TAKE A DIP IN DATA LAKES

Multiple data lakes can increase complexity and cost of data management infrastructure and maintenance, but may be a vital part of your company’s future

WRITTEN BY: CHARLIE KING

Data lakes are becoming increasingly popular in the enterprise IT industry, offering businesses an efficient, cost-effective way to store and access big data. They are ideal for organisations that need to store and analyse large quantities of structured and unstructured data, allowing them to scale up quickly according to their needs.

Rising in popularity, data lakes are used with increasingly prominent AI technologies across sectors. They can, however, be expensive and timeconsuming to maintain, running the risk of developing into ‘data swamps’.

Data lakes are well suited for use in the enterprise IT industry, where data

is constantly changing and organisations need to be able to access and analyse the data quickly. Providing organisations with a comprehensive view of their data, data lakes can enable them to gain insights and make informed decisions, quickly.

The primary benefit of a data lake, though, is that it is scalable, allowing organisations to adapt it to their needs as and when required. Additionally, they are more cost-effective than traditional data storage systems, requiring minimal manual intervention and only need to be managed by a few individuals.

Get reliable network coverage and security protection, fast.

A modern network must be able to respond easily, quickly and flexibly to the growing needs of today’s digital business. Must provide visibility & control of applications, users and devices on and off the network and Intelligently direct traffic across the WAN. Be scalable and automate the process to provide new innovative services. Support IoT devices and utilize state-of-the-art technologies such as real-time analytics, ML and AI. And all these must be provided with maximum security and minimum cost.

This is the power that brings the integration of two cloud managed platforms, Cisco Meraki and Cisco Umbrella. This integration is binding together the best of breed in cloud-managed networking and Security.

cisco.com

TONY BAER PRINCIPAL, DBINSIGHT

Data lakes also provide organisations with greater security, as they can be encrypted, enabling organisations to securely store and access their data without compromising the integrity of their data. Moreover, data lakes can give organisations real-time insights into

their data, allowing them to make fast and well-informed decisions.

Data lakes for non-destructive testing data

Non-destructive testing (NDT) and inspection data are crucial in ensuring the safety of industrial assets and operations.

A data lake – a centralised repository for storing all structured and unstructured data at any scale – could be an ideal solution for storing and managing NDT data, as well as inspection metadata, in a cost-effective, centralised manner. This reduces storage costs by eliminating the need for X-ray film, chemicals, paper, or archive rooms, while digital data can be accessed from almost everywhere, thus increasing accessibility.

A key advantage of using a data lake to store and manage NDT data is that it

“ THE DATA LAKE HOUSE WILL NOT REPLACE DATA LAKES OR PURPOSE-BUILT DATA WAREHOUSES, BUT, IN THE LONG RUN, THEY WILL CO-OPT ENTERPRISE DATA WAREHOUSE”

is a valuable source for artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The large amount of data stored in a data lake can be used to train machine learning models, improving the efficiency of NDT and inspection processes. For instance, historical NDT data and inspection metadata can be used to train machine learning models to predict when equipment is likely to fail, allowing organisations to schedule maintenance and repairs proactively, reducing downtime and increasing the overall efficiency of their operations.

Challenges from setup to data swamps Nevertheless, data lakes have challenges. Complexity in setup and management,

data governance, and security are three such challenges. Additionally, if the data formats vary, these lakes can become a data swamp. Data standardisation is therefore crucial for better data quality, governance, and reusability.

ASTM International recommends using a standardised digital format, Digital Imaging and Communication for Non-Destructive Evaluation (DICONDE),

to store NDT data and inspection metadata from different NDT methods and sources in a centralised location. DICONDE provides a vendor-independent data storage and transmission protocol for nondestructive materials testing and ensures

Azure Synapse Analytics: A Data Lakehouse –James Serra – Triangle SQL Server UG – Aug 2020

“IT’S IMPORTANT TO WEIGH THE BENEFITS AGAINST THE COSTS BEFORE IMPLEMENTING MULTIPLE DATA LAKES”

JAMES SERRA DATA & AI SOLUTION ARCHITECT, MICROSOFT

data is complete, unaltered, and has a traceable history.

“In the world of data management, the question of whether to use one data lake for all data or multiple lakes is a common one,” says James Serra, Data & AI Solution Architect at Microsoft. “While using a single data lake is ideal, there are many reasons why organisations may opt for multiple data lakes.”

Serra is an expert in data warehousing and data management, with over 35 years of experience in data modelling, data governance, and development methodologies. Alongside his role at Microsoft, he is a popular blogger, author, and speaker, having presented at PASS Summit, SQLBits, Enterprise Data World conference, Big Data Conference Europe, and dozens of SQL Saturdays.

One main reason is organisational structure, where each department or team owns their own data. Additionally, having multiple lakes may be necessary to comply with multi-regional data residency requirements, subscription or service limits, quotas, and constraints, or to implement different policies for each data lake. Another important factor is security, where confidential or sensitive data needs to be kept separate from other data for security reasons.

Multiple data lakes can also help to improve latency by having a data lake in the 90% Effective performance of some lake houses in comparison to traditional data warehouses

Welcome to the lake house

Data lake houses promise to combine the best of both worlds: the economics of scale and flexibility of the data lake, with the reliability and control of the data warehouse.

The cloud has revolutionised data storage and processing, enabling data lakes to deliver data warehouse-level performance. Open-source technologies like Spark, Drill, and Trino provide data transformation capabilities, while opensource data lakehouse table formats like Delta Lake and Apache Iceberg help structure the data.

These lakehouses are designed to behave and perform like data warehouses and can reach 80-90% of the performance of warehouses. The commercial ecosystem around these open-source formats is becoming the main battleground between big vendors.

"The data lake house will not replace data lakes or purpose-built data warehouses, but in the long run they will co-opt enterprise data warehouses," says Tony Baer, Principal, dbInsight, a company that has carried out extensive research in this area. "Data lake houses will enable data lakes to perform and be controlled, governed, and secured like data warehouses."

same region as an end-user or application querying the data. Disaster recovery, different data retention policies, and the ability to implement different service levels for different data types are further reasons to consider having multiple data lakes.

“It’s important to note that using multiple data lakes can increase the complexity and cost of your data management infrastructure and require more resources and more expertise to maintain, so it’s important to weigh the benefits against the costs before implementing multiple data lakes,” says Serra.

“Multiple data lakes also may require additional data integration and management tools to help ensure that the data is properly transferred between the different data lakes and that data is consistent across all data lakes,” says Serra. “Finally, having multiple data lakes adds the performance challenge of combining the data when a query or report needs data from multiple lakes.”

“IN THE WORLD OF DATA MANAGEMENT, THE QUESTION OF WHETHER TO USE ONE DATA LAKE FOR ALL DATA OR MULTIPLE LAKES IS A COMMON ONE”

JAMES SERRA DATA & AI SOLUTION ARCHITECT, MICROSOFT

EMBEDDING SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT AT G4S

WRITTEN BY: SEAN ASHCROFT

PRODUCED BY:

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

Willescroft

Search the term ‘G4S personnel’ in Google images and the result is startling: screen upon screen of vigilant security staff clad in armoured clothing, many of whom are armed. They are protecting everything from gas and oil plants in troubled regions to cash-in-transit vans transporting banknotes and coins.

These are the frontline employees of G4S, the multinational company that specialises in manned security services.

Asked who inspires him, Jon Willescroft –Chief Procurement Officer at G4S – doesn’t even pause.

“We've got half a million people, globally, on the front line, and every day those men and women pull on their uniform, they’re putting themselves at risk,” he says. “They define our business, putting themselves in harm’s way to deliver services. It's impossible not to be inspired by these people who have the toughest jobs.”

G4S is part of Allied Universal, a leading security and facility services company that provides proactive security services and cutting-edge smart technology to deliver tailored, integrated security solutions that allow clients to focus on their core business.

It provides trained and screened security officers, as well as security systems such as access control, CCTV, intruder alarms, fire detection, video analytics, and security and building systems integration technology.

Jon

is Chief Procurement Officer for G4S – part of the world’s largest security company – and it’s his job to drive meaningful, sustainable change

As a result, G4S spends over a billion dollars a year with suppliers and subcontractors, giving business to thousands of SMEs across the globe. “Suppliers and subcontractors are a critical part of how we deliver for our customers and those in our care,” says Willescroft. “This is why it’s essential we partner with the best companies and organisations across the globe.”

Managing global & fragmented team ‘a huge challenge’

Easier said than done, when you have 150 procurement people scattered across the globe. Willescroft concedes that managing a large global, fragmented team is a massive undertaking.

“Managing a global team is all about communicating and then adapting that communication to the local audience”

JON WILLESCROFT CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, G4S

“It’s really challenging,” he says. “From a procurement perspective, I've got people spread across the world, and within that you've also got big cultural differences as well as a wide range of capabilities, skills and knowledge.”

This, he says, is why G4S has crystal clear minimum standards and requirements.

“Whether I’m talking to a procurement administrator in Columbia or a head of procurement in Belgium, I talk in a language that figuratively they understand,” he says. “And I also have to take the time to embed the message.”

“You can't be passive about it. You can't just send out one set of standards and expect people to understand and comply with them.”

JON WILLESCROFT

TITLE: CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER

INDUSTRY: SECURITY

LOCATION: LONDON UK

Jon Willescroft is an ambitious, energetic and commercial CPO, specialising in reshaping procurement in large and complex organisations. Jon currently leads procurement at G4S, part of the world’s largest security company, encompassing 150 people across 90 countries, and over $1Bn spend. His focus at G4S is driving sustainable, commercial transformation across this complex global business and its supply chains. Prior to G4S, Jon held a number of procurement leadership positions in financial services and pharmaceuticals, as well as procurement advisory roles.

Willescroft also uses what he dubs “positive tension” as a management strategy.

“By positive tension, I mean regions and categories challenging one another to drive value. It’s important that this exists between my global category leads – who deal with the international business – and the regional local procurement leads.

“This is the matrix model I've employed and I think it works pretty well.”

Data is another weapon in his arsenal.

“The insight you drive from data is absolutely key. It's the glue that holds the procurement function together. Data allows us to talk about risk, performance, cost savings and sustainability in the same language, which makes it much more powerful to the wider business.”

Keeping his global team engaged, informed and motivated is another major challenge, says Willescroft: “Given the complexity and the geographic spread of the team, my objective is to make everyone feel part of a single team – one global

“If you don’t embed sustainability into your everyday processes and routines, then you’re just sticking stuff on that will eventually fall apart”

JON WILLESCROFT CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, G4S

professional procurement function – and to feel proud to work in that team.”

Consistency of message is key with global teams

There are no “dark arts” involved in this. “It’s all about communicating,” Willescroft says, “and adapting that communication to the local countries.

“Within this, you also need consistency of message. You need to clearly lay out the roadmap of where we're going across our core pillars of procurement – whether that’s sourcing, supplier management, or sustainability.”

Technology helps, too. G4S is in the process of launching a global procurement capability development tool, which Willescroft says will provide people with “a map of where they are today from a development perspective against the skills and competence we'd expect them to have”.

If managing people is one onerous challenge, then protecting the bottom line is another. So, how does Willescroft drive value in such a fragmented global market?

“Wherever we can leverage globally with suppliers, we do so,” he says. “But a lot of our supply chains are by their nature localised, which is why we always make sure our category leaders are very collaborative. They need to be smart but also have a high emotional quotient. They have to be able to drive change, which is a big part of the job.”

In Willescroft’s view, this is vital. “If our people lack the right skill set or aren’t motivated in the right way, then we'll fail. You need the right people, and you need to know how they’re executing in their country.”

Because G4S is a low-margin business, Willescroft says the role makes specific demands of him.

“You're more likely to primarily think short term in a low-margin business,” he says. “If

you're a higher-margin business, you have the flexibility to think a little longer term.”

He adds: “But whatever business you work for, as a CPO, you have to be a commercially-focused leader and deliver what the business needs to be successful. And what ‘successful’ looks like changes from business to business.

“I think there's more of a pull for procurement in a low-margin business like G4S, and probably the biggest challenge here is you have to work really hard to educate and drive the agenda of the business. You have to give the business what it needs, not what it wants.”

Helping Willescroft and his team give G4S what it needs is a raft of technology-driven changes. Yet, underpinning this multilayered transformation process is something that has nothing whatsoever to do with tech: rock-solid values.

Improvement only works if there are solid foundations

“Before you try and improve things, you've got to strengthen the foundations,” he says. “By that, I mean strengthening the procurement community network by evolving the controls we have in place and making sure we're delivering sustainable, measurable savings across the business. These are the building blocks.”

On top of this G4S is driving change through data insights and KPI dashboards to give it visibility, both of its internal controls and its supply chain.

With any change project, taking people along with you is critically important – and Willescroft’s approach to this sees him again drawing from the communication well.

“You communicate clearly around purpose and direction, as well as why we're doing what we're doing. You make clear the benefits of working in a leaner organisation with leaner teams, such as there being more development opportunities for people within the team.”

He adds: “I'm also keen that everyone is stretched beyond their core role in procurement, because this puts people at

“Understanding the sustainability standards of suppliers worldwide involves knowing where the risk sits and how we can best manage that risk”

JON WILLESCROFT CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, G4S

Embedding sustainable procurement at G4S

the heart of driving the change. In this way, you win their hearts and minds, rather than rendering change as something that is done to them.

G4S has, according to Willescroft, worked closely with Page Consulting on this. “They've helped us ramp up and execute really quickly in the UK on procurement capability development.”

One key area of the change process at G4S is supply chain sustainability –something that’s growing exponentially in importance across all organisations. Another is transformation around supplier

management and assurance, which is designed to give the company better visibility of suppliers, not just from a risk perspective but also in terms of performance.

The goal is to drive value and innovation, Willescroft says.

Embedding sustainability and ESG is the goal

With sustainability and ESG initiatives –digitally-driven or otherwise – Willescroft believes the danger is that “you stick stuff on to existing processes and then it just falls apart”. Embedding, he stresses, is key.

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“How do we do that? By making sure that, at a functional level, ESG and sustainability are a core part of how we are measured and how our objectives are measured. This way, everything flows all the way down to individual objectives.”

“Over the coming year, everyone has targeted individual measures that are not only around commercial delivery, but are also really clear on ESG and sustainability objectives. This means these topics are standing agenda items every time we engage with the business. Every time we sit down and review performance with the business units, or talk about sourcing, deals, or supply management performance, then sustainability is a core part of that.”

Only by constantly talking about sustainability and ESG does Willescroft believe you can fully embed them into a business. He also points to the importance of having clarity on priorities.

“Sustainability is a broad subject, and you're in danger of spinning your wheels if you don't prioritise. I have top-down support from the executive committee, who align the procurement sustainability objectives with the corporate ones.”

In this way, the areas he agrees upon with the executive committee “become our absolute focus”.

Willescroft adds: “So, we have our core standards and policies – which are like hygiene factors – and then beyond this, the focus is on supply chain transparency.”

“The CPO role is often about telling the company what it needs to hear, rather than what it wants to hear”

JON WILLESCROFT CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER, G4S

Understanding the sustainability standards of its suppliers around the world is a big part of this.

‘Do we understand where the risk sits?’ and ‘Can we manage it?’ are the two key questions that Willescroft highlights here. “The areas where we're investing most time, effort and resources are net zero, supplier diversity, and human rights.”

To this end, G4S recently launched an initiative in the UK to promote a broader representation of diverse-owned suppliers in its supply chain, with the aim of furthering

diversity and inclusion throughout. Broadly speaking, a supplier is considered diverse when half or more of the venture is owned and operated by a variety of ethnicities, those with disabilities, women, from a range of social backgrounds, or those from the LGBTQIA+ community.

As part of the scheme, G4S is working with Kaleida International – a UK and EMEA B2B marketplace for tenders connecting buyers to diverse suppliers.

Willescroft says: “We’re committed to supporting diverse suppliers. Our suppliers

play a critical role in helping us run a successful business, delivering excellent service to our customers.

“Greater diversity of suppliers brings a richness of thoughts, ideas and innovation. It’s also critical that our business reflects and supports the societies in which we operate, including often more marginalised, diverse communities.”

G4S is also taking big strides in its global 2050 net-zero commitment, with procurement at the heart of this programme.

Willescroft says: “We’ve made great progress this year with our fleet decarbonisation. Working closely with our UK partner, Leaseplan, over three quarters of our new vehicle orders have been low-emission vehicles.

“We’re also now getting to grips with our supply chain emissions which account for 70% of the total, and will be working collaboratively with our major suppliers to drive this down.”

US MILITARY DOMINATES BATTLEFIELD IN A GLOBAL AI REVOLUTION

Military forces worldwide are investing money and resources in artificial intelligence, but the US is determined to defend its technological beachhead

WRITTEN BY: GEORGE HOPKIN

The Future of Warfare

Autonomous military machines are serving on active duty around the world, and the US is calling on public and private sector AI leaders to help keep the nation ahead of the field.

Last year, a research team from RAND conducted a survey that presented various scenarios on how the US military might use artificial intelligence. The team asked respondents to share their comfort level in using AI for these scenarios, which varied in terms of factors, such as the distance from the battlefield, the level of destructiveness, and the degree of human oversight over the AI algorithm.

The survey's results showed that most AI experts in the US do not oppose the fundamental mission of the US Department of Defense to use AI for various military applications.

“A global technology revolution is now underway,” says Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, who also served as

deputy assistant to then-President Barack Obama and national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden from 2009 to 2013. Blinken returned to government as a foreign policy advisor for Biden's 2020 presidential campaign, having founded the consulting firm WestExec Advisors with fellow former Obama administration officials Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda in 2017.

“The world’s leading powers are racing to develop and deploy new technologies, like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, that could shape everything about our lives,” says Blinken. “From where we get energy to how we do our jobs, to how wars are fought. We want America to maintain our scientific and technological edge because it’s critical to us thriving in the 21st-century economy.”

The US federal government was estimated to have more than US$6bn in AI-related research-and-development projects in 2021

global technology revolution is now underway”

ANTONY BLINKEN US SECRETARY OF STATE

following the publication of President Donald Trump’s 2019 executive order, Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence.

Human judgement still required for AI weapons

In January this year, the US Department of Defense (DoD) updated its directive on developing and deploying autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems, including those that incorporate artificial intelligence.

The core of the directive remains unchanged, but it was updated due to advances in technology, changes in the

department's structure, and changes in the security environment.

The directive requires a review by senior officials before developing and deploying any autonomous weapon systems that do not meet specific exemptions. DoD officials say it helps maintain “appropriate levels of human judgement” in their work.

DoD leaders believe the original 2012 directive remains fundamentally sound, but was due for some tweaks. "The updated directive is one part of a series of DoD policies that establish [good] governance surrounding military uses of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence," said a DoD official at the time of the update.

Hunting military obstacles to data sharing

The DoD is also leading an experiment that uses data, analytics, and artificial intelligence to inform solutions related to Joint All-

“A

Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

The experiments – Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE) – are organised by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) in partnership with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). They are the first to be held at this level and scale.

The experiment involves US military and civilian personnel from all service branches and multiple combatant commands. The aim is to identify barriers that inhibit data sharing across the Joint force, such as policy, security, connectivity, and userinterface issues.

The CDAO aims to improve access to data across the Joint force – from the strategic level to tactical warfighters – and show how this data, alongside analytics and AI, can improve Joint workflows in various missions, from globally integrated deterrence through to targeting and fires. The experiment's goal is to provide a rapid solution to the challenges faced by the Joint force and demonstrate how data can help achieve mission objectives more effectively.

“We want to stress-test our current systems and processes, introduce new

technologies and approaches, and learn in an experimentation environment that replicates real-world operations,” says Col. Matthew Strohmeyer, GIDE V Mission Commander.

The CDAO will host four more iterations (GIDE V-VIII) of the experiment throughout 2023, aligned with the Joint Warfighting Concept and the JADC2 Implementation Strategy. By hosting these experiments, the DoD says it sets a precedent for joint, integrated experimentation enabled by data, analytics, and AI to advance their critical capabilities.

Lockheed Martin flies into AI history books

In the private sector, Lockheed Martin's VISTA X-62A recently made history as the first tactical aircraft flown by an artificial intelligence agent. VISTA, or Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft, was developed by Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works and Calspan Corporation for the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

VISTA is a modified F-16D Block 30 Peace Marble Il aircraft upgraded with Block 40 avionics and fitted with software that allows it to mimic the performance characteristics of other aircraft. The AI-powered VISTA platform can process vast amounts of data quickly and accurately, enabling it to optimise logistics, identify potential threats, and detect anomalies in data sets.

The recent 17-plus-hour flight by an AI agent on VISTA was made possible by a suite of advanced systems provided by Calspan and Lockheed Martin, including the VISTA Simulation System, Model Following Algorithm, and System for Autonomous Control of the Simulation. These systems enable VISTA to conduct the most advanced flight test experiments emphasising autonomy and AI.

"VISTA will allow us to parallelise the development and test of cutting-edge artificial

“The world’s leading powers are racing to develop new technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing”

ANTONY BLINKEN US SECRETARY OF STATE

Istari invites the US defence industry to enter The Matrix

Technology startup Istari – backed by former Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt and founded by former US Air Force assistant secretary Will Roper – emerged from stealth mode last month, announcing plans to create a Matrix-inspired world where technology is created, tested, and even certified through modelling and simulation.

“Software ate the world, but hardware didn't,” says Roper, who launched Istari in May 2022, quickly raising a US$13mn seed round from Schmidt and other venture investors. “Models and simulations that turn the physical into software remain mostly isolated, not digitally threaded with reality. Istari technology is changing that, expanding the internet into a future engineering metaverse.”

Former Google CEO Schmidt says: "Will and the Istari team are bringing internet-

type usability to models and simulations. This unlocks the possibility of software-like agility for future physical systems. It's very exciting."

In October 2020, Roper released a guide inspired by The Matrix called There is No Spoon: The New Digital Acquisition Reality. He followed this with a second guide, Bending the Spoon, released in 2021. “This is what defence acquisition has been waiting for –a new paradigm, a digital one, that can wake up to a new reality for both taxpayers and warfighters,” says Roper. “Its spoon-bending possibilities await us. It’s time to wake up!”

Istari's product platform offers simple and secure digital engineering collaboration, accelerating user decisions across distributed teams. "We can design things, test things – in general, learn things – faster, cheaper, and greener than the physical universe allows," says Roper.

intelligence techniques with new uncrewed vehicle designs," says Dr M. Christopher Cotting, US Air Force Test Pilot School director of research. "This approach, combined with focused testing on new vehicle systems as they are produced, will rapidly mature autonomy for uncrewed platforms and allow us to deliver tactically relevant capability to our warfighter."

Lockheed Martin is also developing live AI technologies in its Aegis Combat System, designed to deliver a superior solution and tactical advantage to the US Navy.

“The Aegis Combat System combines over 50 years of continuous evolution to provide rapid, modern updates to

DEPIETRO

the warfighters,” says Joe DePietro, vice president and general manager of Naval Combat and Missile Defense Systems at Lockheed Martin. “Today, we are exploring how AI can provide faster system reaction time and decision support for operators and commanders.”

“Today, we are exploring how AI can provide faster system reaction time and decision support for operators and commanders”

JOE

VICE PRESIDENT & GENERAL MANAGER, LOCKHEED MARTIN

DIGITAL INNOVATIONS BUILDING THE HOME IMPROVEMENT JOURNEY

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

PRODUCED BY: KRISTOFER PALMER

While many retailers struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic, the home improvement sector went through something of a boom.

According to research, COVID19 restrictions drove 86% of home improvement projects in the UK in March 2020, as people were forced to stay in their homes, while figures from Kingfisher covering the year to the end of January 2021 reported that overall web sales grew 158% year on year, to account for 18% of total group sales - more than double the 8% share pre-pandemic.

An international home improvement company with approximately 1,500 stores and over 80,000 colleagues, Kingfisher operates in eight countries across Europe under well-known retail banners including B&Q, Castorama, Brico Dépôt, Screwfix, TradePoint and Koçtaş.

“We really help customers to improve their homes,” explains JJ Van Oosten, Kingfisher’s former Chief Digital and Technology Officer, who previously led Kingfisher’s e-commerce and marketplace functions, along with its data and technology teams.

“We help DIYers and tradespeople to get their job done quickly, accurately, and in an affordable way,” he adds. “We do this across all of our network of stores and different formats and brands.

Whether it is a one-hour delivery service or successful new marketplaces, Kingfisher is implementing innovations to improve the customer experience

JJ Van Oosten is Kingfisher Plc's former Chief Digital and Technology Officer

“We also have a range of our own-label products, which account for 45% of Group sales, with brands like Mac Allister, Titan, Flomasta, Good Home and many others. These brands are very specific, very precious, and customers love them.”

How Kingfisher is changing

The way retailers do business is everevolving, with innovations proving key to ensuring customer satisfaction.

In 2021, one of Kingfisher’s brands, Screwfix, launched its rapid delivery service called Screwfix Sprint, capable of delivering orders direct to consumers within one

“We are far more agile in what we're doing. We're embracing ecommerce and data in a way that was not manageable many years ago”

JJ VAN OOSTEN FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, KINGFISHER PLC

hour. And, last year, B&Q launched its online home improvement marketplace, offering a ‘one-stop shop’ for home improvement products, with the aim of driving the retailer’s digital growth.

As Van Oosten explains, from a technology standpoint, there have been a number of changes in how the business operates in recent years.

“Being much closer to customers, we now have a lot more pace in what we do,” he explains. “We are far more agile in what we're doing. We're embracing ecommerce and data in a way that was not manageable many years ago.”

JJ VAN OOSTEN

TITLE: FORMER CDO & CTO

COMPANY: KINGFISHER PLC

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM

EXECUTIVE BIO

JJ has substantial expertise in leading digital transformations in consumer branded and retail companies. He is the former Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Kingfisher where he lead ecommerce, digital platforms, marketplaces, data and technology. He joined Kingfisher from Danish toy company, The LEGO Group, where as Chief Digital Officer, he led the company’s digital ambition to make ecommerce the largest part of the business. Prior to this he was a member of the Board of REWE Group and CEO of REWE Digital, where he oversaw all aspects of the digital agenda, including e-commerce operations, technology infrastructure and digital marketing. With his team, he designed and built a digital ecosystem which linked physical and digital channels via mobile and AI technology and launched continental Europe’s first automated food fulfilment centre. REWE is now the largest grocery ecommerce player with its home delivery and click and collect fulfilled from either stores or automated fulfilment centres. He also led the investment in Commercetools which is now the world’s leading ecommerce platform. JJ has also held leadership roles at companies including Tesco and Travis Perkins.

Rapid delivery: courier collecting from Screwfix store

Fluent Order Managements drives real-time business and customer benefits

Jamie Cairns, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce, on how its order management platform enhances operational efficiency and customer experience.

Fluent Commerce is a global software company focused on distributed order management. Its cloud-native platform, Fluent Order Management, provides accurate and near real-time inventory data visibility, order orchestration, fulfilment optimisation, instore pick and pack, customer service, and reporting to transform fulfilment into a competitive advantage.

As Jamie Cairns, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce explains, the process of managing orders begins with inventory data. “Being able to unify a view of inventory and then syndicating that inventory data out across a range of different channels lets you improve the customer experience,” Cairns comments.

That, in turn, has a range of different operational efficiency benefits, reducing costs by reducing split shipments, cancelled orders, and customer service calls.

As Cairns describes, order management represents an opportunity for retailers and B2B organisations to harness inventory data to provide real-world benefits. One of their recent innovations, Fluent Big Inventory, is about unifying in near real-time those inventory sources, enabling all systems to become inventory aware.

“It is not just about enhancing the order fulfilment process, which is typically what has been the domain of an order management system,” Cairns explains. “It’s about making inventory data available to other systems, like search, as well and ultimately being able to personalise search results based on inventory.” With changing customer preferences in recent years,

brands have had to adapt quickly. As Cairns explains, Fluent Order Management not only provides a robust software-as-a-service platform, but at a lower total cost so businesses can move quickly and meet customer expectations efficiently.

During the COVID-19 pandemic when stores were closed, Fluent Order Management enabled businesses to adapt quickly. “Stores still had inventory and there were huge spikes in online demand,” Cairns explains. “Our customers were able to adapt in a matter of a day to completely change their fulfilment workflows.

“Digital agility is essential,” he concludes. “We are not trying to predict what the future is, but to provide a toolset that allows you to adapt as the future evolves.”

For retailers, it is important to strike a balance and still provide customers with a seamless shopping experience. As the consulting firm McKinsey says, offering a compelling omnichannel experience is no longer a luxury but a requirement for survival. Most Gen Z consumers don’t even think in terms of traditional channel boundaries, research has shown, and they increasingly evaluate brands and retailers on the seamlessness of their experience.

Kingfisher is in a strong position, with their extensive presence of stores meaning customers always have the best choice available to them. As Van Oosten explains, combining digital experiences with an extensive network of stores in a seamless way ensures that customers are satisfied.

JJ VAN OOSTEN FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, KINGFISHER PLC

“When you have a URL called diy.com, customers expect a high-quality product coming from trusted merchants”

B&Q Store

“Our stores are not a liability, they are co-assets, and we are lucky to have them,” he comments.

“Home improvement can be a complex journey for customers because they might have questions. Which piece of equipment do I need to buy? How are you going to make sure that the wood in a pack of flooring is the right one? If you have underfloor heating, how do you assemble it? How do you make sure you have the right quantity?

“All of these questions require some really deep expertise, which we have in our stores,” he adds.

By having a local presence, Kingfisher’s outlets can also utilise click-and-collect services, in a move towards stores becoming ‘micro-fulfilment centres’.

“When you want to have access to things quite quickly, that requires a local presence by definition,” Van Oosten adds. “We are lucky to have those stores so we can offer click-and-collect. In that respect, instead of it being experiencebased or knowledge-based, our stores are far more like micro-fulfilment centres. And if we want to go to customers quite quickly, when they require a service from something like Screwfix Sprint where we have over 800 stores now in the UK, we can do so in under one hour. And that is phenomenal.”

The success of B&Q’s marketplace model

Since launching last March, B&Q’s marketplace has been a real success story. The company reported in September 2022

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that it was performing ahead of expectations, with sales from partner brands representing 8% of its online sales that month.

“Across the whole planet, there are around 179,000 merchants and about 24 million SKUs (stock keeping units) in home improvement,” Van Oosten comments. “At B&Q we had about 35,000 SKUs compared to a range of four and seven million SKUs across the UK.”

Developed in partnership with enterprise marketplace SaaS platform Mirakl, B&Q’s marketplace offering expands existing ranges and adds new categories, utilising the brand’s famous ‘diy.com’ website.

Marketplaces are growing in popularity with consumers, with nearly half (48%) of online product searches now starting on marketplace platforms in key markets including the UK and US, according to Inriver. Within six months of launching the

marketplace, an extra 100,000 products via selected third-party sellers had been made available to customers.

“When you have a URL called diy.com, customers expect a high-quality product coming from trusted merchants,” Van Oosten explains.

“We have a lot of traffic online and in stores, and so from a business perspective, it's logically the next step to enrich your economic model with another line of income, which is a commission-based business. And then once you have that marketplace, you can continue in that journey around monetisation. You can offer click-and-collect, and you can offer returns.

“Customers don't like to wait at home for their parcels,” he adds. “They don't like the return process, which can be quite a cumbersome process by other players. So having stores is helpful, too.”

Rapid delivery: courier collecting from Screwfix store

“In the marketplace, for example, we are thinking how can we scale it faster? Which type of functionalities can we have, which type of business model can we use to evolve it even faster in the UK?”

JJ VAN OOSTEN FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, KINGFISHER PLC

Checking inventory at Screwfix

Using data to provide the best experience for customers

To bring these experiences to customers, having a secure grasp on data is key. As Van Oosten explains, data can provide a number of benefits, from enabling personalisation and ‘frequently bought together’ features for customers, to implementing more sophisticated planning.

“With data, we can perform more sophisticated demand capacity planning,” he comments. “When we’re buying garden furniture, which might be for next season, usually there is a 10 to 14-month lead time on that. But how do we know today what next summer will be weather-wise? Is there going to be a demand for rattan furniture or wooden furniture? Is there going to be a specific shape or colour that will be a favourite for customers? That requires the ability to use random forest analysis approaches, which build on those very fundamental pieces of data and allow you to become more and more sophisticated.”

A solid understanding of data also enables Kingfisher to more efficiently manage inventory, as Van Oosten explains.

“When you are looking at inventory in the stores, perhaps you sell most of it, or you had a good buy,” he explains. “Do you mark that inventory down, or do you bring it back into your warehouses and save it for next year? Those decisions require a good understanding of data, and machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to help you to have a good approach around markdowns and promotions.

“If you have 300 stores, as B&Q does, and you have 35,000 SKUs and you sell for over 300 days a year, you do the mathsa spreadsheet and a human brain cannot cope with this. You need to be supported and enhanced by data and the internet.”

A strong network of partnerships

As with any organisation, a network of partnerships is key to success. Kingfisher is no different, and is continuing to benefit from a number of selective partnerships.

“This is the fifth time I've launched a marketplace in my life,” says Van Oosten. “The last time I had to do this, I had to build a lot of it myself. So, before we launched into developing such a solution ourselves, we had a good look around and I was very pleased to see that Mirakl had a good product, with a very good roadmap and solid funding.”

In addition to working with Mirakl for the rollout of B&Q’s marketplace, Kingfisher is also partnered with Fluent Commerce whose Order Management System enables a centralised view of inventory across locations, providing improved order

fulfilment, fewer cancelled orders and fewer customer support calls.

In November 2022, Kingfisher also announced a partnership with Google Cloud to enhance the retailer’s digital capabilities.

By capitalising on Google Cloud’s infrastructure, platform services, and AI solutions, Kingfisher, its retail brands and customers see a number of benefits, including greater website uptime, better forecasting and improved personalisation.

“With Google, the question was threefold,” comments Van Oosten. “First of all, you need to get some speed. To gain speed, it's much better to port most of your applications, including SAP, to the cloud. Once you do that, say you have automated DevOps for example, you don't need to have your own environments, which are always a bottleneck when you want to do testing, and you have better security as well.

“You also end up with exposure of your data in a much easier way because of the big query nature of Google,” he adds. “You are also attracting better talent, because they want to work with these types of tools, rather than very old mainframe types of applications.”

As Van Oosten explains, for Kingfisher it is hugely important to build selective partnerships, with organisations that share the same values.

“Some of these things do not work if you have a different value set, so if an organisation is not engineering product and customer-led. If an organisation doesn't quite understand the importance of scalability and instant availability in real-time, or if they're not flexible in the way that the technology has been set up with auto-scaling, there is no point in starting a conversation.

Casto Express store in Paris

Introducing a new home improvement marketplace

A new product marketplace will offer customers a wider selection of products from trusted third-party sellers all in one place at diy.com

Customers will have more choice with:

An additional 100,000 products, available within 6 months

In-store returns for many marketplace products

Trusted third-party sellers

Why is it being launched?

82%

82% of our customers’ journeys start online, so the marketplace multi-channel model will make shopping with us even more convenient

The marketplace will both expand existing ranges and add new categories, such as:

48%

Small domestic appliances

nearly half (48%) of online product searches in the US, UK & Germany started on marketplaces

There are many reasons for third-party sellers to join the B&Q home improvement marketplace

Access a popular and trusted retail site with significant traffic that is synonymous with quality

Reach a significant demographic of UK consumers

Work with one of the UK’s most recognisable home improvement retail brands

How does it work? 1 2 3 4 5 6

Third-party sellers go through a verification process

Products listed on diy.com as ‘sold and shipped by [seller name]’

Customer adds to basket and checks out as usual

Customer adds to basket and pays as usual

Third-party seller delivers to customer

To find out more visit diy.com, or the B&Q app

Customers can return their orders via home collection or to any one of our UK stores

Wallpaper Lighting Power tools

JJ VAN OOSTEN FORMER CHIEF DIGITAL AND TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, KINGFISHER PLC

“I'm not interested in companies that are not born out of the internet,” Van Oosten says. “A lot of the time they rebadge themselves as a cloud-based solution or SaaS, but actually they're not. It's very difficult to change something which is heavy and client-based to truly become a cloud-based company.”

Future digital ambitions

With a number of innovations delivered already, Kingfisher are in no mind to keep standing still.

“The modus operandi we have in our mind, is that we are just at the start,” Van Oosten says. “We’re constantly thinking about day one and that means that there is so much more we can do.

“In the marketplace, for example, we are thinking how can we scale it faster? Which type of functionalities can we have, which type of business model can we use to evolve it even faster in the UK?”

In a uniquely strong position of having such strong brands and local presences, what is clear is that future innovations at Kingfisher will have both the digital and physical worlds at the centre.

“We look at stores as a wonderful asset where customers can go quickly,” he

comments. “So, when people say to me, ‘you do click and collect in one hour, but can I do it in one minute?’ I say, that's what we did in Screwfix.

“We look at the whole experience, we digitalise inside the stores as well to assist kitchen designers with 3D tools which are cloud-based. And then using mobile phones, customers can actually go and get a QR code and then see their own design in the store with their own pictures. It helps customers a lot, because it's a complex and emotional purchase in those instances.

“When I look outside the stores, we have relatively large car parks, and very good yards also. Yards for me are not just yards. Of course, we do goods in, but for me, they're also like perfect beehives where we can accept and welcome mopeds, bikes, where we can have vans, where we can have trucks, where we can have trucks with a crane.

“If you look at stores in that way, then suddenly you can see that those assets can actually have another lease of life,” he concludes. “And then, we are a mere custodian for the next generation of those brands.”

“When we’re buying garden furniture, which might be for next season, usually there is a 10 to 14-month lead time on that. But how do we know today what next summer will be weather-wise?”

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

With the rise of chatbots technology such as ChatGPT prompting interest from big tech companies, AI continues to be a major driver of technological innovation and growth in the tech industry. With 2023 already well underway, it is absolutely crucial for businesses to be aware of the most promising AI startups and their potential impact on various industries.

Technology Magazine takes a look at the top 10 AI tech startups to watch in 2023.

With AI increasingly a driver of technological innovation and growth in the tech sector, Technology Magazine looks at 10 startups to look out for this year

Vicarious 10

Vicarious is an AI startup that is developing cutting-edge technology to improve machine learning and robotics. The company’s AI algorithms can learn from experience and are capable of solving complex tasks, making it possible for robots to perform more advanced functions. The company has been backed by over US$250mn from investors like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Samsung. Last year Vicarious was acquired by Intrinsic, a robotics company and an AI company at Alphabet.

Cognitivescale 09

Cognitivescale is an AI and cloud computing startup that’s revolutionising the financial services industry. Backed by over 100 granted AI patents, its award-winning Cortex AI Platform empowers businesses to infuse trusted decision intelligence into business processes, delivering hyper-personalized insights to more than 100 million customers.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, CognitiveScale is recognized by the World Economic Forum for positively impacting business and society through responsible AI. We are backed by investment from Norwest Venture Partners, Intel Capital, IBM, Westly Group, M12 (Microsoft Ventures), Anthem, and USAA.

“The company’s AI algorithms can learn from experience and are capable of solving complex tasks”

Viz.ai

Viz.ai uses artificial intelligence to accelerate care coordination, reducing systemic delays that stand between patients and life-saving treatments. It’s an innovative way of using technology to transform clinical workflow and patient care.

Located in San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Portugal and Amsterdam, the company was named to the Forbes 2021 Next Billion-Dollar Startups list of the 25 fastestgrowing venture-backed startups and has been on the Forbes AI 50 list for three consecutive years.

Shield AI

Shield AI is an AI company founded in 2015 with the mission to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. The company’s Hivemind autonomy stack is the first and only autonomous AI Pilot, deployed in combat since 2018. Hivemind enables intelligent teams of aircraft to perform missions ranging from room clearance, to dogfighting F-16s. Backed by top-tier Silicon Valley VC funds, Shield AI has been named to Forbes’ AI 50 and Best Startups lists, CB Insights Top 100 AI Companies, and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies.

“The company’s Hivemind autonomy stack is the first and only autonomous AI Pilot, deployed in combat since 2018”

Deep 6 AI

Deep 6 AI is a healthcare AI startup that is revolutionising the way medical professionals diagnose and treat patients. The company’s AI algorithms can analyse large amounts of medical data, helping medical professionals make more informed decisions and improve patient outcomes.

Founded in 2016, Deep 6 AI is on a mission to bring life-saving treatments to patients faster. Its AI mines real-time clinical data, structured and unstructured, to precision-match patients to clinical trials.

Databricks

AI and data company, Databricks, was founded in 2013 and is the world’s first (and only) lakehouse platform in the cloud. Databricks combines the best of data warehouses and data lakes to offer an open, unified platform for data and AI. With its AI-enabled technology, Databricks serves more than 5,000 organisations worldwide, including ABN AMRO, Condé Nast, H&M Group, Regeneron and Shell. These companies rely on Databricks to enable massive-scale data engineering, collaborative data science, full-lifecycle machine learning and business analytics.

Stability AI 04

Stability AI, an AI-driven visual art startup designing and implementing an open AI tool to create images based on text input.

The company’s funding the development of open-source music- and image-generating systems like Dance Diffusion and Stable Diffusion.

Emad Mostaque co-founded Stability AI in 2020, motivated by a personal fascination with AI and what he characterised as a lack of “organisation” within the opensource AI community. Now they have a cluster of more than 4,000 Nvidia A100 GPUs running in AWS, which it uses to train AI systems.

Stability AI plans to make money by training “private” models for customers and accessing them through DreamStudio (a platform and API).

Landing AI 03

Landing AI provides deployment-ready AI solutions and enterprise-wide transformation programmes for customers worldwide.

Founded by Dr. Andrew Ng, Co-Founder of Coursera, Former Chief Scientist of Baidu, and Founding Lead of Google Brain, the company is positioned to help businesses successfully move their AI projects from proof-of-concept to full-scale production.

It helps customers to realise the business and operational value of computer vision using enablement tools. The company's flagship product is LandingLens, an enterprise MLOps platform that offers end-to-end workflow to build, iterate and operationalise AI-powered visual inspection solutions.

Observe.AI

Observe.AI provides natural language tools to track voice and text conversations. Its Intelligent Workforce Platform transforms contact centres by embedding AI into customer conversations, optimising agent performance, and automating repeatable processes that drive revenue and retention.

In March 2022, the company stated that ARR was up 150%, with customer interactions analysed by its AI up 3x, a 426% increase in AI-powered agent evaluations, and a 201% increase in AI-powered agent coaching sessions.

To date, Observe.AI has raised US$213mn in funding, with its latest round of Series C funding in 2022. Earlier this year, when it raised $125mn, the company explained that the money would be used to continue building out its technology and move into more markets.

OpenAI

Founded in 2015 as a non-profit artificial intelligence research lab by Elon Musk, Sam Altman and others, OpenAI now consists of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The AI company conducts fundamental, long-term research toward creating safe artificial general intelligence (AGI).

In 2021, OpenAI released DALL-E, a deep learning model that can generate digital images from natural language descriptions called "prompts" and combine concepts, attributes, and styles.

In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a chat aimed at natural language answering questions, translating, and generating improvised text. It reached over a million signups within the first five days and projected a US$200 million revenue for 2023 and US$1 billion for 2024. In January, Microsoft announced the extension of its long-term partnership with OpenAI through a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment to accelerate AI breakthroughs to ensure these benefits are broadly shared with the world.

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES AND GETTING THE PUBLIC BOARD

SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES GETTING PUBLIC

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

WRITTEN BY: JOSEPHINE WALBANK

Switch Datacenters shares its strategy for reversing the industry’s reputation, garnering public support and cementing a presence in the Amsterdam market

When it comes to public opinion, data centres are among the industries that face the biggest of uphill battles. The sector – and not always without good reason – has long been perceived as the antagonist of the world’s sustainability targets. And now, this long-standing reputation is proving a major obstacle to the growth of the sector.

Despite the fact that the data centre industry is full of pioneering sustainability advocates, each of whom is developing sophisticated, future-proof, green solutions, it’s still a challenge to reverse the state of public opinion.

So, how can companies that are leading the charge towards a greener future establish the right reputation in their marketplace and successfully demonstrate their sustainability commitment to the public?

In an exclusive interview with Edgar Van Essen, Managing Director of Switch Datacenters, we learned about how the company is deploying unrivalled green initiatives and ensuring those efforts don’t go unnoticed.

EDGAR VAN ESSEN

TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR

COMPANY: SWITCH DATACENTERS

Van Essen joined Switch Datacenters five years ago as Managing Director and - together with Gregor Snip (CEO & Co-Founder) - is responsible for the strategic, daily growth of the company.

Before joining Switch Datacenters, Van Essen was an Executive Vice President leading a large region for a renowned Swiss high tech company.

Van Essen has a long and successful track record in building out the digital infrastructural markets in EMEA, and has been very successful in implanting new growth strategies across Europe. He holds a Master Degree in Business from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and is driven by innovation and smart new business models.

Expanding and evolving in the Amsterdam data centre market

Switch Datacenters is an Amsterdambased data centre provider that has been at the forefront of the region’s sustainability focus for the last 15 years.

EXECUTIVE BIO

moved into large hyperscale and wholesale site development. We’re not known to everybody, and we like to keep it that way,” explains Van Essen.

“We are not shouting from the rooftops what we do – that doesn't help us in our plans to get the right locations and the right new sites in Amsterdam. So we have a deliberately low profile, but in Amsterdam, we know every street, and every potential building that we could turn into a data centre.

Every year, Switch develops new data centres and adds to its expanding portfolio.

“So we have more than 120MW of data centre capacity in development in Amsterdam. But, when we have bigger customers on board, we might also follow them abroad,” Van Essen adds.

“Our role in the Dutch data centre market is to be the challenger. We’re coming from a relatively small position in retail and, over the last three years, have succesfully

The company was founded to address what they saw as a gap in the market and bring a new approach to the industry.

“Switch Datacenters started 15 years ago by

“Our role in the Dutch data centre market is to be the challenger and innovator”

EDGAR VAN ESSEN MANAGING DIRECTOR, SWITCH DATACENTERS

Edgar Van Essen, Managing Director of Switch Datacenters pictured with CEO & Co-Founder, Gregor Snip

There’s no trade-off for data centres and sustainability

Schneider Electric’s Thierry Chamayou explains why sustainability is a strategic imperative for the data centre industry

THIERRY CHAMAYOU, VICE PRESIDENT CLOUD & SERVICE PROVIDERS EMEA, SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC

“Within the last few years sustainability has moved from a ‘nice to have’, to one of the top three procurement considerations for end-users and operators.” says Schneider Electric’s Vice President, Cloud Service Providers, EMEA, Thierry Chamayou.

Schneider Electric, who has signed the 17 science-based targets that form the foundation of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals has made sustainability a fundamental focus of its operations, positioning itself as one of the world’s leading authorities on net zero. Today the company develops technologies for several critical sectors, including buildings, grids, industrial manufacturing, and of course, data

centres. It is here that Chamayou believes data centres are leading the charge and demonstrating that energyintensive industries can be a key enabler for decarbonisation.

Sustainability has indeed become a strategic imperative for data centres, and for businesses embarking on this journey, Schneider Electric is leading by exampleestablishing new innovations and investing significant amounts of revenue in research and development. Chamayou tells us that the company is not only helping organisations improve efficiency and reduce emissions, but is helping business to establish strategies that will enable long-term, sustainable change.

A key example is its position as a leader in the Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) market, where it was recently ranked No. 1 for its NEO Network and Zeigo platforms. These acquisitions have enabled Schneider Electric to simplify the buying process by connecting customers with trusted experts, and offering exclusive market intelligence to accelerate decision making.

Chamayou tells us that there is “no trade-off”, and sustainability is not just good for the planet, it’s now become a central of focus for organisations both in the industry and outside of it. Many businesses, for example, are becoming more climate-conscious, and as such, making significant investments in Greentech to futureproof and safeguard their operations.

In the data centre sector specifically, sustainability has been driven by enduser requirements, pushing operators to measure and prove their environmental impact in a multitude of ways. “One way in which the company is helping here is through its industry-first sustainability framework”, says Chamayou, “helping operators to measure their impact through five key areas – energy, greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), water, waste, land and biodiversity.”

For Schneider, these are vital, as they give data centre organisations fixed and quantifiable metrics for them to measure their progress towards improved sustainability standards.

“Ultimately, creating sustainable change comes down to setting a bold and actionable strategy,” continues Chamayou, “but no two strategies are entirely alike. Each customer will define its ambition in terms of climate impact, and we take a data-driven approach to help them drive change. To do that, we use our global platform with suites of different software, called EcoStruxure™.”

One example is EcoStruxure’s Resource Advisor, which enables customers to unlock greater optimisation, while giving them access to the analytics and reporting tools that are critical to the first phase of improving sustainability. For data centres in particular, this level of transparency and measurability is invaluable.

Interestingly Schneider Electric’s efforts within the space coincide with the publication of several of its recent research papers. One example is ‘Sustainability at the Edge’, exploring the gap between enterprise plans and edge sustainability programs. One of the report’s key findings was the revelation of a ‘perception-versus-reality dilemma’ across much of the industry.

According to the report, “the maturity evaluations of nearly half of respondents (48%) did not match a previous answer,” as many enterprise organisations believe their sustainability programmes are more advanced than they are, in-reality. What’s more, the paper found that 73% of organisations surveyed ranked sustainability as their second-most important business priority. Critically, only 33% say they have created a strategic sustainability plan.

Chamayou tells us that having clear, definable metrics that data centres can use to shape their sustainability strategies will be an immense aid. Through its framework, technologies and expertise, Schneider Electric is helping the industry to create datadriven strategies, where success and progress are measurable.

Sustainability

coincidence, because Gregor (CEO) and his brother were running the first hosting company in the Netherlands.

“They felt really mistreated on pricing, flexibility and customisation. So they decided, typically entrepreneurially, to just build a data centre themselves. They had no clue what it was, but they did that, improved their designs over the years and, actually, they succeeded in doing so.”

From there, Gregor and his brother spent a lot of time optimising their technology and innovating in the data centre space.

“They achieved this not just by buying everything that was on catalogue, but by actually thinking for themselves what they needed and reinventing smarter and better

“We have totally forgotten to understand that we have to actually adapt our language to the language of the public and give something back to them”

EDGAR VAN ESSEN MANAGING DIRECTOR, SWITCH DATACENTERS

strategies, and getting the public on-board

WATCH NOW

solutions. In the end, this led to very efficient solutions that we developed ourselves and in-depth knowledge on cooling systems, modular design, construction and energy efficiency.

“Today, Switch still has a natural focus on independent development. We have a lot of engineers that have a thorough background in industrial design, meaning we have all the knowledge in-house that we need.”

30MW Switch Datacenters currently operates around 30MW of IT data centre capacity

“At this point in time, we’re one of the best at finding and developing new plots – and we do this in a totally different way to a lot of our competitors. The reason we are good at this is because we focus on Amsterdam, and we know the Amsterdam market inside-out. We know the language, we know the politics, we know how to get the power, and we know the right areas for new locations.”

And now, after almost two decades spent establishing its presence in the Dutch market, Switch’s next goal is to utilise its learnings, grow even bigger in Amsterdam and perhaps strategically expand across the continent.

“So we decided, ‘Let's first build a strong base in Amsterdam and, once we have that base and we have those customers on board, we will replicate that model in other countries’.”

Switch Datacenters and Schneider Electric – building the sustainable data centers of the future

Switch Datacenters was founded in 1998 and is one of the most sustainable data center operators and developers in Amsterdam. Today it owns three data centers in the Netherlands, and provides premium hosting, colocation and connectivity services for cloud, retail, and government organizations.

Sustainability is embedded within Switch Datacenters’ DNA and it believes that data centers can be reliable, affordable, innovative, and sustainable, all at the same time. Its locations in Amsterdam also places it within a global trade hub, while its position within the FLAP-D market makes it one of the world’s most competitive regions for data centers and cloud providers. Sustainability and innovation have, therefore, become key differentiators for Switch Datacenters, and are vital to its leadership position.

For more than a decade Switch Datacenters and Schneider Electric have established a long-term, strategic partnership to build an efficient, adaptive, and resilient data center platform. Across its portfolio, Switch Datacenters has worked with Schneider Electric to design and build its data centers, and today it uses turnkey solutions from Schneider Electric's EcoStruxure™ for Data Centers architecture to deliver marketleading services.

Switch Datacenters designed its facilities primarily to minimalize the impact of CO2 emissions on the environment and it was the first data center operator in Europe to reduce its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to 1.1 by using revolutionary cooling concepts and innovative liquid cooling solutions.

From a power and resilience perspective, Switch Datacenters uses Schneider Electric Galaxy™ VX UPS with LithiumIon, which offers up to 99% energy efficiency using Schneider Electric’s patented eConversion technology, and critical powertrain solutions including its Busbar and Medium Voltage (MV) panel technologies.

The collaboration between Switch Datacenters and Schneider Electric has resulted in an initial 30% initial cost savings and 25% greater energy efficiency, enabling Switch Datacenters to meet today’s demands for industry-leading uptime and sustainability, and provision for a sustainable future.

Learn more

Paralleling global developments – the challenges of the Amsterdam market

According to Van Essen, the Amsterdam market is a particularly difficult one for data centres.

“The main challenges in the Amsterdam market are mainly about sustainability and getting power and permits. There's a lot of political pressure in this regard, and I think it all comes back to the public not understanding what data centres are about,” Van Essen explains.

Continuing in this vein, he asserts that one of the industry’s key flaws lies in the fact that its leaders and innovators are talking exclusively in technical language. This mode of communication is actually creating a big gap, because politicians aren’t engineers, and the general public are unable to follow these explanations. As a result, those outside the

EDGAR VAN ESSEN MANAGING DIRECTOR, SWITCH DATACENTERS

“ This optimisation game – data centre 1.0, as I call it – was very technologyoriented and not at all society-aware. That is actually what caused a lot of frustration in Amsterdam with the policymakers and the public”

BUILDING SMARTER TOGETHER. Heijmans is your partner in the design and building of data centers

About Heijmans

Everyone wants clean air, to live in a nice neighbourhood, to work in a good workplace and to be able to travel safely from A to B. By making things better, more sustainable and smarter, Heijmans is creating that healthy living environment. We are a stock exchange-listed company that combines activities in property development, building & technology and infrastructure. In addition to this, we work safely and we add value to the places where we are active. This is how we build the spatial contours of tomorrow together with our clients: www.heijmans.nl/en/

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industry are becoming increasingly alienated from – and therefore mistrusting of – it.

“We have totally forgotten that we have to actually adapt our language to the language of the public and, when using scarce resources like land, power etc, give something back to the public,” Van Essen explains. “I also think a lot went wrong there, specifically, after a lot of foreign capital came to Amsterdam and adopted a one-size-fits-all push out of their US headquarters.”

For many global enterprises, Van Essen says a ‘copy-paste’ approach across all their new locations is common. However, this can be a serious hindrance to efficiency, and be highly detrimental to a brand reputation and a reason for slow innovation.

“This optimisation game – data centre 1.0, as I call it – was very technologyoriented and not at all society-aware.

That is actually what caused a lot of frustration in Amsterdam with both policymakers and the public, and it is now also becoming a broader European topic.”

“Amsterdam was one of the first cities that started to block the growth of data centres because, actually, they were consuming too much space and power, which were meant for other things. In the end, the industry was very much the root cause of creating this block, and you see the same happening now in Frankfurt, and even in London and Dublin.”

Unexpectedly, Van Essen says that because Amsterdam has always been leading this trend towards high sustainability demands, that has proven to be a major advantage of developing solutions there.

“Once you have a working solution in Amsterdam, the chance that you can copypaste it into Frankfurt, Dublin, and the others is pretty high. If you start the other way around – develop something in London and then try to get into Amsterdam – the likelihood that you will fail is pretty big,” Van Essen asserts.

“Amsterdam was one of the first cities that started to block the growth of data centres because, actually, they were consuming too much space and power”

EDGAR VAN ESSEN MANAGING DIRECTOR, SWITCH DATACENTERS

We can’t ignore the future

One of the biggest challenges for MTDC’s and their Cloud Scale tenants is that they must think about the infrastructure requirements in terms of workloads rather than in space and power.

To meet future scalability and bandwidth demands, Cloud service providers must have the ability to rapidly deploy any type of workload at any required network speed, at any time, and at any location.

As a result, we see Cloud Type Data Centers rapidly evolving, as data speeds, power usage per rack, and infrastructure complexity increase.

This requires smarter than ever Data Center designs. From smart power and cooling techniques and designs to smart and future ready high speed fiber infrastructure designs, from the entrance room in the grey space to and in-between the equipment and storage racks in the white space.

The objectives of a fiber infrastructure design are comparable to those for designing a highway. To meet current and future traffic demands it needs to be safe, efficient and allows for fast movement of traffic. Next to that overall cost, maintenance, sustainability, and planning for anticipated future traffic must be considered.

In an ideal world the MTDC’s and their Cloud Scale tenants would like to have a fiber infrastructure that can easily be migrated to higher speeds in the most sustainable way and at lowest CAPEX and OPEX thinkable. No matter if you’re on a 100G, 2 fiber backbone today and want to migrate to a 400G or 800G 8 or 16 fiber tomorrow or if you already think about 1.6TB backbone, the solution is already there.

Interested in hearing more about a solution that has ultra-low loss connectivity, is highly modular, has minimum weight, allows for one person install, is sustainable and drives cost and efficiency let us know.

Contact

Bas Mondria Sales Manager EMEA bas.mondria@commscope.com

Dick Philips Sr. Manager Global Cloud Accounts EMEA dick.philips@commscope.com

“So, it's all about understanding what is the best spot to start developing a new data centre formula. And we are 100% convinced that Amsterdam is the perfect ground for that. Not only due to the size of the market, but also the political environment we are in.”

120MW+ Switch

Datacenters has more than 120MW of data centre capacity in development in Amsterdam

Communicating sustainability –how to get the public on-board So, the twofold challenge becomes implementing future-proof sustainable solutions, while also communicating those efforts to clients and the public. As Van Essen states, preserving the industry requires nothing short of a new reputation.

“What we really now need to see happening, very quickly, is for the hyperscalers to start adapting their operational data centre technology models to actually become much more green by nature,” he urges.

“If they still build new, huge land-consuming data centres designed on air cooling, the situation will never change. So we will really call on the hyperscalers and the forwardlooking companies to start implementing alternative cooling technologies and start looking at site redevelopment, rather than builing new ones from scratch.”

Despite being a relatively small industry player, Switch is renowned for being a major presence on the sustainability stage and a key voice in these global discussions.

“We have been a very active member of all the forward-looking innovation committees in the global industry for many years, and try to contribute there as much as we can. We've been very active in the Open Compute Platform, for instance; we're also one of the founding members of the Sustainable Digital Infrastructure Alliance and a member of the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact.”

To help drive innovation further in the sector, Switch even opened up one of its Amsterdam data centres as a test batch for new sustainable technologies.

“We said, ‘If you guys want to see how this works and try it out, come to us, and we will actually help you to develop your solutions’. Already, we have quite a number of forward-looking companies coming to us because they want to do something with liquid cooling, reusing heat or using refurbished equipment.”

“They naturally come to us now: we understand their way of thinking, and we actually facilitate their division models. And that's

“It's all about understanding what is the best spot to start developing a new data centre formula. And we are 100% convinced that Amsterdam is the perfect ground for that”

EDGAR VAN ESSEN MANAGING DIRECTOR, SWITCH DATACENTERS

totally different if you go to the big names – we take the opposite approach to them. We say, ‘Please come to us and, jointly, we will find the next level’.”

For instance, experimenting with reusing server heat is a key part of those activities. For Switch, reusing the heat generated by its servers is an essential part of both futureproofing tech design, and preparing its customers for new business models and sustainability legislation in the future.

Switch’s long-term ambition is that data centres will eventually become heating

plants for district heating, thereby helping cities, policy makers and utility providers to move away from the current fossil fuel heat plants much more quickly.

“Data centres will no longer be seen as enemies of the people, and will contribute to wider society in a much smarter way. And that's what we call data centre 2.0.”

It is through these market differentiators that Switch has been able to establish a unique, immensely strong relationship with its network of partners.

“Our partners see that we're the odd one out – the new kids on the block, in a certain way. They’re also seeing that we're growing quite substantially. So, now, we are really on a lot of innovation calls with really big suppliers,” Van Essen explains.

“They start to understand what we're doing, why we’re doing it, and see the value of our approach, that actually brings us into very strong strategic alliances. Despite the fact that we don’t yet have the volumes of the really large data centres, we still get the same level of board attention, because we bring much more to the table than just volume.”

In this way, Switch is adopting a multifaceted, intuitive approach to sustainability, bringing all the required elements together, while successfully showing the public that data centres can have a place in our greener future.

“It's all about understanding where the public opinion is heading to understand new things around the corner that will impact your business. It is absolutely not technology alone that defines our future. It's much more about understanding society and contributing to society – and that's where we differ from the rest.”

American Homes 4 Rent’s Philip Irby on AI use in the home

WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS

American Homes 4 Rent rents homes & builds them. Chief Technology Officer

Philip Irby discusses AI & building a resident experience-focused platform

American Homes 4 Rent, also known as AMH, is one of the leading builders in the United States, which rents homes and builds homes to rent.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, AMH takes employee satisfaction very seriously. The company has won the Great Place to Work® accreditation, has been recognised for its sustainability initiatives, and is rated as one of America's Most Responsible Companies 2022 by Newsweek and Statista, as well as a Top ESG Regional Performer by Sustainalytics.

Philip Irby is the Chief Technology Officer for AMH. His role is to lead the transformation of its technology stack into a modern, flexible, resident experiencefocused platform.

“I've taken lessons learned throughout my career and applied them in a transformational platform for an emerging industry, in which there's not really a modern tech stack available,” says Irby. “I have the opportunity to pioneer and build something that hasn't been built.”

Irby’s job is to improve the resident experience through technology, to make it seamless and non-intrusive.

“My job is to effectively allow our residents to focus on what really matters to them, not paying the rent or having to figure out the platform so that they can get a maintenance request in, or something like that. It needs to be seamless and just very intuitive for them.”

Chief Technology Officer Philip Irby

Digital transformation and sustainability

At AMH, digital transformation is in flight. The company is building a truly modern platform, with domain-driven design, true microservices and event-based architectures, from the ground up.

“What this gives us is the ability to build a modular, transformative system that allows us to adapt and change as we evolve as a company,” explains Irby. “The term ‘digital transformation’ can be overused, as it means different things to different people. But for us, digital transformation means transforming the way a company works and focusing on the company ten years from now, not just the problems that we have today.”

“I knew that AMH had an opportunity to build from the ground up, so I brought gravity9 over as well”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMERICAN HOMES 4 RENT

Irby sees this as a transformation of how AMH works, whether it's through efficiency, streamlining or automation.

“Digital transformation changes who we are and adapts who we're going to become.”

AMH was recently recognised as one of the top ESG regional performers by Sustainalytics, which was deeply satisfying for the team.

“Our technology has been intertwined with the sustainability function from its inception,” says Irby. “We feel that technology really drives sustainability. There's a lot that we can do on the technology front that will improve our posture in the ESG areas.”

PHILIP IRBY

TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

LOCATION: LAS VEGAS

EXECUTIVE BIO

Philip Irby is the Chief Technology Officer at AMH. Philip spearheads the company’s IT division, guiding the program’s future platform development as well as supporting the company’s revenue-generating and corporate departments. Leading a team of IT personnel, Philip is responsible for the management of core systems, infrastructure, networking, collaborative environments, reporting, and custom platform development, all the while structuring the organisation to drive business results in the most efficient way possible. Irby has a 26-year record of success designing, building, and completing innovative business and technology solutions with an acute focus on user experience. Prior to joining the executive team at AMH, Philip was the Chief Information Officer at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Vice President of Global Applications at Arthur J. Gallagher and Co, and Chief Information Officer at Pacesetter Energy, and has held integral roles in companies such as Pragmatx, Digital Pilot, and Multimedia Learning, Inc.

Building Better Digital Products

Integrated Enterprise Beautiful Intelligent

Create momentum with gravity

We combine deep engineering knowledge with customer strategy and design expertise to achieve great results in short timescales.

gravity9 supports clients in their digital journey

At gravity9, a combination of art and science brings a product together, taking clients like AMH closer towards their digital journey.

Noel Ady started gravity9 five years ago, with a view to bring together amazing people to create amazing things. “My background is as a software engineer, a solution architect and enterprise architect. I’ve been lucky to work as a consultant in many different cultures. “We have the full capability to put together a product” says Ady. “At gravity9, we have the ability to understand why a product should exist”.

gravity9.com

gravity9 will often work with large organisations or enterprises that want to build a number of products to support their digital journey.

Digital journeys

“The individuals involved are not just skilled; the key is imagination and hard work. Those things combined help us generate that momentum with our clients.”

“There’s a combination of art and science that brings a product together.”

ESG is a key part of AMH’s strategy and technology is intrinsically intertwined with it.

“We are already in tune with all of the systems used to monitor that, and we're remediating issues,” says Irby. “We're at the top of our capability on the cybersecurity front. We're also working extensively to understand our energy usage through AI and analytics, gathering information from our communities or our portfolio homes.”

AMH has also built relationships with leading companies like Elevate, which help AMH to get better visibility into its energy consumption.

The way Irby sees it, technology drives sustainability, but AMH is using ESG to transform its technology. The company has established a sustainability group and its technology evolves in accordance with that.

“It's about AI and what we can leverage in terms of our energy usage, especially in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning)”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMERICAN HOMES 4 RENT

AMH’s Philip Irby on AI use in the home

“It's about AI and what we can leverage in terms of our energy usage, especially in HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning).”

75% of

Take this situation: there's a time when there's no one in the HMR home - somebody moves out and then somebody moves in, how are HMR going to make sure that the house is not overusing energy? Currently, somebody comes in during a showing and turns the thermostat down, then it might stay that way until somebody else comes in to change it. This is where automation, smart home technology and IoT come in.

“We're working on a technology right now that will give us the ability to modify the interior HVAC thermostat during the turn,” explains Irby. “We've got a number of

different initiatives involving water usage and energy usage. Then, with cybersecurity being a part of ESG, we're at the forefront of that, too. In this industry, we won't compare ourselves to other businesses, but we're doing our best to meet the requirements of the cybersecurity components or questions, and initiatives within ESG.”

75% of the traffic that AMH receives is from mobile devices, because prospective residents are looking at houses in person, away from their computers. AMH has an online platform that will allow renters to log on and take control of their home search.

“The platform is completely responsive,” explains Irby. “Everything we build is mobile-first, and it starts from the shopping

the traffic that AMH receives is from mobile devices, as users are out looking at houses in person

experience, with people trying to locate a home or take a tour of one of our homes and then go through to leasing. All of this can be done from a mobile device in a simple way.”

Prospective buyers go through leasing and underwriting. They can interact with AMH property management and maintenance people as a resident.

“The purpose-built communities have amenity centres with pools, gyms and community hubs. Now, we can grant them access to all of those facilities without requiring them to check in with a property manager or get a fob - they can just use their phone.”

AI and automation

Close to 90% of US households have some form of air conditioning. AMH uses AI to keep track of them.

“As an example, if we are monitoring the usage of HVAC and also the behaviour of that HVAC, we can develop an algorithm that tells us when this HVAC unit is about to failimagine the difference this will make to the resident experience.”

For a family that lives in a hotter climate, if their HVAC fails it could be three days before it is fixed. But, if AMH knows that the unit is exhibiting a pattern of behaviour to suggest it’s failing, AMH can contact the residents ahead of time and arrange a servicing of the HVAC before it fails.

“That's a proactive use of technology to improve the experience for residents, so that they don't experience three days of unbearable heat, wondering when someone is going to show up and fix it so they can get on with their lives. Instead, we're showing up ahead of time.”

transformation changes who we are and adapts who

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMERICAN HOMES 4 RENT

At AMH, automation and streamlining can both improve the customer and employee experience.

Whether it's through automation and dynamic scheduling, or the different components that streamline and make AMH employees’ jobs easier, this comes through in their communication with residents.

“We make the job easier for our employees and happy employees make happy customers,” says Irby sincerely.

AMH goes through field services and dynamic scheduling, with their field technician going from one spot to the next. Even when new simple requests pop up, being able to service that resident dynamically changes the resident experience, and this also changes the employee's experience, because now it's a lot less about bureaucracy and ticking the box.

“It's all about improving the lives and experience of our customers,” says Irby.

“Digital

we're going to become”

Partnership with gravity9

gravity9 is an IT consulting company that unites art and science in building the consumer’s digital journey. Irby partnered with gravity9 seven years ago, when he worked at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. gravity9 helped Irby transform the hotel’s identity and their rewards programme.

“I knew that they shared my vision for abstraction and domain-driven design and microservices,” says Irby. “I knew that AMH had an opportunity to build from the ground up, so I brought gravity9 over as well.”

Their shared vision, previous experience and longevity have made for a great partnership.

“The key to our partnership is, gravity9 has an exact understanding of our strategy and vision for the platform, and that comes through in the work that they do, and also in the work that my team does with them.

“I've worked with lots of vendors and there are people that will tell you what they want you to hear or what you want to hear - and people that will tell you the truth. Telling the truth in a partnership usually results in more respect and greater capability to work together. I think in the relationships that I've had that have been successful, that's one of the core foundations - being able to speak openly about differences or things that we need to be working towards.”

The next 12 months will be transformational at AMH. The company is adding a number of components to the platform, enhancing some that they already have and focusing on building the platform further. Irby is determined that that has got to be the focus.

“If you lose focus on trying to create that platform that is flexible, adaptable and capable of change, then you start to become a monolith. You move down the path towards brittle, unsustainable infrastructure and applications.”

Every 12 months holds that for AMH. Irby and his team will stay focused on the future and on flexibility.

“I have the opportunity to pioneer and build something that hasn't been built”

PHILIP IRBY CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, AMERICAN HOMES 4 RENT

BECOMING A LEADER WITH LINDA HOWARD

WRITTEN BY: LUCY BUCHHOLZ

PRODUCED BY: TOM VENTURO

Sharing both personal and professional stories, Linda Howard, Vice President of Technology at Kroger, gives Technology Magazine an exclusive insight into her phenomenal career

Kroger believes in the concept of “feeding the human spirit” to help every individual become their best selves. To do so, employees are encouraged to share daily uplifts with the team. These can range from children’s accomplishments to career milestones – anything that enables individuals to bring their authentic selves to the workplace and celebrate together as a team.

By sharing her story with Technology Magazine, Linda Howard endeavours for her uplifts to demonstrate ‘advocacy for women’. After a long and incredibly successful career at the company, Linda has both personal and professional stories to share, each detailing the lessons she’s learned along the way – from overcoming imposter syndrome to learning she can only rely on herself.

Technology Magazine is proud to highlight the groundbreaking journey that Linda has taken to become a remarkable and inspirational leader for other women.

Early lessons and upbringing

As the youngest of five siblings, Linda grew up knowing what it felt like to be an outsider. “My family was a well-established entity before I came along,” she explains, “so I needed to figure out how to be accepted by the pack, as I called them. Being the outcast taught me very quickly how to read the room and to know when I wasn’t accepted, so I know what it feels like to be excluded from a group.”

In adulthood, and after putting in a lot of hard work, Linda has established a strong bond with each of her siblings and praises them for shaping her into the resilient, self-sufficient person she is today.

This moulding of life resonated with Linda even more after a counsellor shared a particular piece of advice: “Your intellect grows up. You learn and adapt to new ways based on your knowledge, but your emotions don't. The things that trigger you remain throughout. It's important to recognise when the triggers occur, as it's how you handle them that makes a difference.”

“These words have always stayed with me. Whenever it feels as if I’m being targeted, I basically step outside of my body and remind myself that I’m smart, I’m capable, and that I belong,” Linda says.

LINDA HOWARD VP OF TECHNOLOGY, KROGER

“I knew I had to own my life decisions, and that, ultimately, I was charting the course that would bring me happiness”

Becoming a leader with Linda Howard

EXECUTIVE BIO

LINDA HOWARD

TITLE: VP OF TECHNOLOGY

COMPANY: KROGER

INDUSTRY: RETAIL

Linda Howard is Vice President Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Finance for Kroger Technology & Digital. She is responsible for software engineering and application support for the Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Finance Systems including the Fulfillment Centers powered by Ocado. Linda joined Kroger in 1985, has held a variety of leadership positions, and moved to her current role in 2018, leading cross-functional Solution Modernisation efforts. Linda earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She has been recognised as a Top Women in Grocery and is a member of the Miami University Farmer School of Business Advisory Board.

Activating a more equitable future.

Deloitte Consulting Services helps organisations navigate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges, architecting transformative journeys that enable a more equitable future.

Discover more

Deloitte: Equity in the workforce, marketplace, and society

Deloitte’s * Equity Activation Model, published in The Equity Imperative in 2021, explores the different dimensions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace, highlighting that business leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to create a more equitable future. The model showcases three interconnected spheres of influence that organisations can use to activate equity: the workforce, marketplace, and society.

Understanding the Equity Activation Model

The innermost sphere, known as the workforce, is typically where businesses pay the most attention as it assesses DEI within the four walls of the organisation.

The second layer, the marketplace, focuses on the messages being portrayed through brands, evaluating what they are doing to enhance equity for marginalised groups. This can, for example, be looking at a business’s advertising and assessing whether they’re putting historically marginalised groups in positions of agency or power.

“This layer is particularly important as our clients are starting to be much more conscious of how their businesses show up as a brand and how it impacts every part of the organisation,” Kimberly Betts, Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Leader for Deloitte Consumer Sector, explains.

The outermost sphere, society, focuses on how businesses operate and what they’re doing to give back to their community. “How are businesses using their power,” Kimberly asks, “and what are they doing to create more equitable outcomes for people; not just people that purchase the products, but the institutions in which they all operate?

“In the US, we’re starting to see more legislation putting a greater focus on equity,” Kimberly explains. “Our clients are creating the links between equity and what they’re doing from a sustainability and climate perspective, which can help them do well for their associates, the planet, and the customers they serve.”

Kimberly Betts, Global Diversity Equity and Inclusion Leader for Deloitte Consumer Sector, explains how the Equity Activation Model helps other organisations prioritise equity

“I tell myself to read the room, to understand where the other person is coming from and to discover the ‘why’ behind their actions. Intellectually, I know it’s rarely personal, but sometimes I have to check in within myself.”

As the youngest in the family, Linda admits that she was perfect for the ‘princess’ model, but her father did everything in his power to ensure she became anything but a princess. For this reason, he made it clear that he wanted her to love the career she planned to pursue. If not, it would just become a job with no passion whatsoever. He also encouraged Linda to take a path that she enjoyed so that when she woke up every morning, she would look forward to her day. There was, however, one deviation from this.

“The day I sat down and talked to my dad about college, I announced I wanted to go to art school,” Linda says. “I loved everything about the creative process, and despite good grades in maths and science, I was in what I now call my ‘flighty’ period. He sat me down and told me that I needed a plan B. He explained that we are all responsible for ourselves, and I should not expect a fallback plan that someone else would provide for me.

“My father knew I loved solving hard problems, so I decided to choose Maths as my major. This was mainly because I truly understood the need to stand on my own two feet. I knew I had to own my life decisions, and that, ultimately, I was charting the course that would bring me happiness.”

Standing on her own two feet

Three years of studying soon passed, and, in 1985, Linda started her first internship at Kroger. After spending the summer taking away typewriters, putting in PCs and teaching word processing to the admin staff, Linda was fortunate to be offered a full-time position at the company – with one catch. “The recruiter told me he would only offer me the position if I agreed to interview with other companies. He said he wanted me to work for Kroger by choice, not by default.

“He outlined the importance of not skipping this step, explaining that if I ignored it, I may wonder what else is out there and resign after a few years. This resonated with me, and I encourage all our interns to be similarly well-informed before making their decision to work for the company.”

Linda shares the greatest pieces of advice she inherited throughout her career

• If you’re going to do something, do it right. Plain and simple.

• Use the right tools for the job. Sometimes, the answer may be fixing a problem with duct tape, but don't make that call until you've assessed the situation and have factored in all available options. Likewise, if you supply a team with a tool, teach them how to use it. They’ll surprise you every time.

• Don't force anything. If something isn’t fitting, you need to stop and figure out why. Once you address the problem, all of the pieces will eventually fall into place. As a big believer in change management, it’s important to help these pieces fall into place, so teams are equipped with the best knowledge and are ready to go.

• Self-doubt provides an opportunity to prepare more while highlighting the importance of reading the room and understanding others' points of view.

• Communication, communication, and more communication. If you ask people questions and show an interest, they will want to open up. The same is true at work. You need to give people the chance to share.

• Great teams are a function of people wanting to do their best. You have to start with why, and allow the space for a conversation to get to the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. Smart people want to be part of the solution, not given the answer. A team should never be expected to do something their superior wouldn’t want to do.

• Be true. People see the dirt in you. My teams have seen me cry when I was scared about COVID-19; the raw emotions after the mass shootings that occurred on a Kroger site, and many others. It shows I'm a human. It’s okay not to have all the answers. But together, we will find them.

• Finally, as women, we need to be there for each other. As leaders, we need to be there for our teams. As humans, we need to be there for our communities.

After 37 years at Kroger, Linda can say that she chose to commit to the company. “I remember telling my dad Kroger felt like home,” Linda says. “He encouraged me to take the position, explaining that working with people you want to spend your days with is worth more than a company in a glamorous big city or having a higher-paid salary. To this day, I’m still a big believer in this.”

When accepting the position, Linda was given two options: to choose between mainframe programming or store systems. Looking back on her internship, Linda understands why she was presented with these choices. “The way I showed up during my internship was a direct influence of several things my dad taught me along the way: if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right,” Linda recalls. “I am wired to give my all to the task at hand, regardless of how mundane or complex.”

Lessons learnt at Kroger

Throughout Linda’s career, she has explored various paths that Kroger offered – from store solutions to health and wellness. And, of course, as with any successful career, Linda has faced numerous defining moments that shaped her into the individual she is today.

“Early on in my career, I had a tough decision,” Linda states. “When I questioned whether I should try to appease all the divisions, my director, Larry, responded that he was not paying me to be popular. I knew exactly what I needed to do, and it was a reminder to always do what is right for the company

Working her way up the career ladder, Linda was often the only female in the room, which can come with challenges. “One time, the CIO lost a button on his jacket,” Linda shares.

“A partner he was meeting with happened to have a sewing kit in his briefcase – yes, I lived through the Mad Men era. Although it pains me to say it now, I didn’t stand up for myself when I was asked to sew the button back in place. But it reinforced the lesson that only I was responsible for standing on my own two feet.”

Likewise, when Linda received the confirmation of the promotion to her current position as Vice President, she was only allowed to share the news with a handful of people – not even her parents. “I had to face down immense self-doubt every time the phone rang as I was convinced it would be the CIO calling to tell me that they made a mistake and I was not being promoted. I had to explore where this was coming from. The data points and accomplishments

supported my promotion, so why was I doubting myself?”

To come to terms with the imposter syndrome, Linda recognised two things. Firstly, she had seen a lot of men being promoted to VP over the course of her career, but few females. She believed that this was a result of the era she lived in, rather than a reflection of the capabilities of women.

Secondly, Linda recognised that the personal relationship she was in was toxic. She started the process of accepting the how and why, once again, reminding herself to stand up for herself and reclaim her happiness. “It took me longer than I want to admit,” Linda confesses, “but a health scare made me face it head-on. I'm a big believer in signs from the universe, and, after ending it, it was like blinking billboards along the highway with messages about redirection, all telling me that I made the right decision and that I was finally on the right path.”

Feelings related to imposter syndrome have recurred intermittently throughout Linda’s career. When attending the Deloitte Women's Leadership Conference, Linda was surrounded by a lot of other female leaders. Battling with understanding how to fit in, Linda reminded herself that she was smart and that she belonged in the room – a concept that she related back to when she was struggling to fit in with her older siblings.

“At that conference, I learnt another very valuable lesson from a speaker that spoke about advocacy,” Linda says. “Men have a natural tendency to build a relationship that results in advocacy by making time for golf, having beers after work or attending sporting events, for example. This creates a natural advocacy network. I believe this is a factor in promotion opportunities, so I urge women to be more conscientious about forming a network of advocates.”

Influence, persuasion and mentoring

Linda establishes that she is in the “last season” of her career, which is focused on coaching and mentoring individuals. “People usually want to help. I try to be

“Working with people you want to spend your days with is worth more than a company in a glamorous big city or having a higher-paid salary”

LINDA HOWARD VP OF TECHNOLOGY, KROGER

the first person to volunteer myself at intern functions or when finding new hires, for example. Usually, when someone has seasoned years in a company, they’re looking at how they can position the organisation to maintain success in the future. This means they want to coach and mentor others.”

As an advocate of equal opportunity, Linda also goes out of her way to elevate others struggling to find their voice. “If I notice someone is being particularly quiet in a meeting, I will actively seek their opinion to give them the opportunity to share their thoughts,” Linda says. “When individuals are given immediate feedback for their input, it helps to build their

confidence. I also remind people that, collectively, we’re the smartest person in the room, so we need to hear each other’s opinions.”

Linda is happily married to the man who has always been the one for her – lifelong friends who supported each other through their growth journeys. But the timing didn’t align for the two to unite in marriage until recently. The pair were married by Elvis in Las Vegas in 2021.

“For the first time in a long time, my dad got to see me truly happy,” Linda expresses. “My dad sadly passed away on New Year’s Day. Although we knew it was coming, it still feels surreal to this day. His eulogy contained a story from his time in the Navy

that he had only ever told my brother – they had both always kept it to themselves. We knew he had received a medal, but he would always just state he ‘was just doing his job’. He in fact saved the lives of two men, putting himself in harm’s way.

“Now, when I’m having moments of stress or uncertainty, I ask myself, ‘what would Don do?’. It’s almost like he's right there helping me through it. I share this story because there are so many facets that you bring to work every day. I think it's important that we all look at our own stories and life experiences to see how we approach work and our personal lives every day. We all have the strength and

the obligation to chart the course that is right for us.

“I ask everyone to see what that looks like and to question how they’re showing up for their teams and for each other. Finally, I encourage everyone to check in on friends, family and co-workers. After all, it’s not always just about the work.

“I will always be the five-year-old girl full of self-doubt, wanting to figure out how to fit in. But I'm also a 58-year-old woman with 37 years in the corporate world, who's capable of leading very complex initiatives and moving mountains.”

HOW FIDELITY BRINGS DIGITAL ASSETS TO INSTITUTIONAL CLIENTS

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

Informed by customer demand, Fidelity International has backed itself to create innovative investment products for institutional clients

When we first talk to Fidelity International, it’s one of the coldest days of the year so far in Europe, with temperatures in some parts dropping as low as -10°C. It’s representative of the mood that has swept over the crypto industry in the past year, undergoing a winter of its own. In part that has been affected by unfavourable economic conditions, price volatility, and the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and crypto lender Genesis.

Retaining investor confidence in crypto, then, could be seen as an unenviable task. For Luc Froehlich, Global Head of Digital Asset Solutions at Fidelity International, it was a challenge he wanted to take on, being an early adopter of crypto. Froehlich, who talks to me from his office in Hong Kong, started investing in bitcoin back in 2015 – the early days, so to speak, for a sector that has moved with pace in such a short period of time.

Froehlich has a background as a credit analyst, trader and a fund manager, working for industry heavyweights like Credit Suisse and Manulife Asset Management. Cryptocurrencies were still an incredibly new frontier at that time. In 2016 and 2017, shortly after Froehlich took a step into crypto investing, a wave of initial coin offerings (ICO) started coming out. Froehlich says, over the next couple of years, he underwent an “educational journey” – and senior leaders

at Fidelity, whom he joined in 2016, started becoming more vocal about the potential for cryptocurrency.

He believes that a lot has matured in the space since those halcyon days, sparked by the increasing mainstreaming of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. In the beginning, crypto was the preserve of geeks and tech nerds – but in the last couple of years, it’s started to attract the attention of those in the traditional finance space.

“You have a space that is more professional, with quite a few people coming from a traditional finance background. There is definitely much more of a focus on real-world applications

“Our role is not necessarily to dictate what investors should do but to offer them a convenient and secure way to access this asset class”

LUC FROEHLICH GLOBAL HEAD OF DIGITAL ASSET SOLUTIONS, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

now – how can distributed ledger technology, in particular blockchain, be used to solve day-to-day problems?

That makes it a slightly less exotic space but more interesting in the sense that it's an opportunity to showcase how blockchain is not just a buzzword or a fad.”

Fidelity’s strong culture of innovation

The part of Fidelity’s business headed up by Froehlich focuses on digital assets and only started at the beginning of 2022, but it was the culmination of a long journey into decentralised assets. Not only was Fidelity seeking to enter the digital assets space, it was striving to future-proof its business

LUC FROEHLICH

TITLE: GLOBAL HEAD OF DIGITAL ASSET SOLUTIONS

COMPANY: FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

INDUSTRY: FINANCIAL SERVICES

LOCATION: HONG KONG SAR

Luc is the Global Head of Digital Assets at Fidelity International, where he spearheads the firm's digital assets and cryptocurrencies strategy and engages with institutional investors.

Along with his role at Fidelity, Luc has worked with the World Economic Forum on workstreams related to distributed ledger technology, central bank digital currencies and stablecoins. He has also been advising fintech start-ups in the cryptocurrency and tokenisation space and is a guest lecturer on digital assets at several universities.

Before joining Fidelity, Luc was a portfolio manager, managing money for central banks and pension funds; he was a trader in credit derivatives and started his career as a credit analyst.

EXECUTIVE BIO

He holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland; is a CFA and CAIA charterholder; and is currently working towards a Master of Science in Blockchain and Digital Currency at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus.

by preparing for tokenised securities and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) too.

One way it did this was by examining the tokenisation of some of the fund share classes it offered, and identifying where there was demand in the market, Froehlich says: “If you think of digital-native investors, which are naturally more adept to digital assets, they are also looking at ways of integrating traditional assets into their portfolio or wallet. Tokenising this asset necessitates a change, an upgrade in our infrastructure, which is another area that I'm focusing on. So it's both this convergence from client demand and need for an upgraded infrastructure that led to the decision to dedicate resources to this topic.”

The fact that Fidelity’s customers were asking them to invest in this space was

“We have a philosophy of pushing the boundaries and using new technologies.

There is a very entrepreneurial spirit that runs within Fidelity International”

LUC FROEHLICH GLOBAL HEAD OF DIGITAL ASSET SOLUTIONS, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

one of the primary motivating factors. Froehlich believes that it would not be possible to test out this emerging area without the backing of key stakeholders within Fidelity, as well as a desire to meet customer demand.

2.57mn

“I think we have a philosophy of pushing the boundaries and using new technologies,” he tells us. “There is a very entrepreneurial spirit that runs within Fidelity. Most employees have an opportunity to test certain assumptions and hypotheses, to potentially launch new solutions, new services or new lines of business.”

“It doesn't have to come from the top; there are a lot of people within the company that are given the flexibility of testing a new concept. That's also one of the reasons

that we managed to launch a standalone business dedicated to digital assets.”

Fidelity’s first digital assets product launch was not just a case of a new asset class, it was a case of a new technology that clients had to become accustomed to. Questions around custody pervaded at that time, as they do today, and there was uncertainty about the regulatory wrapper that would surround a launch of this nature.

This was in spite of the loud noise that reverberated around the crypto space. These were crucial concerns, such was the breakneck acceleration of digital assets.

“Because there was so much uncertainty about the technology and a few of the environmental impacts, as well as the

Fidelity’s total number of customers

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valuation… the question was whether it was appropriate for us to launch a product like this for our clients,” Froehlich explains.

“We came to the conclusion that, because the client demand was there, our role was not necessarily to dictate what to do but to offer investors a convenient and

secure way to access this asset class. So the way this product was positioned was as an access product. If you are interested and if you think that you are knowledgeable on the topic, we will provide you access. That also meant that the focus has been very much on institutional investors, and not on retail investors.”

Supporting Fidelity’s digital asset growth journey

As part of their digital asset growth, Fidelity International has been partnering with Keith Bear, Associate Partner at Elixirr and a member of the Bank of England Central Bank Digital Currency Technology Forum and ESMA’s Consultative Working Group for financial innovation.

“Within digital assets, whilst we may be in a ‘crypto winter’ at present, institutional

“The level of education among retail investors is still limited. People have had an extremely short amount of time to digest the concept of digital assets”

LUC FROEHLICH GLOBAL HEAD OF DIGITAL ASSET SOLUTIONS, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

interest in digital assets remains high, especially with recent gains in prices of bitcoin (up 20% in recent weeks) and Ether,” Bear says. “Failures of centralised entities like FTX have prompted a ‘flight to quality’, which has benefited firms like Fidelity International. The increased focus on crypto by regulators around the world is leading to greater confidence in the asset class by institutions, and the innovation and low costs seen in DeFi protocols is prompting a wave of innovative proofs of capacity (PoCs) and pilots by leading banks, regulators and central banks, such as Projects Guardian (MAS, JP Morgan, SBI), Mariana (BIS, SNB, MAS and Bank of France) and SocGen Forge’s recent US$7m loan from the Maker Dao DeFi protocol.”

Fidelity International and Elixirr recently collaborated in researching how many institutional clients are offering crypto and digital asset services to clients, how many have dedicated digital asset units in place, and what the perspectives are for growth of the digital assets industry.

“We are at the early stages of a transformation of financial markets,” states Bear. “Whilst the crypto market may be beginning to show green shoots in its recovery, the bigger opportunity is how the key technologies from crypto (blockchain, tokens, automated market making) will transform traditional financial markets. Tokenisation can bring great investor access to illiquid markets like private equity and real estate, broader investor access through fractionalisation of assets like art and collectibles, and great efficiencies to post-trade through the instantaneous exchange of tokenised cash and securities through atomic settlement,

reducing friction and costs. Some estimates see tokenised markets being a $16tn market (10% of global GDP) by 2030, and the early innovators such as Fidelity are well-positioned to ride this wave.”

Institutional investors adopting a long-sighted approach

The issue of knowledge and education continues to be one of crypto’s sorest points. On the retail side, research from Cardify suggests that a third of consumers who invest in crypto admit to having little or no understanding of the products they’re buying. Crypto has moved into the mainstream so quickly that some consumers haven’t done their research properly before parting with their money – and although

the picture is different with institutional investors, it points to broader challenges within the digital asset space.

Extreme price volatility and the prevalence of crypto scams leave a lingering sense of unease among retail investors towards crypto – something that the past few months have only exacerbated.

“The level of understanding is still limited,” Froehlich says about retail investors. “Bitcoin was launched in 2009, so some passionate people have had time to explore the concept and make an opinion about that, but most consumers started looking at cryptocurrency around 2020 or 2021 when bitcoin was making all the headlines. In this sense, it has been a relatively short period

for people to learn about digital assets. You also need to take a multi-disciplinary approach, from technology to economics, which is time-intensive and takes a while to digest.”

Like many trends within the industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a catalyst; some people spent lockdown baking bread, while others got to grips with the mechanics behind cryptocurrencies and the blockchain. But, within the retail market as a whole, there is still progress to be made.

On the institutional side, investors who have already made that decision to include digital assets within their portfolios are generally unflinching – perhaps, as Froehlich alludes to, it is because their crypto holdings represent a fairly low proportion of their overall investments and because they appreciate that, whatever happens with cryptocurrencies, traditional finance and decentralised finance are converging thanks to the adoption of distributed ledger technology.

“In addition, through the process of experimenting with digital assets, those investors have been gaining an understanding and a comfort level with this asset class,” Froehlich continues. “Interestingly, theses vary with some investors hypothesising that bitcoin could be, for instance, the future digital gold, or Ethereum could be the next platform on which the majority of financial services are going to be built.”

Barriers to traditional adoption still persist

Despite the robust confidence in digital assets that exist among

institutional investors, there are still considerable barriers to adoption. That situation has not been helped by events involving FTX and Genesis.

Froehlich states: “Even before FTX and other collapses, one of the biggest hurdles was regulation. For an institutional investor, especially if you invest on behalf of clients, you need a high degree of certainty that you are operating within an acceptable regulatory framework. That regulatory framework is not clear in most jurisdictions. There's a lot of challenges in understanding the current statutes, and they are also continuously evolving. But this issue is normal for new technologies, and it is an opportunity for established houses like Fidelity to help share the future of this industry.”

There is also a challenge in getting institutional investors to consider what they could be doing with digital assets. That necessitates a different approach and a different way of thinking from Fidelity. He likens it to the iPhone: when that groundbreaking technology was launched over 15 years ago, people didn’t understand the full capabilities of what they could do with it, whereas now it seems second-nature

KEITH BEAR

TITLE: ASSOCIATE PARTNER

COMPANY: ELIXIRR

INDUSTRY: MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

LOCATION: LONDON, UK

Keith is an Associate Partner at Elixirr where he focuses on Digital Asset strategy engagements. He sits on the Bank of England

CBDC Technology Forum, ESMA’s Consultative Working Group for Financial Innovation and mentors at the Techstars Barclays, ABN AMRO and Web3 Accelerators. He also serves as an Advisory Board member for a number of fintechs, as an Independent Director at DFNS, a wallet-as-a-service infrastructure provider, and on the Technology and Operations Resilience Committee at the London Metal Exchange. Keith is also a Research Fellow at University of Cambridge’s

“With the skills and resources we have, we can go right from upfront consulting all the way to building and deploying IT solutions”

KEITH BEAR ASSOCIATE PARTNER, ELIXIRR

“Institutional investors need a high degree of certainty that they are operating within an acceptable regulatory framework. That regulatory framework is not clear in most jurisdictions”

LUC FROEHLICH GLOBAL HEAD OF DIGITAL ASSET SOLUTIONS, FIDELITY INTERNATIONAL

to most consumers. Perhaps in 15 years’ time, the same will be said of digital assets.

“There is a bit of a change in the philosophy of how to approach investment solutions in digital assets,” Froehlich continues. “We need to be a little bit more experimental and push for innovation. This is not straightforward for traditional asset managers because it's a different process to traditional asset classes.”

In the next couple of years, we should expect to see a rebound in the crypto market after a difficult patch – but there will also be a flurry of new applications and usecases for digital assets, from sustainability to carbon credits and food safety. It will take time for us to identify which trends are worth capitalising on but it will be worth it because there is room for significant improvement and new business models, Froehlich says.

There will also need to be a conversation about how distributed ledger technology is implemented – whether it’s a way to provide a more convenient and cheaper access to your fund, or whether it’s the start of integrating new types of assets through tokenisation.

“I think it's a golden era for institutional investors to move into the digital assets space because what this washout has done last year was not just to remove bad actors, but also to recognise that there were a lot of companies that just didn't know what they were doing or didn’t have the means to cope with hyper-growth. I see the opportunity for established, highly licenced operators like Fidelity to position themselves in this market and help shape it in a way that make it more suitable for institutional and retail investors.”

EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY ON ENS’ SECOND WAVE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

WRITTEN BY: MARCUS LAW

PRODUCED BY: LUAY HUSSEINI

SECOND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT at Emirates National Schools, describes how the school is embracing the second wave of its digital transformation

Emirates National Schools

(ENS) aims to provide students with educational programs that develop character, use technology to improve learning, and prepare students to be leaders and community members.

Formed by Presidential Decree and owned by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, ENS first opened its doors in 2002 in Mohammed Bin Zayed City. Since 2002, the school has grown to six campuses, serving the Emirate of Abu Dhabi with locations in Mohammed Bin Zayed City, Al Ain City, and Abu Dhabi City, while ENS also includes campuses serving the Emirates of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah and its latest campus in Dubai.

ENS’ Head of Information Technology, Abdulrahman Khaiwi, has more than 36 years of experience in the IT industry and most recently spent 25 years at the head office of telecommunications company Etisalat.

Joining ENS in 2017, Khaiwi spoke with Technology Magazine in 2020 about the process of implementing a smarter, more efficient way of delivering IT to the classroom, utilising a ‘four-pillared’ scheme to focus the transformation on planning, people, vendor management and customer-centricity.

Now, Khaiwi is leading the schools’ second wave of digital transformation, focusing on modern solutions, enhanced service delivery, and proper security controls to enhance business offerings and add value to students, parents, and staff.

Abdulrahman Khaiwi, Head of IT at Emirates National Schools

Embracing technology on ENS’ second wave of transformation

Accelerating the use of technology

A key component of ENS’ first wave of digital transformation involved changing the perception of IT from its ‘legacy’ origins to highlighting how it could add value.

Since those early stages, as part of ENS’ digital transformation, several innovative technologies have been introduced. This, which Khaiwi describes as a multifold technology acceleration, enables a 360degree, holistic view of the business priorities, and has been key to achieving the school’s goal of operational excellence.

“Some of the major projects we have introduced are facial recognition and AI-based time and attendance solution, which is interconnected with our human capital management solution, with our management dashboards, and enterprise resource planning (ERP) and payroll,” he explains. “Another one is our new human

“We don't bring technology just for the sake of technology. We make sure that it is purely and 100% aligned with our mission and vision.”

ABDULRAHMAN KHAIWI HEAD OF IT, EMIRATES NATIONAL SCHOOLS

Dubai Campus

capital management solution that covers the complete cycle of HR requirements, starting from talent acquisition throughout the staff career path.”

As part of the transformation, ENS has also carried out an upgrade of its ERP system from MS Dynamics to Dynamics 365. “This had many benefits, from supportability, functionality, security, integration and simplicity,” Khaiwi adds. “We have also introduced more than 50 different dashboards and reports for the C-level management and department heads using Microsoft Business Intelligence, Power BI.”

ENS has also introduced modern cybersecurity measures, essential not only

ABDULRAHMAN KHAIWI

TITLE: HEAD OF IT

INDUSTRY: EDUCATION

LOCATION: ABU DHABI

With over 36 years of experience in Information Technology industry, my career began in Lebanon working in a bank for 6 years before moving to Sharjah Municipality and later joining Etisalat as Chief Supervisor IT records and statistics. I spent 25 years at Etisalat Head Office, holding various positions, including Senior Manager Technical Administration in charge of operations for all Etisalat Datacenters. In 2017, I joined Emirates National Schools as the Head of IT and am currently leading the second wave of Digital Transformation, focusing on modern solutions, enhanced service

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to protect against financial loss and prevent disruption but also, crucially, to protect students from harm.

“We implemented SD-WAN, the softwaredefined wide area network across all of the six campuses in the UAE,” Khaiwi comments. “This brings benefits of saving cost, enhancing resilience, and optimising network bandwidth utilisation. We have also brought in an endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution as part of enhanced protection against ransomware attacks and other threats on end-user devices and servers.

“Last but not least,” Khaiwi adds, “using the hyper-converged infrastructure and server virtualisation, enhancing resilience, system

uptime, reduced backup and restore window, enhanced RTO and RPOs for the core and mission-critical IT services and solutions.”

Central to Khaiwi’s mission is utilising technology, not for the sake of technology but only when it is aligned with ENS’ vision.

“We stay aligned with the mission and vision of our North Star all the time,” he explains. “We don't bring technology just for the sake of technology. We make sure that it is purely and 100% aligned with our mission and vision.”

Digital strategy

Among the technologies introduced as part of the school’s digital transformation so far, ENS has also utilised BPA and RPA solutions to streamline workflows and make processes more efficient.

“We actually evaluated low-code, zerocode platforms as a single platform for all

“To achieve success and security for our IT infrastructure, we partner with companies that add value and understand our priorities”

ABDULRAHMAN KHAIWI HEAD OF IT, EMIRATES NATIONAL SCHOOLS

Campus Olympic Pool

our business process automation (BPA) and robotics process automation (RPA), digitising in a phased approach,” Khaiwi adds.

Having partnered with a system integrator which offered a procurement solution on top of the low-code platform, ENS is using a single platform to automate its business processes in addition to the procurement solution.

“One of the main benefits of having the procurement solution on a low-code platform is that business owners of the solution will be able to alter the process and enhance it on the system as and when it's required, without even coming back to the IT team,” Khaiwi comments.

Also built into ENS’ digital strategy is the integration of new and enhanced network and security technologies such as Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), which plays a hugely important role in an education context.

“Threats are exponentially increasing globally, and the education sector is no

ENS Employee Induction Day 2022-2023

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different,” Khaiwi explains. “Securing intellectual assets is one of the top priorities for every enterprise, and having multilayered security controls is one of the most effective and efficient ways for enhanced protection. Yet the fact is there is no guarantee whatsoever that implementing the latest and greatest IT security tools and methods will make you 100% safe.

“Security is a continuous proactive process of prevention, detection, and response, with modern technologies like AI and ML that adds a challenge to the whole game here.”

AI to enable around-the-clock support

Among exciting innovations also being developed at ENS is an AI-based chatbot. Still in its early stages, once operational the AI-powered chatbot will provide true, around-the-clock presence of interaction with all website and mobile app users.

“The AI-based chatbot is still in its learning stage, and we are currently building the knowledge base and communication scenarios,” Khaiwi explains. Once complete, however, the chatbots will offer an around-

“One of the most important aspects is the enhanced user experience for all students and parents throughout all the touchpoints”

ABDULRAHMAN KHAIWI HEAD OF IT, EMIRATES NATIONAL SCHOOLS

"We are currently leading the second wave of our digital transformation with the list of lessons learned from the first wave and the latest technology trends to help us deliver faster, smarter, and at lower costs"

ABDULRAHMAN KHAIWI HEAD OF IT, EMIRATES NATIONAL SCHOOLS

the-clock experience for all website and mobile app users.

“If somebody is already a parent and has kids with the schools, then this person could really do transactions, and make queries about the information he requires about their kids,” Khaiwi explains. “However, a third party, a visitor who's not already a parent with us, can just ask general questions, and if the AI chatbot does not have the answer, it can just register that question and come back to the person later and say it'll be attended to later.

“This chatbot, which will be available 24 hours, seven days, 365 days a year, adds an intangible benefit to the schools by attending to the queries of the visitors outside the official school operating hours.”

Partnerships helping meet goals

ENS has an extensive network of highly curated partnerships to help the school achieve its digital transformation goals. As Khaiwi explains, when it comes to choosing partnerships with vendors ENS performs rigorous research, whether it is an educationrelated solution or general ICT, looking into the matureness level of potential partners, flexibility, presence in the region and globally, and their strength in aftersales support.

“Technology plays an emerging role in today's world,” comments Khaiwi. “To achieve success and security for our IT infrastructure, we partner with companies who value and understand our priorities and assist us in providing the right solutions to the students, educators and school management.”

One such partnership is with Net Desire Technologies, a leading cybersecurity solutions provider based in Dubai.

Net Desire Technologies has extensive experience with cybersecurity solutions and is a specialist in endpoint security.

A delegation from Riyadh Private Schools from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia visited Emirates National Schools

“Our partnership with Net Desire gives us access to their skillset and their resources, along with their proactive approach to the latest cybersecurity trends,” Khaiwi adds. “With our engagement on EDR, Net Desire helps us in deploying, detecting and supporting on latest strengths of cybersecurity and best practices to protect our servers and endpoints.”

Using smarter solutions and enhanced processes

As Khaiwi predicts, current trends in the technology world are likely to influence the education industry in future. “ChatGPT, for example, has become very, very famous,

however, there are other AI and ML based solutions that are really developing so fast, including an increased focus on online and remote learning, the use of technology to personalise learning experiences and the incorporation of more hands-on, experimental learning opportunities."

Additionally, Khaiwi predicts, the future may see a greater emphasis on skill-based education, as employers increasingly look for workers with specific skills rather than just traditional college degrees. “The focus is going to be more personalised, more bundled for the individuals where the student can select the path and can do it at his own pace, whichever speed he

Dubai Campus

would like to,” concludes Khaiwi. “It'll be personalised the same way nowadays the offerings are bundled for end users based on their expectations and likings.”

As ENS continues the second wave of its digital transformation, the school is looking to continue to be a leader, using the most modern technologies and innovations to deliver modern concepts and ways of teaching, and to enable and empower school staff using smarter solutions and enhanced processes.

“One of the most important aspects is the enhanced user experience for all students and parents throughout all the touchpoints,” explains Khaiwi. “Additionally,

the board and school management will have access to live data reports and analytics for accurate insights and datadriven decisions.”

As Khaiwi describes, the continued rollout of modern technologies and innovative solutions such as metaverse, blockchain, data warehousing and the implementation of AI and ML is well underway.

“We are currently leading the second wave of our digital transformation with the list of lessons learned from the first wave and the latest technology trends to help us deliver faster, smarter, and at lower costs.”