Technology Magazine October 2021

October 2021 | technologymagazine.com

TECH

Unicorns TCS: Re-imagining the future and how to innovate with clients SALESFORCE: Values and culture driven innovation

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The Technology Team SENIOR EDITOR

PADDY SMITH EDITOR

LAURA BERRIL CATHERINE GRAY EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ PRODUCTION MANAGERS

OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON

PRODUCTION EDITOR

JANET BRICE CREATIVE TEAM

OSCAR HATHAWAY SOPHIE-ANN PINNELL HECTOR PENROSE SAM HUBBARD MIMI GUNN JUSTIN SMITH REBEKAH BIRLESON DUKE WEATHERILL JORDAN WOOD

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

KIERAN WAITE

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

MARKETING MANAGER

SAJANA SAMARASINGHE MARKETING DIRECTOR

SAM KEMP EVELYN HUANG HABBIE AMOS JACK NICHOLLS MARTA EUGENIO ERNEST DE NEVE

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

MOTION DESIGNER

LEWIS VAUGHAN

TYLER LIVINGSTONE PROJECT DIRECTORS

KRIS PALMER MIKE SADR BEN MALTBY TOM VENTURO

ROSS GARRIGAN

JASON WESTGATE JAMES WHITE MANAGING DIRECTOR

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

STACY NORMAN PRESIDENT & CEO

GLEN WHITE

FOREWORD

It’s not the how.

It’s the when.

“We humans have an inherent preference for ownership over leasing, but it shouldn’t extend to such ephemera as new technology”

TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

Life is not about being right. It’s about being in the right place at the right time. This truism is trotted out like some fat pearl of wisdom periodically, with scant regard for the fact that no one knows what the right place or time is until well after the fact.

So it is with technology. You probably don’t have a blank cheque for digital investment, so you must choose wisely. And more importantly, you must time your purchases well. But it’s so hard. Early stage technology is either very expensive (because the R&D costs are astronomical) or very cheap (because deep-pocketed investors want to see a land grab for market share).

Go early and you’ll get stung for big upfront costs, only to watch competitors buy in a year later at half price and less disadvantage than you would hope.

Or you’ll get the sale of the century, only to find your budgets inadequate when the discounts are lifted later on. You can’t win, can you?

Except that you can. We humans have an inherent preference for ownership over leasing, but it shouldn’t extend to such ephemera as new technology (unless you have rights to the IP). The Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) model that is creeping in everywhere is a blessing allowing everyone to get in at the start, and get off whenever they see something more appealing.

It’s good for companies and good for innovation.

Finally, a way to be in the right place at the right time every time. Praise be.

PADDY SMITH

paddy.smith@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 12 Big Picture 14 The Brief 16 Timeline:

Ten years of Zoom 18 Trailblazer:

Sundar Pichai 20 Five Mins With:

Raghu Kilambi

38

Digital Transformation The changing role of IT pros in organisations’ leadership

24

48

Oasis of innovation

Salesforce values and culture driven innovation

EXPO 2020 Dubai UAE

Salesforce

84

Enterprise IT

Optimising cost with a hybrid cloud strategy

60

Cloud & Cyber Cloud connections

94

Sirius Computer Solutions Innovating Healthcare Technologies In the Lab

68

110

ESG Depends on Communication

IntellIgent automation and how it’s changing the working world

Robert Walters

AI & Data Analytics

Enabling educators.

Empowering students.

Explore how we accelerate student discovery, learning and innovation with our Digital Education 3D Experience.

EXPLORE THE 3D EXPERIENCE

120

Netrality Data Centers

160

How Netrality is revolutionising the Digital Ecosystem

Event Review

134

172

Tech Unicorns

Data-driven dealmakers of travel

Top 10

Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE

Priceline

146

190

Smart manufacturing for competitive advantage

Building banks that people love

Atos

Backbase

CONTENTS

208

Health Service Executive Transforming Ireland's healthcare into a digital leader

224

Telekom Infra

Startup agility at MNO Scale

238

The Scottish Government

Leading digital healthcare in Scotland

252 Atos

Pioneer of a sustainable global health system

292

Tricon International Running a lean machine

268

CSL Group

Expands scope of critical connectivity solutions

304 SAUR

Leveraging Deep Tech or a More Sustainable Future

278

316

Today’s canary in the workplace

Re-imagining the future: how TCS helps clients to innovate

EcoOnline

TCS

BIG PICTURE

12

October 2021

The Tesla Bot

San Francisco, US

Is he high? It’s a frequent question asked about Elon Musk, and was asked again when the mercurial Tesla CEO ‘unveiled’ a 1.7m tall Tesla Bot with “human level hands” which aims to rid the world of “dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks.” All very noble, except the prototype was a spandex-clad model and the company’s cars are currently being investigated for their ability – or otherwise – to detect parked emergency vehicles.

Musk is promising to deliver a prototype humanoid assistant next year… but don’t hold your breath.

Images by: Tesla

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THE BRIEF “Hybrid cloud allows businesses to pick the right infrastructure for the right job” Mark Corns Director, KPMG UK 

READ MORE

“The scale of digitalisation will be the new barometer of success for enterprises irrespective of its size or industry” Amur Lakshminarayanan Managing Director and CEO, Tata Communications  READ MORE

“CIOs must become forward-thinking visionaries. CEOs care about the impact of tech on the business.

The most successful CIOs think in the same way” Chris Underwood

Managing Director, Adastrum Consulting  READ MORE

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October 2021

BY THE NUMBERS Funds raised by European startups

€38.5bn

2020 (full year)

€48.3bn 2021 (H1 only)

EDITOR'S CHOICE Rapid cloud growth leads to new technology job demands: The Linux Foundation and edX's latest

Open Source Jobs Report highlights an interest in cloud technologies that has bumped Linux off the skillset top spot READ MORE

Netflix offer free plan to boost sales in Kenya: Netflix, the world’s most popular video streaming service, is looking to solidify its presence in Kenya by offering a free plan to new users READ MORE

Microsoft expands passwordless logins to all accounts: Microsoft is now offering customers the choice

to get rid of passwords entirely from their Microsoft account, moving to a passwordless future.

READ MORE

What is Network-as -a-Service?

What is private 5G? Simply put, it’s a local 5G network not dissimilar to a LAN Wi-Fi network, but with the additional oomph and glamour of everyone’s favourite new connectivity standard:5G. Overhauling the entire connectivity platform is scary and many IT professionals feel out of their depth.

What’s the solution?

Private 5G Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) has a lot of potential. In common with other Anything-as-a-Service (XaaS) models, it absorbs setup costs into higher year-on-year payments making the initial investment into a private 5G network less of a jolt to the budget and bringing the benefits of service support and security that are baked into the product.

Where do I sign up for 5G NaaS? NTT has launched NTT P5G, which it claims is the first globally available private LTE/5G NaaS platform. The company says it offers a “suite of services” such as enterprise security, device and edge management, application development, big data analytics, and deep backoffice integration.

 AIRBNB Following a tricky year for travelling, Airbnb has decided to cover the cost of housing for Afghan refugees in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the accession of the Taliban. Chief exec Brian Chesky said: “There is no time to waste.”  BITCOIN The cryptocurrency price went back up past $50,000 after sharp falls earlier in the year connected to a crackdown in China and Tesla boss Elon Musk making a U-turn on accepting it as payment for the company’s cars.  DIDI China’s ride-hailing giant put the brakes on its plans to launch in the UK and Europe. The news follows a crackdown on Didi’s app in China following an international stock market float.  FACEBOOK The social media giant admitted that it’s most viewed link in the US in the first quarter of 2021 was a factually dubious news story popular with vaccine sceptics. Journalists claimed Facebook had tried to suppress the report.

W A Y U P OCT 21

W A Y D O W N

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TIMELINE

TEN YEARS OF

FROM A START - UP TO GLOBAL LEADERS In the ten years since its founding, Zoom has become one of the best web-conferencing platforms in the world.

Zoom was born out of Cisco’s former Vice President of Engineering, Eric Yuan’s desire to urgently improve the company’s webconferencing product, WebEx. Cisco’s web conferencing didn’t involve improving existing products and the company was uninterested in improving WebEx, ignoring Yuan’s suggestion.

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October 2021

20112012

20142015

Founding and early years

Growth and funding

Yuan founded Zoom in 2011 and launched the software in 2013.

Originally called Saasbee, Inc, Yuan founded the company with a team of 40 engineers. The name was changed to Zoom a year later.

In September 2012, Zoom launched a beta version that could host conferences with up to 15 participants.

In 2014 Zoom unveiled its Video Webinaring platform.

This addition made video webinars highly scalable and allowed hosts to pay only for the audience size they required.

In February 2015 Zoom raised $30 million. This was a major step up in the company’s fundraising efforts. It more than doubled the entire funding the company had raised to date.

20152016

20172018

20192021

Improving Zoom’s services with new features

More funding for more new features

The impact of COVID-19

Following the Series C funding Zoom made one of its most significant updates to date with the introduction of Breakout Rooms.

Zoom kicked off 2017 by raising its single largest funding round to date. On January 17, the company confirmed it had raised $100M as part of its Series D round led by Sequoia Capital.

By 2019, Zoom was dominating the B2B video communications space. In April 2020 Yuan announced that Zoom’s daily users ballooned to more than 200 million.

In 2016 the company continued to grow and reported revenue growth of 300%, it also landed exclusive branding with the basketball team Warriors.

Zoomtopia, the first-ever conference hosted by Zoom was in September 2017.

Most of Zoom’s updates in 2018 were focused on improving existing products.

At the start of 2021 Zoom raised $2 billion through a common stock offering. Now, the company is valued at around $100 billion. technologymagazine.com

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TRAILBLAZER

Sundar Pichai

Following his studies at Stanford University, Pichai then worked for his MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Here he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, respectively.

Developing products to bring Google success At the beginning of his career, Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.

It was in 2004 that Pichai started working for Google as the head of product management and development. He was hired to lead the development of Google Toolbar and then he looked to develop Google Chrome which was released in 2008. In the same year, Pichai was named vice president of product development and took a more public role in the company.

At the company’s I/O developer conference in 2011, he launched the Chrome OS and Chromebook.

Clearly doing a good job, Pichai was then made senior vice president in 2012 and two years after that he was made product chief over both Google and the Android smartphone operating system.

Name: Sundar Pichai Job Title: CEO Company: Alphabet and Google

P

ichai Sundararajan, known more commonly as Sundar Pichai, is an Indian-born American executive and CEO of Alphabet and Google.

Early life and education Born in Madras (now Chennai), India, Pichai grew up in a two-room apartment where he slept on the living room floor with his younger brother.

The family did not have a car or television and Pichai himself recalled the first phone being brought into his home when he was 12 years old.

He grew up in a Hindu family with his father, an electrical engineer, and his mother, a stenographer.

After gaining his degree in metallurgy engineering and a silver medal at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Pichai was awarded a scholarship to study at Stanford University. His plane ticket from Chennai cost more than his father’s annual salary. At this university, he studied for his Master of Science in materials science and engineering.

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October 2021

Net worth

$1.3bn Earnings per year

$2mn

From humble beginnings to CEO of Google With all the successful work Pichai had been doing at Google it comes as no surprise that other tech companies looked to poach him from Google’s services.

In 2011 it was reported Pichai was aggressively pursued for employment by Twitter.

Not only did Twitter fight for Pichai’s expertise, but in 2014 he was also touted as a possible CEO for Microsoft. In both cases, Google was determined to keep Pichai and offered him large financial packages to stay.

Supporting the company’s acquisition of Nest Labs in 2014, Pichai is known to have helped Google secure the $3.2 billion deal.

After all his hard work with Google, it came as no surprise that its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced the creation of Alphabet Inc in 2015 and Pichai was named CEO of Google, which was reorganised as a subsidiary.

During his role as CEO of Google, Pichai remained largely political and he declined to appear before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in September 2018, alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg.

By the end of 2019, Pichai became the CEO of Alphabet Inc. As of June 2021, Pichai’s network is approximately USD$1.3bn and he earns USD$2m per year as CEO of Google and Alphabet. This is on top of the stocks and shares he owns in the company.

“As a leader, it's important to not just see your success but focus on the success of others”

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FIVE MINS WITH...

RAGHU KILAMBI CEO of PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp, Raghu Kilambi, discusses why major auto manufacturers, including the COO of Hyundai, Jose Munoz, are wholeheartedly endorsing hydrogen fuel as a major technology to power our vehicles in the near future

Q. WHAT IS YOUR POSITION AT POWERTAP AND WHAT DOES IT ENTAIL?

» I am the CEO of PowerTap and am

responsible for building our team and technology to build out the PowerTap network of onsite hydrogen production and dispensing stations across the USA. I report to the board of directors of the company and am directly responsible to coordinate financing and building our team.

Q. PLEASE DESCRIBE YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE FOR US.

» I believe in bringing on the best

possible people onto our team and adding team members who have skills that the current team do not have.

I view myself as a team member and all of us have individual tasks and projects we manage. I am there to support the rest of the team, but my strategy is to give team members the leeway to execute on their own based on the company’s overall goals.

“HYDROGEN WILL PLAY A MAJOR ROLE AS BOTH A TRANSPORTATION FUEL AND AS A SOURCE OF ELECTRICITY IN THE COMING DECADE” 20

October 2021

Q. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE IMPORTANCE OF HYDROGEN WHEN IT COMES TO POWERING FUTURE VEHICLES?

» Hydrogen fuel vehicles emit

mist (water) from the exhaust. This will play will play a key role as the transformation of vehicles from gas and diesel based to clean energy sources.

Q. HOW DOES IT COMPARE TO ELECTRIC POWER?

» Hydrogen vehicles will

complement battery electric vehicles in the evolution of vehicles to cleaner energy sources. Hydrogen vehicles can refuel quicker than battery electric vehicles and can drive longer distances between refueling than battery electric vehicles.

Q. WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE FUTURE OF HYDROGEN AS A MAJOR TECHNOLOGY?

“ HYDROGEN VEHICLES CAN REFUEL QUICKER THAN BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND CAN DRIVE LONGER DISTANCES BETWEEN REFUELING THAN BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES.” hydrogen fuel is the long haul trucking industry. Due to the advantages noted above versus battery electric vehicles (shorter refueling time and longer distances between refueling), it is our opinion that battery electric long haul trucks are not a viable option with current technologies.

Hydrogen will also impact other verticals including automobiles, trains, buses and possibly also boats and airplanes.

» Hydrogen will play a major role

as both a transportation fuel and as a source of electricity in the coming decade.

PowerTap believes that the first major sector that will transition to technologymagazine.com

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OASIS OF INNOVATION WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

24

October 2021

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EXPO 2020 DUBAI

EXPO 2020 DUBAI

Visit Expo 2020 to witness innovation in action at a site destined to leave a sustainable footprint in the sand

A

Alif The Mobility Pavilion

n oasis of innovation, Expo 2020 Dubai, is destined to leave a sustainable footprint in the desert sand in the form of the world’s most digitally connected smart community.

As the curtain rises on Expo 2020, the glistening dome atop the Al Wasl Plaza, with its 360-degree projection system, looks set to rival the Eiffel Tower – built for the 1889 World Expo in Paris – as one of the landmarks to emerge from the 182-day exposition that is poised to showcase international innovation at its best.

“One of the greatest shows on Earth and a model for the future of connected communities,” is how Mohammed Alhashmi, Chief Technology Officer, Expo 2020 Dubai, describes this oasis of innovation that awaits the millions of visitors expected to pass through the carbon fibre entry portals to the site.

“We are going to have plenty of innovative surprises,” said Alhashmi. “During the next six months visitors will come together under the theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and will have the opportunity to experience a multitude of innovations, from robots powered by artificial intelligence to insights into the UAE’s Hope Probe Mission to Mars.”

Expo 2020 is being held in the Middle East for the first time. While it was originally planned to open in October 2020, Alhashmi points out that opening one year later than planned due to the pandemic, has allowed his team to create the most digitally connected event in Expo history. technologymagazine.com

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EXPO 2020 DUBAI

“Expo 2020 can be enjoyed by everyone around the world thanks to our Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences,” he said speaking from the UAE Pavilion, built in the shape of a flying falcon, the national bird of the UAE. “We are going to make sure we reach out to every individual around the world to experience everything Expo 2020 has to offer whether they are on site or at home. With the use of AR or VR they will be able to see every building and enjoy every experience,” said Alhashmi who feels this on-line taster could prompt more physical visits.

“We are setting standards for the future.

We are not only aiming for 25 million physical visits but many more virtual visitations as well,” he said.

Scale that defies belief During the past five decades, Dubai has become synonymous with breaking records from the world’s tallest building in the shape of the Burj Khalifa to the highest infinity pool and largest fountain. So it comes as no surprise that the sheer scale of Expo 2020 – which covers an area the size of 613 football pitches – and its promise of cutting-edge innovation and technology from 192 countries looks set to continue this trend.

For 170 years, World Expos have provided a platform to showcase the greatest innovations that have shaped the world we live in today, from Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, one of the first mechanical computers in 1862, to the first live television broadcast made at the New York World Fair in 1939. So what can we expect from this 182-day exposition, which runs from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022?

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October 2021

“ We are going to make sure we reach out to every individual around the world to experience everything Expo 2020 has to offer whether they are on site or at home. Using technology, they will be able to see every building and enjoy every experience” MOHAMMED ALHASHMI

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, EXPO 2020 DUBAI

Described as the beating heart of Expo 2020, Al Wasl Plaza’s dome stands at the heart of the Expo site and serves as the largest 360-degree projection surface in the world. In a similar fashion to the Olympic village, Expo 2020 will evolve into District 2020, a smart, sustainable city that will provide a curated innovation-driven business ecosystem that will bring together global minds and embrace technology and digital innovation.

The gleaming dome structure looks set to define the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. As one of three sub-themes, sustainability lies at the heart of Expo 2020, along with the theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’, aimed at inspiring people by showcasing the best examples of collaboration, innovation and cooperation.

EXPO 2020 DUBAI

MOHAMMED ALHASHMI TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER LOCATION: DUBAI As Chief Technology Officer at Expo 2020 Dubai, Mohammed Alhashmi leads a team of information technology professionals and various Expo 2020 partners responsible for delivering one of the most innovative and secure World Expos in the event’s 170-year history.

Mohammed, who is also responsible for procurement, contracts and legal services for Expo 2020, has more than 30 years’ experience in the field of information technology.

He previously served as Director General of the Gulf Business Foundation and Director of Corporate Services at Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority. Prior to that Mohammed served Manager IT Services at Dubai Aluminium (now part of Emirates Global Aluminium).

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EXPO 2020 DUBAI

Al Wasl Plaza – the beating heart of Expo 2020 Al Wasl Plaza’s towering dome looks set to be the iconic structure of Expo 2020 Dubai. This translucent dome will act as an immersive 360-degree projection surface, allowing projections to be visible for visitors both inside and outside it.

The moulded steel dome is 130 metres wide, 67.5 metres tall and weighs more than 500 tonnes. It is topped by domed trellis that was inspired by the shape of the Expo logo.

The trellis design was inspired by an ancient gold ring found in the Saruq Al Hadid archaeological site. The name Al Wasl means ‘the connection’ in Arabic – it is also the old name of Dubai, and hence, Al Wasl Plaza has been designed to serve as the core of the entire Expo 2020 site.

Al Wasl Plaza will connect the three Thematic Districts – Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability – as well as the other main concourses, including the Expo 2020 Metro station link and the UAE Pavilion.

The iconic dome has been designed by US-based firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. Taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa, it is one of the largest single structures that will remain after the World Expo ends and will take centre stage in the legacy community of District 2020.

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October 2021

EXPO 2020 DUBAI

Innovation highlights making the headlines Alhashmi pointed out some of the innovation highlights that are destined to shape future travel, both on the ground and in air. “We are very proud of our space programme, especially the UAE’s Hope Probe Mission to Mars. We will be showcasing this in Alif – The Mobility Pavilion,” he said.

To mark the Hope Probe reaching Mars’s orbit in February 2021, Expo 2020 Dubai used its cutting-edge projection and display technology to illuminate Al Wasl Dome in a rich red hue characteristic of the “Red Planet” to share its sense of pride at being part of such an ambitious and innovative nation.

“We are setting new standards for the future. We are not only aiming for 25 million physical visits but millions more virtual visitations” MOHAMMED ALHASHMI

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, EXPO 2020 DUBAI

“We also have so much more that we are keeping as a surprise and which will be revealed during the Expo itself.” Expo 2020 serves as a beacon of hope and inspiration, and reflects a belief in the power of human collaboration, ingenuity and cooperation – the same values that are at the heart of the Emirates Mars Mission.

Each of the 192 participating nations will each have their own pavilion in which to showcase their innovations, achievements and aspirations for the future. technologymagazine.com

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Title of the video

Innovation highlights which will be making the headlines include: • Concrete that generates solar power • Devices that extract water from air • World’s largest elevating platform • Cutting-edge advances in motoring • Cone-shaped vertical farming • Laser that scans asteroid surfaces • Most sensitive radio telescope ever made • Robots that perform the music of Beethoven Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion Looking rather like a spaceship that has just landed is Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion, which is a pioneer in its adoption of sustainable 32

October 2021

practices. The pavilion includes a 130-squaremetre steel canopy, with 4,912 solar panels fitted across the canopy and a series of ‘Energy Trees’ in the pavilion’s grounds capable of generating four gigawatts of electricity per year.

Terra operates in the belief that every generation is responsible for safeguarding the world for the future. It will promote awareness of resource management, climate change and green growth, natural ecosystems and biodiversity, and the importance of sustainable cities.

“Terra is designed to be net-zero for carbon emissions. We have full control over the use of energy, recycling of water and generation of power for the district.

EXPO 2020 DUBAI

HISTORY When was the first World Expo?

The first World Expo was London’s Great Exhibition of 1851 held in the iconic Crystal Palace to showcase the inventions of the Industrial Revolution.

How frequently are the World Expos held?

They are organised every five years.

Is there an organisation for World Expos?

The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) is the intergovernmental organisation that regulates and oversees World Expos, preserving the core values of education, innovation and cooperation on behalf of its 170-member states. It was founded in 1928.

Where did the last Expo take place?

The last Expo took place in 2015 in Milan. Its theme was ‘Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life’.

When did Dubai win the Expo?

On November 27 2013, the UAE was elected as the host country of World Expo 2020 during the 154th

“ I truly believe we are creating history as people will talk to their children and grandchildren and say, ‘I was there, I attended Expo 2020 Dubai’” MOHAMMED ALHASHMI

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, EXPO 2020 DUBAI

General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). The decision was the outcome of the voting of the 164-member nations.

What have World Expos given us in the past?

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Seattle Space Needle, the typewriter, television and even Heinz Tomato Ketchup are some of the things that have been launched at World Expos .

What is the logo of Expo 2020 Dubai?

In March 2016, Expo 2020 Dubai revealed its new logo, which was inspired by a ring found at the Saruq Al Hadid archaeological site.

What are the sub-themes of Expo 2020 Dubai?

Opportunity, mobility and sustainability. technologymagazine.com

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EXPO 2020 DUBAI

“We aspire to deliver one of the most sustainable World Expos ever. It may seem like an ambitious goal, but sustainability is ingrained in everything we’ve been doing – from buildings and construction to establishing a lasting legacy long after Expo is over.”

Terra isn’t the only eye-catching building – the Expo site is a showcase for some of the world’s most inspiring architecture from buildings that resemble flocks of birds or crystal caves to those that move, tilt and change shape. Visitors are invited to step into structures that can produce oxygen, that generate electricity and even sustain a microclimate. Other spaces recreate nature indoors and can transport you to cities of the future.

A dream that became a reality “The whole nation became so excited when we won the bid in 2013 for Expo 2020. We knew we were creating history to bring the biggest event in the world to the UAE,” said Alhashmi. “The whole nation worked towards achieving this dream, and is engaged in delivering this unique event. We are setting new standards for others to follow and helping shape the future of humanity.

“Expo 2020 Dubai is aligned with the innovation strategy of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who has taught us nothing is impossible provided we have the willpower and passion to believe.

“But let's not forget that Expo 2020 will transform into District 2020 after we close our doors. This will be a smart community of the future that will not only host many high- tech companies, but will also act as an innovation hub. I believe this is one of the main reasons people will remember Expo.”

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October 2021

District 2020 District 2020 has been designed to support the future of working and living, and to facilitate connection and collaboration.

It will be home to an inclusive and diverse community seeking a more balanced way of life – a place that prioritises well-being, inspires new ideas, facilitates growth and enables human potential.

“Following the six months of the World Expo, we will re-purpose 80% of Expo’s buildings, including the 120-plus buildings we have built to attain LEED Gold and Platinum certification, into an integrated mixed-use community that will continue to attract businesses and people to work, live, visit and enjoy,” said Alhashmi.

“We are building something so extraordinary that others will adopt it after the mega-event to carry forward and realise Expo’s founding vision of becoming an ecosystem that can connect, create and innovate.

613

football pitches - the size of the Expo 2020 site

25mn

visits expected

200

participants - including 192 countries

80%

of the Expo buildings will evolve into District 2020

EXPO 2020 DUBAI

“In District 2020 we have an infrastructure built for the future. 80% of Expo’s built environment is smart and will be re-used for District 2020. The majority of buildings are connected through our building management system and computerised facility management system. Everything from water to energy is controlled. Dubai Government has a plan for District 2020 to become a model for smart AI-driven cities of the future. And that's what we are planning for.”

Most digitally-connected Expo in history Expo 2020 has been heralded as being the most connected Expo in history as Alhashmi is proud to acknowledge. “We are one of the most digitally connected sites on Earth right now. We have brought the best technologies from around the world into a single site.

“We have a gigantic hidden infrastructure that we have built below the Expo site itself, including more than 500 kilometres of fibre cable, more than 2,500 main switches and over 9,000 WiFi routers. As the first commercial installation of 5G in the Middle East, we will be able to connect 300,000 people at the same time to high-speed WiFi with very low latency.”

More than 130 buildings and several hundred thousand sensors across the 4.38-square-kilometre site will be interconnected via a central Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

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EXPO 2020 DUBAI

At the core of this platform is MindSphere, the open, cloud-based IoT operating system from Siemens. Data from sensors, gateways, systems and building management applications is collected in MindSphere, where it can be analysed and visualised by applications such as Navigator, the cloud-based energy and asset management platform from Siemens. The Siemens system helps Expo 2020 Dubai achieve its goal of an optimal balance of energy efficiency with visitor safety, security and comfort.

To analyse the data in MindSphere, Siemens has worked closely with the organisers to develop a smart city app that will be used for the first time at the mega-event. The app can supply detailed environmental data such as

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air quality and weather conditions, as well as monitor irrigation systems across the site. But that’s just the beginning, as once Expo 2020 closes its doors, the app can be expanded to accommodate a range of other possible use cases and has the potential to become an all-purpose tool for the future smart city.

Expo 2020 Dubai mobile app Visitors can make the most of every minute of their visit to Expo 2020 Dubai with the mobile app developed by Alhashmi and his team. “It will help you prepare for your visit to Expo 2020. And by the time you arrive, It will be packed with cutting-edge features to make your experience even more memorable,” he said.

EXPO 2020 DUBAI

The app allows visitors to: • Purchase and manage of tickets • Create a personal schedule of events, attractions and parades to see • Choose from 200+ dining options, and find themed culinary events • Manage their Smart Queue reservations and buy Expo 2020 tickets • Use the interactive, GPS-enabled map with step-by-step directions • Find useful info from Expo’s chatbot and Customer Contact Centre • Keep a record of their journeys in a Digital Passport • Test their knowledge of the participating countries and the UN Sustainability Goals

“ We are setting new standards for others to follow” MOHAMMED ALHASHMI

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, EXPO 2020 DUBAI

Power of partnerships In order to bring Expo 2020 to the world stage, Alhashmi has relied on a wide ecosystem of trusted technology partners that include: • Accenture (Digital Services Partner) • Cisco (Digital Network Partner) • Etisalat (Telecommunications Services Partner) • SAP (Innovative Enterprise Software Partner) • Siemens (Infrastructure Digitalisation Partner) • Terminus (Official Robotics Partner) “To deliver an exceptional Expo, we had to partner with the best. We have great technology partners who all did a brilliant job. Everything that they've done somehow touches everything the visitor will experience.

“For example, one of our partners created an app informing visitors how to get to specific points in the shortest amount of time – essential when the site is twice the size of Monaco. This is something so simple, yet so effective,” said Alhashmi.

When asked how long you would need to look round Expo 2020, Alhashmi said it could take 30 days. “At least 30 days,” he smiled. “But more importantly, come and see for yourself.

Join the making of a new world and see where the future is taking us.”

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

THE CHANGING ROLE OF IT PROS IN ORGANISATIONS’ LEADERSHIP How traditional roles of IT professionals in organisations have to alter in influence in the face of digital transformation and the changing workplace WRITTEN BY: LAURA BERRILL

A

ccording to some latest research, there has become a long-standing disconnect between public service organisations, IT teams and the organisation as a whole. This means that they are both failing to adopt new technologies and therefore putting their long-term response to the pandemic in jeopardy.

The research from Insight, in July, has revealed 71% of such organisations treat IT as a utility rather than a business enabler, and on top of that, only a quarter (26%) give IT a seat on the board, despite IT’s importance in delivering organisations’ strategic objectives. However, this is at the same time that IT teams’ efforts throughout the pandemic have still produced returns.

For example, 52% of those invested in projects to create short-term cost savings. technologymagazine.com

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Connect your digital business securely.

From user to application in a cloud-first world.

Learn more:

cisco.com/go/networking

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“ We have a stake in people with tech skills having more leadership skills because tech is interwoven. It is no longer segregated” Leadership matters even more The digital era has put a spotlight on IT talent and technical skills, but CEOs want leadership skills, too. Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report found that 80% of respondents rated leadership as a top priority, behind only learning (at 86%) and human experience (at 84%). The report also highlighted that most executives don't feel that their organisations have the leadership skills required to take the company forward.

ERICA DAWSON

NANCY AND BOB SELANDER DIRECTOR OF LEADERSHIP PROGRAM, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

The report by Deloitte also revealed that more could be done in the area of public service organisations as 62% fail to take advantage of new technologies because they are not responding positively to IT innovation.

But it’s not just a public services phenomenon. The acceleration of digital transformation across all industries in both the public and private sector is something that all organisations and businesses should not technologymagazine.com

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“ We are at a watershed moment in business leaders’ life.

Balancing corporate requirements and employee preference will be a major change” PETER DAVENPORT

SENIOR STRATEGIC CONSULTANT, DEFINITION GROUP

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only be taking notice of but also planning for as part of their business strategies. This also means the role of the IT team and its leaders, such as CIOs or CTOs, may need to be viewed in a new light and involved more in the wider business’ aims and objectives.

Addressing the disconnect Looking into and trying to address the disconnect between departments could provide real benefits in several ways. It could encourage targetted investment in projects the whole organisation believes in, as well as manage change across the

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

She added: “Giving IT a voice on the board to drive strategy, supporting innovation and consulting the team involved on what approaches will best meet organisations’ objectives and trusting them to perform against KPIs will better position them to face the challenges of 2021 and beyond.”

The world of work is getting flatter It’s generally viewed that organisations are moving towards ‘flatter’ structures which means they will need leaders who thrive in a more collaborative and cross-functional environment. Unlike the traditional hierarchy, which typically sees one-way communication and just the people at the top with all the information and power, a ‘flatter’ structure opens up the lines of communication and collaboration while removing layers within it.

The benefits include improved communication between employees, increased morale, less bureaucracy and the ability to make decisions and changes faster.

The shift in the hierarchy structure of many companies, particularly in creative industries and start-ups, is an expected trend for this year and into next.

business more easily, better understand the impact of new ways of working, and the new technologies enabling this change. IT could be the new and natural conduit to help businesses of all types evolve and improve.

Emma de Sousa, President at Insight EMEA, said: “IT can no longer continue to operate at arms’ length from the board of companies; it must be given a seat at the top table. The way it is perceived and used has to change, put front and centre, driving organisational change, ensuring good governance and being made directly accountable for doing so.”

CIOs as the guardians of cybersecurity “In this respect, the most effective CIOs are not just the most senior technologists in the company,” says Chris Underwood, MD at Adastrum Consulting and author of The D Suite, Digital, Data, Disruption, and Dependency.

“They are also now business strategists, agents of change, educators, and also the guardians of cybersecurity. As part of the technology team, they have access to company-wide data, which provides an exclusive overview of the business and the opportunity to dive deep into specific areas or particular processes. Smart CIOs will wield this data to reduce running costs, optimise technologymagazine.com

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

customer experience, identify efficiencies and enable data-driven decisions. They can also reimagine business models and processes, solve problems and create revenuegenerating streams, further highlighting their worth,” he continued.

The IT leadership void It is becoming clear that the need for IT leadership at every tier of the organisation is becoming imperative for business.

Ryan Sutton, a district president with IT staffing firm, Robert Half Technology, says organisations want leadership skills in their CIOs as well as require leadership traits throughout the IT department, especially those in agile and DevOps. However, Erica Dawson, the Nancy & Bob Selander Director of Engineering Leadership Programmes and creator of the Technology Leadership certificate from Cornell University, added that opportunities for IT workers to build leadership skills had been limited compared to those available to other professionals.

“First of all, people with tech backgrounds and tech training don’t fit the stereotype of a brainiac who doesn’t get along with people. But with the nature of the training they get, the people who work in high tech don’t have the same training experiences they might get with an MBA program or another type of education,” she says.

Dawson thinks IT professionals have an increasing need for leadership skills and explains they are not merely fixing technology issues but rather they’re solving complex people problems using technology.

“We all have a stake in people with tech skills having more leadership skills because tech is so interwoven into the work we do today. It is no longer segregated”, she added.

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“CIOs must become forwardthinking visionaries. CEOs care about the impact of tech on the business. The most successful CIOs think in the same way” CHRIS UNDERWOOD

MANAGING DIRECTOR, ADASTRUM CONSULTING

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“ IT can no longer operate at arms’ length from the board of companies; it must be given a seat at the top table” EMMA DE SOUSA EMEA PRESIDENT, INSIGHT

Flat structures benefit budgets A flat structure elevates each employees responsibility inside the organisation and eliminates excess management layers to improve coordination and communication. Fewer levels between employees improve the decision-making process among staff.

The lack of need for middle management boosts the organisations budget.

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So what does this mean for the future of IT departments, leadership teams and the world of work in general?

Developing IT talent — and more specifically cultivating more leaders — is a top priority, according to Mark Boxer, executive vice president and global CIO for health insurance firm Cigna. The company runs multiple development programmes for its IT workers, which have been in place for more than a decade, but he says they are now ‘supercharged’ and ready for the disruption that is coming across overall business.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“We’re undergoing massive transformation, and time of massive change is when you most need leadership. And the change is going to be constant, so leading change is one of the most critical assets we need for the company,” Boxer says.

In addition to readying workers to move up into manager and executive positions, Boxer says those in the programs have demonstrated they’re able to pilot initiatives through challenging scenarios. He points to one recent project where Willis Gee, a senior vice president of IT at Cigna, successfully oversaw

the creation of a telemedicine application for the United Kingdom’s National Health Service — a project that required cross-Atlantic collaboration between Cigna workers and many British counterparts.

Adastrum’s Chris Underwood added he thought transformational success was going to be dependent on leaders’ ability to unite teams as much as their technical knowledge.

This, he says, is because leaders of change are still leaders of people, and CIOs that have developed their ‘softer’ skills, as well as digital ones, will be far more successful when it comes to implementing new ways of working.

“To retain their value, CIOs must become forward-thinking visionaries. Balancing technological curiosity with business acumen to understand the benefits and threats innovation can bring to the business. CEOs aren't necessarily concerned about the technology itself, but the impact it can have on the business, its customers and staff - and the most successful CIOs think in the same way,” he concludes.

Management consultants McKinsey warn that any enthusiastic return from remote working might run the risk of business leaders actually increasing the disconnect between themselves and their people. As many people are returning to work after a period of remote working the next challenge could be around hydrid working, which could be more complicated than the remote model. At this early stage it is difficult to predict the outcome.

Peter Davenport, Senior Strategic Consultant at Definition Group, says: “We are at a watershed moment in the life of business leaders. The benefits of a strong workplace culture are widely acknowledged, but how to maintain that in the new world of work in the long term is uncertain. Balancing corporate requirements and employee preference will be a major change.” technologymagazine.com

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SALESFORCE

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Salesforce values and culture driven innovation WRITTEN BY: PADDY SMITH

PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

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SALESFORCE

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SALESFORCE

Salesforce is a company that has evolved from a CRM to one of the world’s leading cloud and productivity organisations. What’s next?

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uch has changed at Salesforce. Still best known as a CRM company, there’s a strong case for relabelling it as a cloud company. And its tendrils continue to stray as it buys companies in AI, data, and location software. Recent acquisitions of note include 2019’s takeover of data visualisation company, Tableau and, late last year, productivity wunderkind Slack.

It’s an internal transformation of focus that moves Salesforce away from being a tool-based solution towards a wider brief that emboldens the idea that the company could become a one-stop shop for digital transformation with CRM at its core. With customers featuring large on the strategy blackboard, that’s a compelling proposition, one that could see Salesforce as a major force entering a new era of enterprise technology.

Engagement buzz For Adam Spearing, field CTO and VP consulting at Salesforce, the changes can be seen in the conversations he holds with customers. “I draw the difference between people who want to use our technology to solve their problems versus our customers who want to work with us and our technology to change their business. It’s a very different model. I get a huge buzz out of sponsoring and engaging with those kinds of organisations.” technologymagazine.com

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Salesforce values and culture driven innovation

“ Those that came with us early in those journeys rode out that storm much better than others” ADAM SPEARING

FIELD CTO AND VP CONSULTING, SALESFORCE

Spearing divides these two attitudes to business technology as ‘renovating’ and ‘transforming’. For him, there’s only real value in renovating as part of a wider transformation.

Rethinking the model It’s well publicised that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformations 52

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globally, something Spearing has seen first hand both with customers and internally at Salesforce. “This past 18 months has been a challenge,” he accepts. “It’s caused us all to throw everything up in the air and really, really think about what we do and how we do everything. Our whole operating model had to be rethought – Salesforce is no different

SALESFORCE

– and we’ve gone through looking at all the capabilities we were planning to bring to market to help customers. At the very beginning of [the pandemic] our product teams very quickly went through and said ‘what are the things that are going to help customers during the next, however long it’s going to be? How do we bring them forward?

How do we deprioritise the things that are not going to help?’ So we restructured our whole roadmap of capabilities.”

With Salesforce’s customers clawing for solutions to a world that changed virtually overnight, the product teams raced to build and release products to allow organisations to find their business feet early on. “We know that those that came with us early in those journeys rode out that storm much better than others,” Spearing observes.

TITLE: FIELD CTO AND VP CONSULTING INDUSTRY: SOFTWARE LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Adam Spearing is the EMEA Field CTO & SVP Solution Consulting UKI at Salesforce. He is responsible for guiding CIOs on “how” to change to get the full value out of the Salesforce portfolio for their organisations. He is also responsible for our partnerships with technology companies, such as Google and Amazon, as well as our work with Venture Capital and Private Equity. Adam also drives our strategy ensuring we have enough marketplace skills in the EMEA. In the 6 years prior to this, Adam grew the Salesforce EMEA Platform business and has been instrumental in many of the large transformation programs.

Spearing joined Salesforce in 2012 and has a 27-year career in the technology industry including time with Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystem’s and a few start-ups.

EXECUTIVE BIO

An evolution He also notes that the storm hasn’t passed yet. “We’re still in a very precarious – but improving – position and I think what a lot of organisations have realised is that being digital, being digitally led both for your customers and employees, is critical to survival. And we can’t say: ‘here’s the playbook’. What we want is to be able to help them work through this, make their organisations stronger, serve their customers better, make sure their employees are well looked after and able to do their jobs.

That’s been a really interesting evolution of Salesforce, of what we are as an organisation.

Helping people through this pretty horrendous time for everyone on the planet.”

It has helped that the need for seamless communication and connectivity to a rapidly dispersed workforce came at a time of unprecedented innovation in enterprise technology. It also helped that adoption of remote working joined the mainstream. “It

ADAM SPEARING

SALESFORCE

50,000+ Number of employees

1999

Year founded

$26 billion Revenue US Dollars (2022)

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SALESFORCE

is very, very clear that a large number of the workforce want the flexibility and the benefits of digital work-from-anywhere tools,” says Spearing. Beyond the productivity and connectivity solutions that are the most visible technological assets in this transition, he also sees the emergence of AI as a pivotal piece of the future work-from-anywhere life.

1bn predictions a day “Our Einstein technology is doing around a billion predictions a day,” he explains.

“So if I was working in a call centre and having to work from home, our technology automatically allows people to make that flip without having to go through some laborious process, and to do it in a very secure way because of the nature of the Salesforce technology. That was already inside what we did, and now the AI is able to help those people. It’s like a personal assistant, helping them to prioritise their work.”

“ What I’ve seen is a maturing of the relationships between certain organisations” ADAM SPEARING

FIELD CTO AND VP CONSULTING, SALESFORCE

Last year the announcement that Salesforce was buying Slack for US$27.7bn rocked the technology world. It’s a Silicon Valley megadeal and one that cements Salesforce’s position among the elite grade of global technology companies. That’s a relationship that has now started to bear fruit, and Spearing is excited about the possibilities. “This is about making things easier, faster, more seamless, less friction technologymagazine.com

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SALESFORCE

– Slack is going to allow people to do their jobs really well, and collaborate and communicate faster.”

But it is culture and mindset that are really driving business transformations, and that applies not only to Salesforce’s customers, but to Salesforce itself. “When I get the privilege and pleasure of meeting with C-level executives, I’ll talk about our culture and values more than our technology,” Spearing says. “The technology does grow and evolve over time, but actually the culture of this company is one of its core USPs. It’s who we are and what we do.

“That shows up a lot in what we’re trying to achieve. We believe business can be the greatest platform for change. The technology is really exciting; I love it. I get a buzz from understanding it. But actually

it’s what we do with the technology and who we are and why we’re doing it that’s more important for me.”

Values and culture The values and culture, Spearing is convinced, will lead to further innovation and growth in Salesforce’s technology portfolio. In five years, he believes that technology will be vastly easier to use and adopt, not least because of a core tenet at the company embracing ease of use and reciprocal value. He points to his own household for an example of how technology can bridge different attitudes to technological engagement. “My kids love their phones and Instagram and Snapchat. Personally, I love doing my email on a big screen because my eyesight’s going. My wife is more of a mobile

Salesforce Customer 360 Overview Demo | Salesforce

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“ Slack is going to allow people to do their jobs really well, and collaborate and communicate faster” ADAM SPEARING

FIELD CTO AND VP CONSULTING, SALESFORCE

user. What you’re going to see is all of these channels becoming blurred. You’re going to see seamlessness in the way that people engage with technology. The channel will be independent of where that’s coming from. Organisations need to think about that ubiquity. The technology has always been a window for the customer into efficiency and how the company is run. The more seamless and smooth we can make that experience, the more we’ll create totally different new ways of working.”

For that to happen, Spearing insists we’ll need an army of technological skills. There is, he points out, “still a fear”. Bridging the divide means embracing a training culture that closes the digital skills gap, bringing a new generation of diverse individuals into the technology industry. Salesforce has its own digital reskilling tool – Trailhead – a free-to-use, self-paced, gamified training programme that works on any device and offers broad training in digital skills that goes beyond the company’s own technologies.

Working together That’s not unique to Salesforce and Spearing has noticed that technology companies have come around to the idea that they do not exist in a vacuum. “There will always be competition,” he concedes, “but what I’ve seen is a maturing of the relationships between certain organisations.

For example, we launched something recently called Hyperforce, which allows us to take the amazing Salesforce technology and put on an amazing Amazon or Google or Alibaba environment. We worked together with them.

“It also means we’ve been thinking about working together on how we co-create technologies that allow tighter, slicker, neater integrations. How do we get the best? That’s how I see these relationships changing in the industry – working together – but it has to be driven by the customer.” technologymagazine.com

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SALESFORCE

“ The values which drive the culture and the organisation we are have remained constant” ADAM SPEARING

FIELD CTO AND VP CONSULTING, SALESFORCE

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For Spearing, that co-innovation – fused with the needs of particular business verticals – is driving the evolution of the partner ecosystem. Building towards the future requires working together in an environment of mutual trust and transparency.

“Then you get this amazing magic that can happen in those ecosystems,” Spearing concludes. “That’s where those partnerships become crazily successful or make our customers successful. And, hopefully, we

get a little bit of reflected glory somewhere along the way.”

As Salesforce drives forward atop a heap of technologies and possibilities, it’s easy to see how the company’s core values – trust, customer success, innovation and equality – stand it in perfect stead for the digital horizons of tomorrow.

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CLOUD AND CYBER

CLOUD CONNECTIONS 5G is redefining what the cloud is.

It should be a pillar of everyone’s connectivity strategy.

WRITTEN BY: PADDY SMITH

“ Much of this data will be processed locally at the ‘edge’ of the networks; at the 5G base stations rather than central servers” DR PAUL CARTER

CEO, GLOBAL WIRELESS SOLUTIONS

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ith the advent of Anything-as-aService (XaaS), applications are increasingly run from remote servers. The cloud, once a repository for long-term file storage, has become a dynamic force, shipping near real time processing to offices from faraway locations. It is where data is processed on an increasingly large scale. There is no future of technology that does not have the cloud at its heart.

Simultaneously there is a broadening of localised technologies – the internet of things (IoT), a market estimated to be worth over $100 million by 2026 according to MarketsandMarkets, is already taking the manufacturing world by storm and the proliferation of sensors and data collection on premises is set to continue.

Connectivity challenge This combination presents a connectivity challenge, one of reliability and speed. And that challenge has met its equal in 5G, a technology that should be at the heart of every company’s cloud strategy as it forges ahead in the new era of hyperconnected.

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More in touch all in reach Better connected to our health and human family through 5G. We create the technology to connect the world. nokia.com

CLOUD AND CYBER

Dr Paul Carter, CEO Global Wireless Solutions (GWS), sees the emergence of IoT into the mainstream as an opportunity to embrace 5G and edge computing.

“Needless to say, this IoT ecosystem will create a huge volume of data, and considerations will need to be made about how to apply that data in useful ways, and just as importantly, how to process it all.

“In all likelihood, much of this data will be processed locally at the ‘edge’ of the networks; at the 5G base stations rather than central servers. In theory, this should lead to much faster response times for computational tasks like cars figuring out the location of other nearby cars.”

“ Cloud offers [telcos] a potent asset to deliver 5G at pace: cost-effective, scalable, and flexible technology – unmoored from the previous reliance on physical equipment” SEAN ROBERTS

GM OF PUBLIC CLOUD, ENSONO

Driven by mobility?

Mobility is another angle that will drive the evolution of cloud from a static storage location to a dynamic processing plant demanding the rigorous reliability and blazing data transfer potential of 5G networks. Not only is self-driving transport a regulator’s signature involving a bit of debugging but workforce patterns have changed, with many companies expecting a hybrid working future. It’s not impossible to imagine a where contracts get reviewed at 30,000 feet.

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Ensono Essence

Sean Roberts, GM of Cloud investment “One factor that is Public Cloud at Ensono, Indeed, when Google contributing to Google thinks the limitless potential posted a $5.6 billion loss Cloud's hypergrowth of future cloud applications on its cloud unit earlier is its prioritisation of has been responsible for this year, analysts were some of the biggest names far from shaken. Brian verticalisation, which is in technology, throwing their Klingbeil, chief strategy a strategy that will set investment dollars into cloud officer at Ensono, said them up for success” computing futures. “Telcos at the time, “Between are pushing hard to meet Google reporting its cloud BRIAN KLINGBEIL the skyrocketing market business earnings for the CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, demand for next-generation first time and AWS' CEO ENSONO networks technology,” he taking over for Jeff Bezos, says, “and cloud offers them a potent asset it's clear that cloud computing is becoming to deliver 5G at pace: cost-effective, scalable, a larger focus for the big tech giants, and flexible technology – unmoored from the signalling significant growth that is yet to previous reliance on physical equipment. come in the cloud industry.

“Interestingly, but not unexpectedly, big “Google has been investing heavily tech players like Microsoft and Amazon are to catch up to AWS and Azure, and the now putting a lot of energy into this area of results they released… reflect that. One edge computing, exploring new network factor that is contributing to Google designs to optimise data flow in and around Cloud's hypergrowth is its prioritisation cities and enterprise sites.” of verticalisation, which is a strategy that 64

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CLOUD AND CYBER

will set them up for success in 2021. We think they are investing effectively, as we are seeing interest in GCP building within the enterprise client base that we serve, so much so that we have added it to our managed services portfolio in 2021.”

It’s a pattern that’s also familiar to former Ericsson exec Paolo Colella, who thinks that “operators have excelled in connecting phones, tablets, and other devices, but connecting and managing growing numbers of cars, machinery sensors and consumer electronics profitably will require innovative business models. Today, the vast majority of operator IoT revenues come from connectivity, but in the next five years, the revenue will also come from service enablement platforms, apps, and services.”

Carter agrees, saying, “When all is said and done 5G could well become the IoT’s best friend. It works well with low-powered IoT devices, it provides high data transfer rates when needed and it can be sliced to manage specific IoT applications. It’s also becoming the new network norm, and it’s poised to be more ubiquitous than current wireless mobile networks.”

All change The technologies are in flux. Upscaling from existing connectivity is not a simple (or cheap) consideration and IT leaders fear ripping out the old infrastructure lest it should create issues with legacy (yet

$47,775mn 5G infrastructure market worth by 2027

4 challenges facing 5G and IoT convergence • Operating across multiple spectrum bands • A gradual upgradation from 4G to 5G • Data interoperability • Establishing 5G business models Source: Ahmed Banafa, author and IoT expert

essential) products. It’s also hard for many companies to know at what point to grasp the 5G nettle. Most CTOs fear market share will be lost without embracing a digital-first strategy, yet only one in 10 is classified as a ‘digital trailblazer’ in Tata Communications’ new report on digital transformation strategies.

AS Lakshminarayanan, managing director and CEO, Tata Communications, says, “A digital-first operating model is a must for enterprises in the new world order. As economies open, trust and security are core to the competitiveness and agility of enterprises seeking growth. The scale of digitalisation will be the new barometer of success for enterprises irrespective of its size or industry.” technologymagazine.com

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“ The scale of digitalisation will be the new barometer of success for enterprises irrespective of its size or industry” AS LAKSHMINARAYANAN

MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO, TATA COMMUNICATIONS

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Fear of investment Perhaps the fear of investment, particularly with an uncertain economic forecast, is holding boards back when it comes to embracing a full-cloud-full-connectivity future. Indeed, it’s well documented that new technologies rapidly become cheaper to implement after the initial wave of early adopters has passed. Yet help may be on hand as connectivity itself joins the XaaS fray. NTT has launched P5G which it claims is the first globally available private LTE/5G Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform.

The company says it offers a “suite of services” such as enterprise security, device and edge management, application development, big data analytics, and deep back-office integration.

Shahid Ahmed, EVP of new ventures and innovation at NTT, says, “Global enterprises are looking for a single private 5G solution to deploy across multiple countries. They need one truly private network, one point of accountability, one management platform, and one solution partner that eliminates all the major friction points across the entire global footprint of the enterprise.”

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ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

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ESG

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

DEPENDS ON COMMUNICATION WRITTEN BY: HELEN ADAMS PRODUCED BY: KRIS PALMER

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ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

Robert Walters Group CTO, Kevin Bulmer, discusses what he has learned over the pandemic and where the company is going next

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hen the recruitment company Robert Walters Group first opened in London in 1985, it could scarcely have imagined the role that technology would come to play in employment. Let alone that their Chief Technology and Transformation Officer would spend over a year functioning from his garden shed.

“I have been very lucky, but having that lack of social connection has been hard”, says Kevin Bulmer when asked about how the pandemic has been for him. “I have spent a lot more time with my children - we played cricket every lunchtime last summer!

But I am looking forward to getting back into the norm.”

Robert Walters Group operates across 31 countries, from Australia to Vietnam, Chile to Portugal. With over 3,000 members of staff, the company assists in recruitment consultancy and outsourcing, for permanent, contract and interim staff, across roles from accounting to technology.

Kevin Bulmer joined the company three years ago, as Chief Technology and Transformation Officer. Before this, Bulmer graduated from the University of Oxford in 1998 and went on to work across Accenture, as a Senior Manager and at Pearson, where he was responsible for running internal technology and delivering new products across Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.

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Kevin Bulmer, Chief Technology & Transformation Officer Robert Walters Group

Example of an image caption

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ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

“WHEN I CAME INTO ROBERT WALTERS GROUP, WE RECOGNISED THAT WE NEEDED TO EMBARK ON THIS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION” KEVIN BULMER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

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Outside of work, Bulmer is a keen golfer.

The sport became dearer to him over the pandemic; as an outdoor sport, it allowed him to hold informal and in-person meetings with Robert Walters Group colleagues.

The benefits of hybrid working Bulmer is aware that he’s one of the fortunate employees not working from the kitchen table: his shed is smart - with air conditioning, art on the walls and electricity.

It was set up as an extra room prior to the pandemic, and when the world went into lockdown, Bulmer was able to get on with his work, with the added benefits of lunchtime runs and cycles. He believes that hybrid working will become a firm pillar of the new normal.

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

KEVIN BULMER TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & TRANSFORMATION OFFICER INDUSTRY: RECRUITMENT LOCATION: UK

EXECUTIVE BIO

“There have been a lot of positive parts to working in the pandemic”, says Bulmer.

“When we first went into lockdown, I saw an uptick in efficiency from the tech team!”

Over Microsoft Teams calls and garden fences during the numerous national claps, many have stated that without the commute, office politics and desk-lunches, work has become easier for those who simply need a laptop and the internet to do their job. For some, productivity has shot up.

For the tech team at Robert Walters Group, cloud implementation was already underway, making the sudden transition brought on by the pandemic much smoother.

“We are a long way through our cloud migration”, says Bulmer. “Once you’re in the cloud, it’s so much easier as you have access

Kevin has worked at Robert Walters Group for three years and for the past year, from his garden office. After studying at the University of Oxford, Bulmer began working at Accenture UK CRM Solutions, as a Senior Manager. Kevin is a highly experienced program and portfolio manager with a focus on transformational CRM and ERP. He has 15+ years’ experience in delivery, change, programme & project management and operational effectiveness. His experience in FMCG was needed when he later moved onto Infosys Consulting, A keen cricket player and golfer in his spare time, Kevin motivates his colleagues to pursue ESG developments within Robert Walters Group and encourages effective communication.

Unlock your people’s potential The future demands that you upskill your employees now. Udemy Business has thousands of courses from real-world experts on the most in-demand skills. So when tomorrow calls, your teams will be ready.

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Udemy’s Bill O’Shea on the need for accessible learning

Unlock your people’s potent i Online learning platform Udemy is flexible and multi-lingual. In their new partnership with Robert Walters Group, VP Bill O’Shea discusses supporting e-learners

Group wanted to do was to provide their technical data engineering and analytics teams with the best training possible.”

Robert Walters Group have been highly engaged from the start of their partnership with Udemy’s e-learning and there’s a lot to choose from.

al

“Over the last 18 months, we’ve faced huge challenges - all of us - across our personal and professional lives”, says Bill O’Shea, EMEA Vice President at Udemy. Bill spent 21 years working for Dell and 4 years working for Qualtrics in his native Ireland.

Then two years ago he joined Udemy, a leading online marketplace for learning.

“As of June 2021, we have over 183,000 courses”, continues O’Shea, “44mn learners and 65,000 instructors across the globe.

In 2020, we saw almost 11bn minutes of learning on Udemy.”

“Our Udemy Business content consists of a carefully curated selection of courses from our marketplace”, explains O’Shea. “There are over 11,000 professional courses on the Udemy Business side of the house.”

The future dema nds that you ups kill your employees now.

Udemy Business has thousands of courses from r eal-world exUdemy has been impacted by the pandemic, p e r ts onhave theusedmthe in-demand skills. as many people as oslockdown t So when toanmopportunity for accessible learning. orrow calls, your teams will be ready.

“We’ve seen an increase in enrollments in Robert Walters partnership and accessible learning

both the consumer business and enterprise side of the house”, says O’Shea. “We believe these trends illustrate a need for learning and a need for accessible learning.”

Udemy has just entered into a partnership with Robert Walters Group. “They’re the kind of customers that are always easiest to work with. What the Robert Walters

See how Udemy c

an help change th

Request a demo

Request a demo now at business.udemy.c om/re

e future of your b

usiness.

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

Title of the video

“WE NEEDED TO CREATE A SENSE OF PURPOSE, SO WE FOCUSED ON OUR SERVICE OFFERING” KEVIN BULMER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

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to data, security, sustainability and agility within your business.”

Bulmer has endured through the isolation of lockdown and feels face to face interaction is an important aspect in keeping a business running efficiently, but it’s also easier to identify and support struggling employees.

The role of a Chief Technology and Transformation Officer involves focusing on bringing change and increasing revenue, but it is communication that Bulmer has made a priority over the pandemic period.

“During this process, the biggest stress for people was not knowing what was happening or what the impact would be. I made sure that people were aware of the mental health perspective and made sure that people had other people to talk to if they needed to. I

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

Robert Walters Group's new legacy systems

made sure that we were communicating clearly with our suppliers too.”

ESG is more than a trend Even in a technology role, ESG is a buzzword.

But what does it mean to Bulmer? Is it all a PR exercise?

“If you look at sustainability, we are moving to the cloud; we are making hardware decisions with sustainability in mind and reducing our carbon footprint”, says Bulmer. “FromOn a social perspective one of our long-term partnerships is with the responsibility level weGlobal Angels Foundation, a charity which helps disadvantaged communities around the world to grow sustainably.”

Since 2017, Robert Walters Group has worked with the Global Angels Foundation,

an international development organisation working worldwide to find sustainable solutions for safe drinking water, healthcare, education, sustainable energy and small business development. Robert Walters Group supports Global Angels' projects in Tsavo, Kenya, where employees usually visit to see the impact of their work. But regardless of the travel restrictions this year, the company has continued its financial support of the sustainable development project in Tsavo.

The company donated £152,300 to charities across the world in 2020. But in the office, too, ESG reigns. There are 65 nationalities represented across the Robert Walters Group, with 78 languages spoken across the company.

Operations are already 100% Carbon Balanced worldwide as certified by the technologymagazine.com

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+ Digital Technology

Business Transformation

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1 https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-how-of-transformation

Simon Charlton, of Columbus Global, on digital transformation Simon Charlton, Commercial Director for Columbus Global, on successful partnerships, futureproofing businesses and digital transformation

“I think a lot of people took certain elements of meetings for granted. Things were easier to solve if you were face-to-face”, said Charlton.

From traditional in-person meetings to video calls, Columbus’ partnership with Robert Walters Group, a recruitment company, has grown stronger over the pandemic. Through the use of Microsoft Teams, complemented by additional tools to replace the good old whiteboard, Klaxoon has proved a very useful tool for many types of activity, brainstorming, categorising and collaboration to name a few.

“Columbus works with Robert Walters Group in many ways. We provide consultancy, project management and development.”

Global IT consulting company, Columbus, has spent over 30 years creating innovative solutions for their customers, using their intimate industry knowledge and technology skills. Simon Charlton, Commercial Director for Columbus Global UK, sat down with Technology magazine to discuss how the company is working to help customers futureproof their businesses.

Providing a true digital platform “We are a systems integrator which works alongside Microsoft in the Dynamics space”, said Charlton. “We have delivered over 8,000 customer implementations globally. The way that Columbus goes about future-proofing their client’s businesses is reflected in a number of ways; not only with solutions such as ERP and CRM, we also have a fantastic pedigree in e-commerce and data analytics.

When we look at a lot of the challenges which our customers have faced over the past 18 months, we find having a great breadth of experience in all of those areas helps us to provide a true digital platform.

A Microsoft house with successful partnerships The pandemic period has offered everyone an opportunity to self-reflect on their business practices. At Columbus Global, it was the way meetings were managed.

What makes the partnership with Robert Walters successful?

“I think our success with Robert Walters as a partnership, from their perspective, is our focus on value, which comes in many different guises. Not only in our services, we pride ourselves on having a very knowledgeable delivery team. That leads to a very trusted relationship between the partnership.”

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

“THERE HAVE BEEN A LOT OF POSITIVE PARTS TO WORKING FROM HOME IN THE PANDEMIC” KEVIN BULMER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY & TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

World Land Trust, and Robert Walters Group has spent 12 years as a FTSE4Good constituent member – meaning it has been recognised as a socially responsible business, which follows strict environmental, social, and corporate governance criteria.

Furthermore, within the company, there have been 230+ leadership and coaching sessions delivered to staff, with the aim of setting an example from the top.

In addition, Robert Walters Group has firmly aligned its business with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The targets were founded in 2015 as a map to achieve a better and more sustainable world. The company is doing its bit in aligning its environmental and humanitarian 80

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efforts, as well as investments, with the relevant SDGs. “A lot of our decisions are based around ESG”, says Bulmer proudly.

This has not gone unnoticed. The MSCI ESG Ratings model, which identifies ESG risks that are most prominent to a sector and measures a company's resilience to long-term ESG risks, gave the Robert Walters Group an industry leading rating of AA this year.

Furthermore, the company has taken on the sometimes unpopular route of offering support to those who have recently left prison.

In 2019, Robert Walters Group launched the RE:START initiative in partnership with UK charity StandOut. Staff volunteers visit prisons to offer advice and CV assistance

ROBERT WALTERS GROUP

“We partnered with Udemy after several requests from our engineers to purchase individual courses on the Udemy platform”, explains Bulmer. “This led us to investigate further and we came across the Udemy for a business product. This fitted in perfectly with the long term vision we have to instil a continual learning and development culture in our technology teams. This has enabled us to upskill our team on the latest technology toolset to deliver our transformational goals across the business. Working with Udemy has allowed us to show how much we care about our people and their personal and professional goals, this naturally leads to a happier team and better delivery outcomes so works for the individual as well as the company as a whole.”

for those who are about to take the daunting step of re-entering the workforce.Over the pandemic period, Chief Executive Robert Walters himself spoke up with enthusiasm for the response from his employees.

“For me, the highlight of 2020 was seeing the loyalty of our employees and the way they came together to get the business through this challenging period. I knew we had a strong culture, but it takes an unprecedented crisis like this to test it. It’s been absolutely heart-warming to see, and I want to thank all of the Group’s employees for their teamwork, resilience and commitment." In addition, Robert Walters Group is dedicated to supporting the continual learning of its employees. This has led to a partnership with Udemy.

Technology takes over At Robert Walters Group, Bulmer has taken part in updating legacy systems. Bulmer admits that the company has a Microsoft first strategy given the partnership in place but sometimes but each decision has to be focused on the overall business outcome.

“I think it’s a part of any digital transformation”, says Bulmer. “What you’re looking at: Is it fit for purpose? We saw that some of our systems could not be upgraded into a cloud environment. We looked at our CRM (Customer/Candidate Relationship Management), and that was something we clearly needed to improve on. Given our focus on simplicity and a fantastic user experience, it made sense to build our own capabilities using OpenSource technologies in partnership with our recruitment consultants rather than giving them an off-the shelf generic tool. This allows our consultants to truly focus on what they do brilliantly – building outstanding relationships with clients and candidates” technologymagazine.com

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In addition, Bulmer has played a big part in breaking down silos (where teams work in isolation from each other), allowing collaborative practices to flourish.

“When I came into Robert Walters, we recognised that we needed to embark on this digital transformation. While we had highly skilled tech team. the relationship had broken with other business units.We needed to create a sense of purpose for our team that allowed us to bring tech and services that improved the day to day work of our consultants.”

At the Group, ERP implementation was one of the building blocks to overall transformation in the business.

“It was a finance and HR replacement”, says Bulmer. “We tried to stick as close to the vanilla aspect as we could - which is when we try not to customise too much. I have never ever seen an ERP implementation like this in terms of the speed and successit was a huge piece of work. When we partnered with Columbus, we collectively said, ‘We are going to make this happen’.

We were very pragmatic.”

One drawback of working from home has certainly been self-motivation. But Bulmer is a fan of dance music and there is one quote that pulls his mind into focus.

“You don’t need eyes to see, you need vision’, that’s by Maxi Jazz from Faithless that’s a great quote! If you understand what you’re trying to achieve, the day-to-day stuff falls into place.”

From a colourful shed in a lively, family garden, Bulmer is getting everything into order, with a vision for deeper, more meaningful communication between employees, clients and suppliers.

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Optimising cost with a HYBRID CLOUD strategy Hybrid cloud strategies are becoming increasingly popular in businesses, and the adoption of this strategy can significantly increase cost optimisation WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY

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C

ost optimisation remains increasingly important to businesses in all industries. By pushing cost reduction while maximising business value, companies can gain real profits and reinvest their saved money in other avenues such as business development and growth.

With the rapid increase in the adoption of technological solutions and business digitalisation, there are many ways in which businesses can utilise technology to optimise cost. One key way is through the adoption of a hybrid cloud strategy, particularly when looking at data resilience and protection. As more companies digitalise, data protection is incredibly important to avoid cybersecurity issues.

ENTERPRISE IT

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Ready for 5G? How Sprint is using ENTERPRISE data IT and AI to build a stronger mobile network The dawn of mobile’s fifth generation is here, serving an increasing appetite for data, speed and accessibility – connecting not only people in more places, but also to things we use every day, for instance, toasters, emergency services, freeways… pretty much anything you can stick a sensor on. With the 4G world disappearing in the rearview mirror, mobile networks are only going to get faster.

Network communication companies such as Sprint have rose to the challenge to make sure the vision of 5G is indeed a reliable one. Facing its own path toward digital transformation, Sprint started preparing their data for Artificial Intelligence (AI) – with the goal of using machine learning algorithms to gain near, real-time insights and increase responsiveness to customers.

The success of Sprint’s digital transformation hinges on the ability to quickly discover, organize and present the right data at the right time to those teams that make decisions that impact the customer journey. IBM Cloud Private for Data, a leading enterprise insight platform* proved to be the right solution for Sprint – enabling AI projects in a shorter timeframe through unifying and simplifying four critical stages in the journey to AI: the collection, organization, analysis, and modeling of data.

“ HYBRID CLOUD ALLOWS BUSINESSES TO PICK THE RIGHT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE RIGHT JOB”

enterprise data and the integrated artificial intelligence tools that IBM Cloud Private for Data is a part of.

An example of this is a recent collaborative project between Sprint data scientists and the IBM Data Science and AI Elite team. Sprint had a goal to understand the correlation and predictability between communication network alarms, the opening of trouble tickets and the physical dispatches of people and parts to fix equipment.

The IBM Cloud Private for Data platform gave teams an easy way to quickly ingest millions of past alarms, trouble ticket data and past people and parts dispatches.

The IBM Data Science Elite and AI team worked side by side with the Sprint team to evaluate multiple mathematical algorithms using supervised machine learning to build the best predictive model that could accurately predict the likelihood forefront ofdispatch many business strategies of needing to resources/ parts for as they recover from challenges brought equipment issues.

Watson Studio and Watsonon by the pandemic.

Machine Learning components within IBM Cloud Private for Datato were to Dell train machine According theused 2020 Technologies learning and deep learning neural net models.

Digital Transformation Index, seven out of The model established great accuracy on predicting ten businesses accelerated their adoption the required parts to fixtechnology equipment issues. of transformational programs due to Gehl the pandemic.

89% these Michele – VP Network OSSofApplications & businesses said that COVID-19 highlighted Operations, said that “IBM Cloud Private for Data the importance of investing in a more agile, enabled Sprint to digest high volumes of data for scalable IT environment. near, real-time ML/AI analysis, and the trial Thishave datashown is echoed in ato recent KPMG results potential take Sprint to the next phase of digital transformation.”

Sprint now survey of business leaders. Mark Corns, plans to take of IBM Cloud Private Director of advantage Technology Consulting at for Data’s to quickly deploythis thesurvey new models KPMGability UK, who discussed with as aus, setsaid of AIthe microservices that can embedded survey “shows thatbe 67% have into existing Sprint processes and applications, accelerated their digital transformation potentially saving significant dollars a year with strategy and 63% have increased effective dispatches and correct parts. investment in their digital transformation

With IBM Cloud Private for Data, Sprint is now MARK able toCORNS bring together diverse data sources across DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY their enterprise.

ByUK organizing those data sources CONSULTING, KPMG into a self-service data catalog and infusing analytical insight directly into their digital Increased investment in digital transformation, Sprint can bring more value to transformation strategies customers, including new offerings and better Although the pandemic accelerated service. the uptake of digital and automated Sprint’s business analysts and dataisscientists technology in business, which great are expecting a measurable productivity increase news for the tech industry in a time of by leveraging their new self-service access to economic hardship, it has seen other industries take a hit. As all industries have strategies. The technologies that businesses Get the prescriptive approach to accelerating your journey to AI. Grow yourare had to respond to this ever-changing are prioritising for digital transformation leadership with Data Science Elite cloud-dependent.” team through a proven method environment, cost IBM’s optimisation is at the and AI heavily

of skills, tools and methods.

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ENTERPRISE IT

“ DELIVERING TOMORROW'S OFFICE AS A HYBRID HUB THROUGH MODERN WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGY HAS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO DRIVE A NEW FORM OF LEADERSHIP” ANDREW CONWAY CTO, PROTEUS

Realising the full potential of a hybrid cloud strategy While it is without a doubt that COVID19 has accelerated the shift to the cloud, it seems many business and technology 88

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leaders have yet to maximise the promised value from their hybrid cloud investments.

Andrew Conway, CTO at Proteus, a cloud-based work automation platform developed

by Xergy, discussed why business and technology leaders might not have utilised the full potential of a hybrid cloud strategy.

He said: “Deeply ingrained systematic and cultural norms have prevented the full materialisation of hybrid cloud adoption and a lack of the correct technology was costly for many businesses over the pandemic.”

“As companies settle into alternative ways of working post-pandemic, embracing

ENTERPRISE IT

Hybrid Cloud Hybrid cloud refers to a mixed computing, storage, and services environment made up of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and a public cloud.

Amazon and Microsoft both offer public cloud services with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

a data-first strategy. Data is the most valuable asset of any business.

“Any cloud strategy needs to ensure that data is; secured, protected and available, delivered at the required performance levels and compliant with company policies. Hybrid cloud allows this, ensuring that any organisation can adapt quickly to changing business requirements or application needs,” he added.

technology to support operational and employee value and productivity will attract the next generation of workers looking for an attractive work environment without frustrating archaic processes,” he added.

Stressing the importance of maximising this promised value, Corns said: “A hybrid cloud strategy reduces the barriers to entry and drives faster results, so this approach is more important than ever as companies recover and rebound from the pandemic.”

It is crucial businesses adopt this strategy as they become digitalised to protect their data.

When Stephen Gilderdale, Senior Director & Head of Presales Architects UK at Dell Technologies, discussed this, he said: “The business benefit of adopting a hybrid cloud strategy boils down to the benefits of adopting

A hybrid approach to cost optimisation The adoption of a hybrid cloud strategy has both long and short term optimisation benefits.

Corns explained: “At the outset, hybrid cloud optimises the transformation cost by focussing capital investment on the workloads which have the most impact and transforming them more fully.”

“In the long term, it creates commercial leverage and reduces costs by distinguishing between high-value and commodity workloads,” he continued.

By improving the way businesses communicate, evaluate staff data and improve performance, a hybrid cloud strategy brings significant cost savings. Technology can be utilised in such a way to create business-wide efficiencies pushing teams to work smarter.

When Conway explained the benefits of cloud technologies, he said: “Centralised technologymagazine.com

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“ A TRUE HYBRID CLOUD STRATEGY SHOULD DELIVER A COMMON OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS AND ENVIRONMENTS THROUGH A UNIFIED MANAGEMENT DASHBOARD” STEPHEN GILDERDALE

SENIOR DIRECTOR & HEAD OF PRESALES ARCHITECTS UK, DELL TECHNOLOGIES

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technologies such as the cloud enable companies to make evidence-based decisions resulting in better stewardship of resources and assets. Think of all the time and resources saved by modernising systems and optimising workflows; this cost optimisation leads to more investment available for talent, technology and operations.”

As a hybrid cloud strategy has both on and off-premise components existing investments can continue to drive a return.

Due to rapid growth in data requirements, scaling applications within data centres is not cost-effective. The cloud element of the strategy means organisations can scale more cost-effectively. Not only this, but it allows them to scale quickly, enabling businesses to be more reactive to new demands.

FEATURE ENTERPRISE HEADER IT

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“ AT DELL TECHNOLOGIES, WE’VE BEEN SAYING HYBRID CLOUD AND MULTI-CLOUD IS NOT A DESTINATION BUT AN OPERATING MODEL FOR YEARS” STEPHEN GILDERDALE

SENIOR DIRECTOR & HEAD OF PRESALES ARCHITECTS UK, DELL TECHNOLOGIES

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ENTERPRISE IT

The hybrid approach is what leads to cost optimisation. Although it can be useful to a company, a private cloud can require significant investment into equipment for maintenance. A public cloud turns this into an operational expense that can offset income, allowing this money to be invested elsewhere.

On top of this, it also frees up IT resources.

Implementing a consistent hybrid cloud strategy To fully understand the cost benefits of a hybrid cloud strategy, Dell Technologies conducted a study. Gilderdale shared the findings with us: “Six months ago, we embarked on a study with a global financial institution and found it was 48% cheaper to refresh infrastructure on-premises than consume those same services from the public cloud. For customers with billion-dollar turnover, that translates into millions of dollars in savings.”

The implementation of a hybrid cloud strategy is crucial. Conway explained the amount of savings a company can make is dependent on how effectively the strategy is implemented.

The pandemic has brought about issues with implementation – a topic that Gilderdale was keen to discuss: “In a 2020 survey, we found that 80% of senior executives at medium and large businesses said they saw hybrid cloud’s substantial value. Yet only 5% said that they had achieved their goal of having a consistent hybrid cloud. The reason being that until the pandemic, most businesses built their infrastructure piece-meal rather than with a clear strategy in mind.”

To realise the full potential of a hybrid cloud strategy, CEOs need to look into their business model to work out the best way to implement it consistently to leverage the benefits of a public and private cloud solution. technologymagazine.com

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Innovating Healthcare Technologies In the Lab WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

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Imran Salim (Sirius Healthcare) and Kevin Torres (MemorialCare) on innovating healthcare technologies in the lab

I

magine a future where smart hospital platforms facilitate treatment regardless of patient and clinician location, where patients reap the healing benefits of patient distraction devices, and clinicians are freed up from administrative tasks to focus on the patient while automation of those tasks provides more real-time, actionable data.

Traditionally, healthcare has been slow to adopt new technologies either for budget reasons or lack of proof of performance.

But COVID fast-tracked innovation and adoption of new healthcare technologies— there was no choice.

MemorialCare is a healthcare provider that runs the full gamut of healthcare services with numerous hospitals, freestanding urgent care centres, and dialysis centres throughout southern California. They were an existing client of Sirius Healthcare, who was helping the health system update their infrastructure to sustain the high availability of their clinical applications.

“The systems were going down and having high-availability issues,” says Kevin Torres, CTO and CISO at MemorialCare. This problem stemmed from an out-of-date infrastructure. “We went a little too long driving on bald tires, so to speak,” says Torres. “[Sirius] actually dug in, rolled up their sleeves, got dirty and helped [us] get out of that jam.” That made an impression on Torres and established the foundation of trust their relationship would be built on. technologymagazine.com

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Title of the video

Over years of working together, the two organisations developed a deep rapport and mutually beneficial relationship.

“Kevin would come to us not with ‘I need to buy some [technology],’ but with ‘here’s a problem I have; can you help me solve it?’” says Imran Salim, SVP of Sirius Healthcare. “That’s the kind of relationship

“ The core of our business is to take care of patients, and we leverage the electronic medical record (EMR) in order to accomplish that” KEVIN TORRES

CTO AND CISO, MEMORIALCARE

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we have.” So when the largest vertical in the $3.8B technology integrator that is Sirius approached MemorialCare to be a clinical partner in creating a Healthcare Technology Innovation Lab that would allow them to innovate, test, and build out new technologies to advance healthcare, it was an easy “yes” for Torres. “They’re really a go-to partner for us, so it was just a natural extension and evolution of our relationship.”

Where Sirius brings the technical expertise to the table, MemorialCare provides the clinical environment where that expertise can be leveraged to better their health system.

“There are a lot of partnerships that overlap,” says Torres. He explains that Sirius acts as a broker of those partnerships because they have relationships with all the vendors. “The main benefit is that we’re [all] just trying to take care of patients, period,” says the CTO. All healthcare providers grapple with the very issue for which Torres first sought help from Sirius—the high availability of critical

SIRIUS COMPUTER SOLUTIONS

KEVIN TORRES TITLE: CTO & CSO

clinical applications, such as EMRs when systems go down. Patients can’t afford a long downtime should something happen such as an outage or a ransomware attack; their health and wellbeing are literally at stake.

“The core of our business is to take care of patients, and we leverage the electronic medical record (EMR) in order to accomplish that,” says Torres. “It has to be available all the time. And even if it does go down, you better have a backup system.”

Full backup and redundancy systems are expensive to buy and maintain, however, so MemorialCare and Sirius set out to create a lower-cost, highly reliable and resilient solution. Working together with their mutual partners Microsoft Azure, NetApp and IBM, they created a Hybrid-Cloud Disaster Recovery (DR) solution that would allow them to activate and scale up or down on-demand, based on usage. Already in play, the Innovation Lab allowed them to test and solve for any latency issues or challenges related

EXECUTIVE BIO

COMPANY: MEMORIALCARE Kevin Torres, V.P. of Information Technology for MemorialCare, has spent over 25 years of his career in healthcare IT and information systems.

He currently oversees the CTO and CISO functions for all entities within the MemorialCare Health System.

Kevin was also formerly Adjunct Professor at California State University (2002-2012) in the HealthCare Administration program, creating many internship opportunities. He has published several Information Technology articles, including an article featured the International Journal of Public Administration, which he co-authored. Kevin is on the Advisory Board for The Children’s Clinic of Long Beach, was designated Orange County “top walker/ fundraiser” three years in a row for the March of Dimes, and was featured in a Cisco case study showcasing Hyperconverged technology solutions.

SIRIUS COMPUTER SOLUTIONS

Innovate Anywhere with Sirius and Azure Get the consistency and flexibility to innovate anywhere, across on-premises, multicloud, and edge environments.

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SIRIUS AND ITS PARTNERSHIPS WITH IBM NETAPP AND MICROSOFT “We have a great partnership with all of them,” says Salim. “Frankly, the reason those partners are there is due to Kevin and MemorialCare having partnership with those people. So when we started looking at this project and building out this project, you know, Kevin is an IBM shop running AIX, which is what the backend platform was. We’re happy with IBM, which is the largest reseller in the world.

“ The main benefit is that we’re [all] just trying to take care of patients, period” KEVIN TORRES

to where their data was physically located, whether in the cloud or the data centre, to determine if the solution could be used effectively as a backup if and when there was downtime on the main production system.

“What happened in-between all this testing is quite interesting,” says Torres. “With all the ransomware attacks you’ve heard about in the media, there’s a requirement to protect your data at all costs, and the backup can’t be on the same physical network as your production system,” he explains.

DID YOU KNOW...

CTO AND CISO, MEMORIALCARE

“With NetApp, we have a great partnership MemorialCare uses them for storage needs. I think we are NetApp's largest partners, so that’s great.

Now we have a server technology, and we have a storage technology that's been true and proven in a healthcare organisation that we partner with today.

Then we have Microsoft. When we started talking about who the cloud provider should be, Kevin said, ‘We have a corporate agreement with Microsoft and with Azure, and we'd like to start there.’ So it was really customer-driven at the end of the day, all of this work, and we have supported every one of them because we've got great partnerships.”

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IMRAN SALIM TITLE: SVP HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS COMPANY: SIRIUS HEALTHCARE

EXECUTIVE BIO

Imran Salim, Senior Vice President of the Sirius Healthcare practice, is a 30-year industry veteran. Imran leads all operations for the practice, made up of a dedicated sales team and a nationwide solutions group largely populated by former C-suite healthcare IT veterans. He built and leads this operation with the overarching mission to help clients define and achieve business objectives by leveraging technology with sensitivity to the vast array of competing priorities and budget restrictions unique to healthcare IT.

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Imran’s unique approach to assisting clients has resulted in think-tank initiatives for the industry such as Sirius’ MemorialCare Technology Lab, created to push healthcare IT innovation forward. Under his leadership, Sirius Healthcare provides comprehensive healthcare technology solutions to support clients through every step of the healthcare continuum and technology lifecycle to improve quality of care, control costs, enhance security, comply with regulations, and extend reach to communities.

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“ The reality is, many people build things and never use them” IMRAN SALIM SVP, SIRIUS HEALTHCARE

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SIRIUS COMPUTER SOLUTIONS

Leveraging the lab to test a Hybrid Cloud DR solution put MemorialCare uniquely ahead of the curve.

When the onslaught of ransomware attacks on healthcare began, the foundation for the Hybrid Cloud DR solution had already been laid. “We call it an airgap backup,” says Torres. Where a DR solution primarily consists of an ongoing backup or copy of critical on-premises data to a location on a separate network, Sirius added a third layer—an additional copy of that data backed up to a third location as a read-only, fully encrypted and locked backup. Should the production system suffer an event, this allows the organisation to restore systems back to a date (in this case, 60 days prior) from protected backups, in a sanitised state, where the system and data would

Access your data at the right place at the right time Sirius and NetApp help simplify and accelerate your cloud transformation with unmatched control, protection and efficiency for your data workloads and applications in the cloud.

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“ There’s a requirement to protect your data at all costs, and the backup can’t be on the same physical network as your production system” KEVIN TORRES

CTO AND CISO, MEMORIALCARE

be completely clean. This is additional to the shadow read-only or SRO capability that enables restoration of individual applications in lieu of running a full DR. “We have the ability to segmentise or keep it separate from a hacker not only taking

[our] production system, but [our] backup system,” says Torres.

As a long-time IBM Power Client, MemorialCare didn’t want to sacrifice the reliability and redundancy provided by IBM Power when it came to the critical operational database for their EMR, even in a DR solution.

In addition, NetApp would provide the storage fabric that allowed MemorialCare to seamlessly move data between on-premises, colocation, and public cloud deployed NetApp instances without sacrificing performance or resiliency. Topping it off, Microsoft Azure would provide the elasticity that would make the solution cost-effective.

The buy-in and investment of partners such technologymagazine.com

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SIRIUS COMPUTER SOLUTIONS

A smarter strategy to drive business transformation A hybrid approach to disaster recovery with Sirius and IBM may provide the flexibility you need to make the right financial and architectural decisions while reducing costs.

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as these are critical to developing and testing cutting-edge technology solutions in the lab.

Because this type of backup system had never been done before with this set of applications and vendors, if they were able to make the solution work reliably, not only would MemorialCare benefit, but all healthcare providers could potentially benefit. That potential is a priority for Salim.

He makes it clear that Sirius Healthcare only builds out and tests an idea if they believe it could benefit the majority of the healthcare industry. “The reality is, many people build things and never use them,” says Salim. “All my direct team members have been previous executives at healthcare organisations, so they’ve done Kevin’s job.” Buy-in from his team and other healthcare organisations they work with is the key to rolling out new solutions, and the lab is where they test-drive those solutions.

Collaboration between MemorialCare and Sirius may be the basis for many cutting-edge

solutions into the future. Their next big project, Patient Room ‘Next’, is well underway. The rise of telehealth and remote care services in response to the worldwide pandemic changed the way Sirius and MemorialCare are looking at the “patient room,” adopting a philosophy that a patient room is now wherever the patient is treated—be that at home, in a parking lot, or in a hospital room.

So they built out a small, fully-outfitted patient room inside the lab to develop and test next-generation technologies.

Currently, the team is testing out the integration of smart technologies and applications into the lab’s patient room including cameras that provide visual monitoring of the patient and the room without breaching patient privacy, speakers and mics that enable distance communication and engagement, touchless sensors that help monitor everything technologymagazine.com

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“ It becomes an environment where you can really cultivate ideas and innovation, and that’s where the success of it is— having not only the technology people but also having people who understand healthcare” IMRAN SALIM

SVP, SIRIUS HEALTHCARE

from patient vitals to when people enter and leave the room—all enabled by artificial intelligence to provide real-time diagnostics. “Kevin doesn’t need another 300+ applications in his organisation; he’s got plenty to deal with,” says Salim.

The goal is to streamline and simplify clinician workflows, improve productivity, and facilitate better patient experiences and health outcomes. “It becomes an environment where you can really cultivate ideas and innovation,” he says of the lab, “and that’s where the success of it is—having not only the technology people but also having people who understand healthcare.”

We can’t know what the future holds, but with partnerships like the one between Sirius and MemorialCare, the future of patient care seems bright.

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INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

AND HOW IT’S CHANGING THE WORKING WORLD Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Automation, what’s the difference and how will it impact humans’ world of work both now and in the future WRITTEN BY: LAURA BERRILL

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AI & FEATURE DATA ANALYTICS HEADER

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I

n this feature we talk to Blue Prism’s Head of AI & Research, Eric Tyree, about the sectors mainly influenced by this type of technology, the real importance of people and the future of our workplaces.

Blue Prism was founded 20 years ago to help create intelligent automation for the enterprise, with a view to transforming the way people work.

Eric Tyree has been with Blue Prism since June 2020 after joining the company from his previous position as CTO and Chief Data Scientist at Carlson Wagonlit Travel. Known for his expertise in artificial intelligence, data science and analytics, Tyree starts by talking about any differences between artificial intelligence and intelligent automation.

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He says: “I don’t actually think there really is a difference between the two technologies. Rather it’s a combination of the more mechanical robotic process automation (RPA) with artificial intelligence, which is the cognitive part. Originally, robotic process automation was really about programming manual work.”

Tyree offers an example of someone setting up an account with a telecoms company. There are various manual processes that need to be addressed, requiring someone to manually pull all the information together, perform applicant ID checks, etc.

He explained: “People started to realise, ‘Hey, I could use software to automate all these things. And what’s more, we could

AI & DATA ANALYTICS

closely followed by telcos, which are affected by the same issues. We have one major customer that says they cannot roll out the latest technology without automation. It’s now all about having to pivot and change quickly,” adds Tyree.

He believes the pandemic has only accelerated this process. For example, those in healthcare realised that if a dollar’s worth of administration could be automated, then it’s another dollar that can be provided for patient care. In retail, companies are feeling pressure from the likes of Amazon.

Companies have realised that automation can create efficiencies that would allow them to compete.

The importance of people power Tyree is keen to stress that it’s not about replacing the human workforce, a common and widespread fear often talked about when increasing automation. “If anything,” he says, “there is a growing labor shortage in the UK right now, and not just in technology. write one piece of software which can easily be reprogrammed to do lots of different tasks.’ - That was RPA originally.”

Tyree says since then, people have started wanting robots that can talk to the customer and understand the content of an email.

As a result, artificial intelligence has been intergrated into robotics. The combination of AI and robotic processes has resulted in intelligent automation—a merger of the two.

The sectors most influenced by intelligent automation technology “The big player in this market right now is financial services, and that includes insurance and retail banking. Both market pressure and an expanding fintech market are expanding this market. This is

“ In a nutshell, there will be people and automations working together more, but at the same time, the roles are going to become more humanised” ERIC TYREE

HEAD OF AI & RESEARCH, BLUE PRISM technologymagazine.com

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AI & DATA ANALYTICS

“ This is not about robots in a room with the lights out. It’s quite the opposite.

It’s very much about human engagement” ERIC TYREE

HEAD OF AI & RESEARCH, BLUE PRISM

You have to work with people and get them to think about their human skills, which really adds value, and what they are doing that robots could actually be doing.” He cites a prime example of Atlas, a private equity firm.

“Equity has automated 90%, which surprised me. But actually, most of the work was manual, such as going into databases, pulling the data out, putting it into spreadsheets, then cutting and pasting that into another spreadsheet.

But it’s the report writing which matters, so automating can take 90% of manual work off someone’s plate, and they can get

Eric Tyree TITLE: HEAD OF AI & RESEARCH COMPANY: BLUE PRISM INDUSTRY: AUTOMATION LOCATION: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM Eric Tyree is an expert in the commercial application of AI and advanced analytics with more than 20 years experience in related product and technology leadership roles. Eric has led the development of a wide range of data driven products and services in travel, consumer analytics, HR, pensions and insurance, portfolio management, algorithmic trading, retail banking and equity exchanges.

Before joining Blue Prism, Eric was CTO and Chief Data Scientist for the data division of CWT where he was responsible for data products, personalisation and data-driven revenue management. Prior to that Eric was Chief Data Scientist at Capita Plc responsible for new data products and services. He has also founded and/ or advised a number of startups while serving in a range of senior AI/data science, product and technical roles.

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So, what is Intelligent Automation?

Intelligent automation (IA) refers to the integration of robotics with multiple components from different emerging technologies. This is when robotic, intelligent and autonomous systems are integrated. The result is intelligent automation, which widens the scope of potential tasks and processes that can be automated.

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10 times more work done as a result. So, people are being paid for what they’re hired to do, which is to think.”

Tyree believes the push in automation across industries is helping employment because it frees up people to do the work they are more interested in, thus improving work life. It also creates new roles that may not have existed previously.

“There are roles being created that employers may not have even considered before because they didn’t have the staff, and people are being freed up by automation to do other, new things. Zurich is a good example of this. It has retrained 3,000 people through automation, and they are in roles they had never contemplated before. This is really where the people’s dimension of technology comes to the fore.

AI & DATA ANALYTICS

“ Automating can take 90% of manual work off someone’s plate, and they can get 10 times more work done as a result. So, people are being paid for what they’re hired to do, which is to think” ERIC TYREE

HEAD OF AI & RESEARCH, BLUE PRISM

This is not about robots in a room with the lights out. It’s quite the opposite. It’s very much about human engagement.”

There’s lots of talk right now about hybrid working and how things will change since the pandemic, so where is the future of work really going?

Tyree says, “In a nutshell, there will be people and automations working together

more, but at the same time, the roles are going to become more humanised.”

He offers an example of mortgage lending and approval.

“If you, for example, run a mortgage desk at a bank, there will have to be a combination of automation and humans. The approval process is largely going to be passed to humans because these things have to be approved properly for regulatory reasons.

After the human approval part, then the process could be passed back again to the automation side, which could be used to complete and tie up the process. The letter is sent to the applicant via automation, but as soon as the person phones the lender, that goes back to the person. All of this has to work seamlessly. What’s more, humans

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“ If anything,” he says, “there is a growing labor shortage in the UK right now, and not just in technology. You have to work with people and get them to think about their human skills, which really adds value” ERIC TYREE

HEAD OF AI & RESEARCH, BLUE PRISM

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shouldn't know or care if the entity sending a message as part of this process is carbonbased or silicon-based. It’s a completely hybrid workforce.”

But he also thinks things will change in terms of education, with it becoming a cycle of employees learning different things over the course of their careers, adapting skills as the world changes. “People will have their existing skills looked at, then extended, and that would create new roles which can be more revenue-generating.

And that’s where I think we will get to as a new world of work.” technologymagazine.com

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How

NETRALITY is revolutionising

the Digital Ecosystem WRITTEN BY: SIMON HOWSON-GREEN

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PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

NETRALITY

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Netrality’s CRO, Amber Caramella, talks about her ground-breaking, winning vision for cultural change across the data centre industry

N

etrality’s CRO, Amber Caramella, is driving groundbreaking change across the organisation’s expanding footprint of network-rich, fibre-dense facilities and the data centre landscape as a whole. The trailblazing leader’s multi-fold approach to progressive change extends beyond acquiring and further monetising portfolio assets.

Caramella is ensuring Netrality Data Centers’ continuous investments in infrastructure enhancements, ecosystem expansions, and portfolio growth provide a diverse platform for evolving needs and full-suite solutions.

We live in an increasingly frantic world, especially when you look at the digital infrastructure landscape linked with the unpredictability brought on by COVID in the past year and a half. So, what impact and challenges does Caramella see the industry facing over the next few years?

“The pandemic certainly further solidified that technology is fundamentally changing the way that we interact with the world around us.

“Many technological advancements adopted during COVID kept us together when we needed to be apart. Numerous industries accelerated their digital transformation efforts by enabling advancements in telehealth, video conferencing, online education, and virtual gaming to help us stay healthy, entertained, and connected both personally and professionally.

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“That said, I see several challenges. One being the increase in the amount of data and capacity demands placed on data centres with the evolution of technology and the expansion of always-on users. The supply chain continues to struggle due to extensive global shortages of labour, materials, and equipment resulting in longer lead times. Further investment in digital infrastructure will be crucial to enable and sustain such growth.

“The second challenge is ensuring an optimal customer experience given unprecedented bandwidth demands and the proliferation of data-intensive technologies.”

This is where Netrality comes in. But how?

“Increased bandwidth demands are driving the migration of data processing to the nexus of

“OUR OFFERING IS UNIQUE IN THAT OUR DATA CENTRES ARE AT THE EPICENTRE OF THE EDGE IN THE MARKETS WE SERVE — ENABLING GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY” AMBER CARAMELLA CRO, NETRALITY

connectivity and the network edge. The rise of hybrid cloud and latency-sensitive technologies require a modern infrastructure approach.

Traditional cloud and legacy networks cannot adequately respond to and serve an evergrowing number of IoT devices.

“Interconnected data centres located near end-users, are fundamental to businesses and services. More enterprises are leveraging edge computing to actualise the full potential of their application services. When it comes to providing services in a timely, efficient, and cost-effective manner, edge computing is essential.

“Our offering is unique in that our data centres are at the epicentre of the edge in the markets we serve — enabling global connectivity. By leveraging highly interconnected edge data centres, customers can dramatically extend their performance and reach across entire regions with superior uptime, low latency, and on-demand connectivity.”

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“OUR HIGHLY EFFICIENT, DYNAMIC, AND SCALABLE ENVIRONMENTS ATTRACT AN ECOSYSTEM OF STRATEGIC PROVIDERS WHO CONTRIBUTE CRITICAL SOLUTIONS NEEDED TO CURATE MODERN IT ARCHITECTURE” AMBER CARAMELLA CRO, NETRALITY

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But that’s just a small glimpse at the bigger picture.

“Just as our data centres are the epicentre of the edge, the ecosystem is the epicentre of growth. In a networkneutral, interconnected data centre, ecosystem partners not only house their infrastructure but, more importantly, seamlessly connect and exchange traffic with one another. When customers can directly connect to service providers and cloud on-ramps in a colocation environment it reduces single points of failure and latency via direct connection.

It also lowers costs by bypassing the public internet. Ecosystems can scale to accommodate customer’s unique needs.

Amber Caramella TITLE: CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: UNITED STATES Amber Caramella is the Chief Revenue Officer at Netrality Data Centers. She is responsible for Netrality’s revenue generation strategies and execution, including overseeing sales, marketing, interconnection, network solutions as well as, strategic alliances, and channel partnerships.

Amber has more than 20 years' experience in the telecommunications and technology industries, having held various positions in sales and leadership. She is on Infrastructure Masons’ Advisory Council, the Global Executive Sponsor for IM Women, and is part of the organization’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee that raises awareness and education for underrepresented groups. Amber holds a Board of Directors position at Virtual Power Systems.

With her extensive experience in digital infrastructure, her goal is to increase the visibility and career advancement of women to build a diverse pipeline of future industry talent.

“BEING WHERE THERE'S A DENSITY OF CONNECTIVITY MATTERS. OUR INTERCONNECTED DATA CENTRES IN STRATEGIC LOCATIONS ALLOW MODERN, DATA-INTENSIVE BUSINESSES TO REACH THEIR MAXIMUM POTENTIAL” AMBER CARAMELLA CRO, NETRALITY

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Title of the video

“By introducing customers to an entire ecosystem of providers, Netrality enables optimal solutions while lowering their total cost of ownership. “Netrality customers can design new solutions and innovations such as, hybrid-cloud architectures with secure, scalable connectivity to increase application performance and provide greater reliability.”

No company or industry in this interconnected world can operate as an island. Netrality knows this.

Strategic partnerships hold the key to market-leading growth. Caramella says this approach is vital.

“To further the evolution of our data center ecosystem and market position, we align our brand with influential industry leaders, providing increased visibility, go-to-

market resources, event sponsorships, and co-branded campaigns.”

Caramella cites Netrality’s recent venture with Google Cloud Interconnect at its Kansas City, MO location. She calls this deal a ‘game changer’.

“Google recently deployed a Google Cloud Interconnect at 1102 Grand, creating additional cloud connectivity options in our data centre and enabling direct connectivity to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It’s a game-changer because customers can extend their infrastructure, business applications, and capabilities with a multi-cloud, multisite network environment. It also allows higher speeds and lower connectivity costs for our customers. technologymagazine.com

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Welcome to the Block

So how is Netrality keeping ahead of the game? Caramella says the cornerstone of Netrality’s strategy and competitive advantage is the ownership and operation of its data centre assets.

“We are leveraging the dynamic nature of our physical assets and efforts to market wholesale, office, retail, innovation, and business continuity spaces where appropriate and opportunistic across the portfolio.

“Our owner-operator business model is also beneficial because it provides our customers with long-term reliability, stability, and scalable growth opportunities from cabinets to cages to wholesale data centre offerings. Additionally, we have the ability to custom design deployments that require roof rights. All of our locations are technically sound for cell tower and 5G operators to occupy.”

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Caramella sees this ownership strategy as a huge advantage over Netrality’s competitors — many of whom lease colocation properties. This ownership also adds to Netrality’s market prominence and ability to capitalise the value of its assets and the role they play in shaping the digital economy.

“Our building assets are the epitome of our ecosystem as are our data centres. As the owner and operator of our buildings, we have positioned our properties as the premier hubs for tenants looking to power innovations of tomorrow. We are unparalleled in our ability to deliver dense connectivity and extensive deployments that create optimal testing and innovative environments for 5G supported equipment.

Netrality provides the flexibility needed to meet unique testing and design needs while delivering the best overall experience to our data centre customers and building tenants.”

NETRALITY

“NETRALITY PROVIDES A COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT THAT ENCOURAGES EMPLOYEES TO LEVERAGE EACH OTHER'S STRENGTHS IN ORDER TO ATTAIN MUTUAL AND COMMUNAL PROSPERITY” AMBER CARAMELLA CRO, NETRALITY

Netrality’s leadership began acquiring strategic assets with core interconnection data centres back in 2012. Netrality adds to the deep history of each facility by building Meet Me Rooms to congregate fibre assets and facilitate interconnection – the cornerstone of innovation.

“Take for example our operations in Philadelphia, PA. For over 90 years, 401 North Broad has served as a base for innovation. It was originally designed as the nation’s first commercial and industrial building featuring a freight station and access to rail infrastructure.

Since the early 1990s, 401 North Broad has been a major junction for North technologymagazine.com

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“ OUR BUILDING ASSETS ARE THE EPITOME OF OUR ECOSYSTEM AS ARE OUR DATA CENTRES. AS THE OWNER AND OPERATOR OF OUR BUILDINGS, WE HAVE POSITIONED OUR PROPERTIES AS THE PREMIER HUB FOR TENANTS LOOKING TO POWER INNOVATIONS OF TOMORROW” AMBER CARAMELLA CRO, NETRALITY

Esports campus “The Block”, by Nerd Street Gamers is located in Netrality’s 401 North Broad

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and South fibre routes with a significant portion of the nation’s East coast traffic traveling through the property.

“Netrality’s 401 North Broad continues to house companies on the cutting-edge of innovation including “The Block”, the world’s first esports campus by Nerd Street Gamers.

The immense connectivity options and nearzero latency within 401 North Broad give gamers a competitive edge both on and off the premise – connecting communities and advancing the next-generation of gaming.

“Leading biotech firm, Biomeme, is building its headquarters for research, manufacturing, and operations of its PCR testing solutions at 401 North Broad as well.”

As you mentioned, acquiring the most strategically placed locations is key. Where else is Netrality casting its net?

“Our most recent acquisition of the Indy Telcom campus in Indianapolis, IN will allow us to further expand our footprint across the Midwest. This aligns with our core strategy to own the epicentre of connectivity in the markets we serve. As the only data centre campus near downtown Indianapolis, Indy Telcom facilitates access to the fibre crossroads of America providing connectivity to Chicago, St. Louis, Columbus, Kansas City and Pittsburgh – making it a premier data centre for telecom companies and enterprise customers. We are eager to expand our footprint and accelerate business growth in the robust, network-rich region.”

Caramella highlights how her industry is constantly transforming with technology and how it operates.

“Right now, trends are shifting, and secondary and tertiary markets are increasingly relevant because of hybrid cloud deployments that seek diversified fibre connectivity, expanded technologymagazine.com

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“THROUGH DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE AND EARLY EXPOSURE, WE WORK TOWARDS EMPOWERING THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY, TODAY’S YOUTH, AND A “NEW NORMAL” THAT WE ARE PROUD OF” AMBER CARAMELLA CRO, NETRALITY

availability zones, and direct connections to core backbone routers in urban-situated colocation facilities. Location is incredibly important in terms of where companies are deploying points of presence and availability zones. We are focused on strategic capacity planning to stay ahead of supply and demand challenges.

“Our ecosystems allow each Netrality building to act as an interconnected hub joining hundreds of cloud and network service providers with leading enterprises.”

Caramella is also very conscious of how recent global events are shaping the industry’s need to be versatile and nimble.

“This last year has taught us a lot.

Companies with traditional in-office environments had to leverage technology to support remote workforces and ensure business continuity – proving a new, geographically dispersed workforce is viable when supplemented with collaborative technologies. While the pandemic and resulting mandates have brought immeasurable loss, the past few years have signalled the true entry into an era of global digitalisation. Working together as an ecosystem and leveraging evolving technologies enable and aid the adaptation to new realities on the horizon.

Digital infrastructure and transformation

will continue to allow masses to effectively operate from anywhere.”

Caramella talks about how Netrality’s success and growth is rooted in its commitment to nurture synergies between its strategically located ecosystems and robust partner offerings.

Underpinning such success is an everevolving culture she is creating between Netrality’s workforce and its partners.

“I’m extremely passionate about creating the right culture here at Netrality,” she says. “I truly believe that fostering a healthy environment not only drives revenue growth, but also promotes our retention and employee satisfaction. This, in turn, translates to multi-threaded, mutually beneficial relationships with our customers.”

For Caramella, creating an entrepreneurial, diverse, and inclusive corporate culture directly impacts the organisation’s ability to drive meaningful change across the industry.

“It all comes down to our network. One of Netrality’s core values is to empower its network of customers, partners, and people to thrive and build the innovative technologies powering the digital-first era.”

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TECH UNICORNS The United States has long been the home of exciting technology startups. In this list, we look at the top 10 European tech unicorns ranked by valuation

WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY

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TOP 10

F

or a long time, the United States has been the birthplace of many startups innovating and developing new technologies to support people and businesses. Now, there is rising interest among investors in fast-growing European tech start-up companies. This rising interest is boosting valuations, thus leading to an increasing number of tech unicorns.

According to investment analyst Dealroom by the middle of this year,

American venture capital investors had already placed US$10.1bn into Europe’s startups. Considering the total for 2020 as a whole was US$9.3bn, there has been a significant increase in interest in European tech start-ups. With this increased interest, we look at European tech unicorns, and these companies are the top 10 European tech unicorns ranked by valuation. technologymagazine.com

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10

TRADE REPUBLIC Trade Republic is a mobile-only and commission-free broker that provides investment opportunities.

Founded in Berlin, Germany, the fintech company is valued at US$5.3bn. The Trade Republic app provides a fast, mobile account opening, intuitive search and filter functions, a personal timeline. The company’s three founders, Thomas Pischke, Christian Hecker and Marco Cancelloeri, met in 2015 and set out to build an investing experience they would want to recommend to their friends. From then until 2019, the trio built the core of Trade Republic in a backyard in the heart of Berlin. Now, the company is a German securities trading bank supervised by the Federal Bank of Germany and BaFin.

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09 HOPIN

Valued at US$5.65bn, Hopin offers an all-in-one event management platform that makes planning, producing and reliving event experiences simple and easy.

Founded in London and launched in 2019, Hopin’s aim was to give organisers the ability to create the in-person event experience as closely as possible. It wanted to do this in an online capacity so customers can make meaningful interactions and network remotely. As of January 2021, Hopin had hosted over 45,000 events. The company claims that they are the first virtual venue for live online events.

TOP 10

08

“What unites us is purpose. The purpose of being a Turkish global company, who is the first at what it does” TUNCAY TUTEK

CO-FOUNDER, GETIR

MOLLIE

Mollie is a payments platform that offers an easy-to-implement process for integrating payments into a site or app. Based in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, Mollie is valued at US$6.5bn and has four other locations across Europe.

The company says it is a pioneer in the payment industry as well as being one of the fastest-growing payment processes within Europe.

Mollie facilitates companies of all sizes to scale and grow by using different payment methods. By utilising simple and clear payment APIs, Mollie offers multiple payment methods in a uniform way. The company currently has nearly 100,000 customers and employs an international team of almost 300 professionals.

07 GETIR

Meaning ‘bring’ in Turkish, Getir is a Turkish company founded in 2015. The company has developed a mobile application that offers an on-demand, ultrafast delivery service for grocery items. As well as this it has a courier service for restaurant food deliveries. Since it was founded in 2015, Getir has expanded aggressively and doubled its orders in the second half of 2019 to reach almost 1.5mn in December of that year. In this year it generated US$120mn from sales. In 2021, Getir acquired grocery app BLOK for an undisclosed amount. Currently, Getir serves Turkey, the United Kingdom, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris. technologymagazine.com

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TOP 10

05

CELONIS

06 RAPYD

Rapyd is a payments platform that inserts fintech services into any app and simplifies the complex offering of local payment methods. It has built technology that removes the back-end complexities of crossborder commerce and provides local payments expertise. Its fintechas-a-service platforms—Collect, Disburse, Wallet, and Issuing— seamlessly embed localised fintech and payments capabilities into customers applications in a simple way. Founded in 2016 by Arik Shtilman, Arkady Karpman and Omer Priel in London, the company is valued at US$8.75bn. In the five years since its founding, Rapyd has acquired two organisations. In July 2021, it acquired Valitor for US$100mn.

Founded in Munich, Germany, Celonis is the global leader in execution management. The Celonis Execution Management System, which the company launched in 2020, provides companies with a modern way to run their business processes entirely on data and intelligence. The company pioneered the process mining category 10 years ago when it first developed the ability to automatically X-ray processes and find inefficiencies. Founded in 2011 and valued at US$11bn, Celonis has 1,300 employees and over 2,000 enterprise customer deployments across thousands of processes, systems and industries.

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“We doubled in size in 2020 and will add another 700 people to the organisation by the end of 2021” GUILLAUME POUSAZ

CEO, CHECKOUT.COM

04

GLOBAL SWITCH Global Switch creates data centres that set new standards in scale, resilience and connectivity. The company owns and operates 13 data centres centrally located in Tier 1 cities across Europe and Asia-Pacific. This comes to a total offering of 428,00 sq m of technical space. Global Switch is one of the world’s highest credit rated data centre providers and has been valued at US$11.1bn. Founded in London and established in 1998, Global Switch continues to set the standard for efficient environments and clean energy solutions through its innovative design and operation.

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03

CHECKOUT.COM Valued at US$15bn, Checkout. com is an API-based platform providing online payment solutions that improve the user's checkout experience. Checkout.com’s endto-end platform has flexible tools, granular data and deep insights so customers can innovate, adapt their markers, create outstanding customer experiences and make smarter decisions faster. The company works with leading global brands such as Bloomingdales, Deliveroo and Klarna. Since it was founded in 2012, Checkout.com has grown to be a team that covers over 15 international offices and supports thousands of businesses around the world.

REVOLUT

02

Revolut is a financial services company that specialises in mobile banking, card payments, money remittance, and foreign exchange.

In 2015 Revolut launched in the UK and offered its customer’s money transfer and exchange. Now the company offers accounts featuring currency exchange, debit cards, virtual cards, Apple Pay, interestbearing "vaults", commission-free stock trading, crypto, commodities, and other services. A US$800mn funding round in July 2021 brought the value of the company to US$33bn, making it the most valuable UK tech startup in history.

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“Klarna offers innovative payment solutions that make shopping smooth and convenient for the consumers” SEBASTIAN SIEMIATKOWSKI

CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, KLARNA

KLARNA Swedish Fintech company Klana provides online financial services such as payments for online storefronts and direct payments along with post-purchase payments. Klarna’s customers, when making a purchase, can choose to pay for their items in full 30 days after the purchase, or its easy and transparent credit option allows you to spread the cost of your purchase over 6-36 months. Klarna is the leading global payments and shopping service. It provides smarter and more flexible shopping and purchase experiences to 90mn active consumers across more than 250,000 merchants in 17 countries.

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Atos

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We talk to digital services specialist Atos UK and Ireland about smart manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and the importance of technology in data use for future success

A

tos is a major global systems integrator which provides a range of digital services to predominantly large corporations, as well as some smaller ones. It operates in the following industry sectors; retail, logistics and transport, utilities, manufacturing, financial services and insurance, healthcare and life sciences, public sector & defence, telecoms and media. The company provides everything from traditional IT services through to large SAP implementations, cybersecurity, cloud, decarbonisation and digital transformation.

It is a lesser-known fact that Atos is, in fact, the largest digital services company in cybersecurity in Europe.

One of the company’s key offerings and a significant focus for Atos in Northern Europe is smart manufacturing and, specifically, the integration of SAP, PLM, MES, OT, IoT and data analytics to achieve genuine closed loop manufacturing.

So how would Simon Culshaw define smart manufacturing when it comes to Industry 4.0 ?

He says what crystallises the concept is to drive sustainability through the design

“YOU SPEND SUCH A LOT OF YOUR LIFE IN WORK AND IT’S SO MUCH MORE ENJOYABLE IF YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE YOU LIKE” SIMON CULSHAW

VP MANUFACTURING STRATEGY & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NORTHERN EUROPE, ATOS

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Simon Culshaw, VP Manufacturing Strategy & Business Development Northern Europe technologymagazine.com

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Atos on smart manufacturing for competitive advantage

and implementation of intelligence-led integrated solutions that transform the performance of manufacturing. And this is done by connecting business strategy, people, processes and, of course, technology.

“That for me is it in a nutshell. It’s a holistic approach to using technology to improve the end-to-end business of manufacturing. To really drive change, you have to look at the culture of the business and the way in which people operate within it,” says Culshaw.

He provides an example of one of the company's customers, a major food and beverage manufacturer, that Atos helped to increase production line efficiency by more than 20%. What wasn’t expected from the deployment was the culture changes that came about as a result.

“One of the plant managers told me that there was a change in culture among staff working different shifts as they became more competitive. It’s that kind of culture you want to create, a sense of pride in the 150

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fact you have an operation which is running very efficiently and you’re making the best of the technology to increase productivity.

I think that’s a big part of industry 4.0.”

The technologies driving the movement Culshaw speaks about the cloud. It took time to implement it across the manufacturing side of the business, but we are seeing our people adapt to the new methods. He mentions that Atos employs edge devices

Atos

A FACTORY CONTROL TOWER SUCCESS STORY Atos has designed and is currently implementing a major cloud­‑based (AWS) Smart Factory 4.0 programme for a global pharmaceutical company to be scaled across 50+ plants that will be equipped with solutions like a Smart Factory Control tower.

Business Challenge • To achieve business and productivity targets by improving production KPIs to a whole new level • The Smart Factory 4.0 Programme is the driver of innovation and digitalisation for all factories across the globe Our joint solution • The Smart Factory is the nucleus for designing and executing using an agile approach: Interdisciplinary agile teams translate new business ideas into real products and services for the factories worldwide • 100 digital experts are expected to increase to 200-400 FTE by end of 2021 • The focus is on speed, which will result in short development cycles Benefits 2019 to date

to collect data from factories and move the data lakes to the cloud to provide enterprise-level smart factory control room functionality.

“To our company, this means that an operations director in head office can see how all the plants are performing in real time, and at any time.”

He believes ERP solutions like SAP have a massive part to play across Atos.

“Silos have very defined functions and, if

• Most of the digital products are either available or under development • Built digital products include Plant Control Tower, eOEE, GoldenBatch Analytics, SPC and Mobile Supervisor solutions • Solutions have been deployed in four plants already with a global control tower in place, providing visibility and analysis of plant KPIs around the globe • Deploy solutions to 52 plants: roll-out and hyper-care 2021 - 2023

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Atos and SAP In the volatile context of today the need for supply chains to be efficient, agile and resilient is clearer than ever. SAP and Atos’ forward thinking approach can help you achieve all of this quickly, effectively and sustainably.

SAP: Paving the way for an agile digital supply chain As Industry 4.0 looks set to revolutionise the global supply chain, SAP and Atos are working together to re-shape the digital landscape In my personal opinion, it has never been more important for a manufacturer to be agile when it comes to their digital supply chain, is the message from John McNiff, Head of Digital Supply Chain SAP for EMEA North.

SAP, one of the global leaders of Industry 4.0, counts Atos as one of its trusted partners.

Together they are focusing on how to shape the future supply chain.

Beyond the traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), SAP has been investing in technologies and solutions for the digital supply chain.

“We are working with Atos on implementation and bringing best practice and thought leadership to our customers to understand how they can get better outcomes,” said McNiff.

due to their scale, security and a long track record. “Atos is working with us as we realise benefits from Industry 4.0 by implementing the next generation of solutions that we are bringing to market , cloud-based, data driven, and AI embedded tools.

Effect of the pandemic “The pandemic, Brexit, the China trade wars have been a supply chain marketer’s dream as this has highlighted what supply chain disruption actually means.

“It has never been more important for a manufacturer to be agile, find new partners and become more efficient. They need solutions that are cloud-based and delivered quickly, that can stand alone, but interoperate with other solutions so they can get some return on the investment - fast.”

Sustainable future According to a report from McKinsey 94% of the manufacturer's carbon footprint typically comes from its supply chain, either internal or external.

“If we can help companies understand where that comes from and how to manage that it will make a big difference to their sustainability goals” said McNiff.

Industry 4.0 and sustainability “We believe we've got something quite unique,” said McNiff who points out manufacturers look to partner with SAP

Learn more

Atos

“KEY DECISIONS NEED TO BE COMMUNICATED CLEARLY WITH THE REASONING BEHIND THEM EXPLAINED. ONCE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THE REASONS WHY, THEY ARE MORE LIKELY TO EMBRACE INITIATIVES POSITIVELY AND THESE ARE THEN MORE LIKELY TO BE SUCCESSFUL” SIMON CULSHAW

VP MANUFACTURING STRATEGY & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NORTHERN EUROPE, ATOS

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not used correctly, it can result in poor communication between them. One of our big challenges is to get rid of these silos and get the business working together to produce what is required to be the most efficient and cost-effective way, whilst improving quality and increasing agility.

ERP and integration on the shop floor and product lifecycle systems are critical if we are to succeed.”

Atos works with SAP software extensively in the smart manufacturing space. It has, over time, invested heavily in the technology. A great example of this is what he refers to as ‘smart manufacturing studio’. This, he says, is an immersive experience in which customers can test drive different technologies involving SAP to address business and manufacturing scenarios and demonstrate how cases can

Atos

be implemented. The SAP software covers areas like product life-cycle management (PLM) integration, intelligent asset management and performance management in factories.

Culshaw believes that joining up these areas across a business adds massive value. Atos is working with many manufacturers to achieve this in factories.

Critical cyber security in industrial technology Although cybersecurity is obviously hugely important, Culshaw says in some cases it’s treated with the utmost importance and in others it’s not taken seriously enough.

In industry sectors such as aerospace and defence, huge emphasis is placed on cyber security, but it sometimes becomes apparent that other types of companies such

as manufacturing focus less on cybersecurity.

With the world moving increasingly to the cloud, it is more important than ever. Culshaw has, for example, witnessed malware having considerable impact on production and OT systems, causing days of downtime.

“When it comes to the expansion of the use of cloud to hold larger and larger amounts of data, having the right cybersecurity measures in place is critical. Any vulnerabilities can be exploited and that can have serious repercussions for a business. The importance of solid cyber security measures cannot be underestimated,” he states.

Atos and their partners and importance of relationships Atos works with major providers for products like PLM and manufacturing execution technologymagazine.com

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“WE’VE MADE SUBSTANTIAL COMMITMENTS TO THE MARKET IN TERMS OF OUR OWN CARBON FOOTPRINT AND SOME OF THE INITIATIVES WE WORK ON IN SMART MANUFACTURING PLAY INTO HOW WE CAN HELP WITH THIS MORE BROADLY BY REDUCING WASTE, IMPROVING ENERGY CONSUMPTION AND INCREASING EFFICIENCY” SIMON CULSHAW

VP MANUFACTURING STRATEGY & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT NORTHERN EUROPE, ATOS

systems (MES). One of their biggest partners is Siemens, with which, Culshaw says, Atos has a major strategic partnership. In regards to manufacturing, they have been working together since the start of the Industry 4.0 initiative. The partnership revolves around investing in the production of a number of solutions to meet specific use cases within the manufacturing industry.

“For example,” he says. “It could be around preventative maintenance and the creation of solutions involving IoT products, such as MindSphere. Our chief executives have made a commitment to ongoing partnerships over the next five years. We are involved in a number of initiatives alongside Siemens. We would like to improve the competitiveness of UK manufacturing.”

However, Culshaw is keen to add that Atos also partners with smaller operators and runs a scheme called the Horizons Programme that supports small technology companies to bring their innovations to market. Atos helps these companies by introducing their innovations to larger corporate manufacturing companies, including Atos customers. This helps to grow these businesses and brings value to Atos customers to introduce innovation early in the lifecycle.

Culshaw concludes: “There’s no one size fits all, there are a lot of different partners and a wide partner ecosystem we work with in terms of technologies.”

How does he think Atos’ relationships with their partners, large and small, are changing?

“What is starting to change is our thinking about how we use technologies like MES from an enterprise perspective. Traditionally, manufacturing companies haven’t tended to use this technology on an enterprising scale and things like scalability and licensing technologymagazine.com

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haven’t become issues. That’s starting to change because companies want to standardise specific platforms so they can have easy access to their data across their entire operation,” Culshaw answers.

“Companies are starting to think about how they put models in place from a commercial perspective and how they scale their products to large global operations – this is going to be a challenge. It is already an area that we are working across.” Culshaw again gives Siemens as an example, as Atos has provided the company with dynamic PLM services in the cloud – a consumption-based model which allows a lower cost of entry that can be scaled as demand grows.

And what does he think is the secret to Atos' long lasting and successful partnerships across the industry? Culshaw sums this up in just one word, “trust” – this 158

October 2021

often requires a bit of a leap of faith but once we are there it creates momentum and enables us to work together in a constructive way.

“If you can establish one small victory, everyone wants to repeat it, which leads to success in other parts of the business.”

What will a successful business look like in terms of technology within five to ten years?

Culshaw says this is going to be dominated by companies that know what they’re doing with their data and know how to use it to get useful insights. Data is growing exponentially, and this is only going to become more complex and more difficult to extract insights. However, it gives rise to greater opportunities.

“Companies that grasp this are going to have a significant advantage over their

Atos

GLOBAL SMART MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY MATURING AT A RAPID RATE

competitors. The technology landscape is going to be dominated by this,” he says.

He goes on to say that there is still lots of work to do in terms of the emergence, development and expansion of IoT technologies.“I don’t think businesses are quite there yet when it comes to stable and reliable IoT technologies because we’re not at the point where people fully understand and know what exactly to do with them.

“Over the next few years, we will start to see the emergence of some key players in this space - this is hugely exciting and will enable lots of new business models, the likes of which we have barely begun to think about.”

The global smart manufacturing market size was valued at USD 236.12 billion in 2020. It is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.4% from 2021 to 2028. The industry is focusing on integrating innovation and efficiency, as manufacturing processes are maturing at a rapid pace. The industry is set to adopt smart manufacturing practices across various domains. The need to increase productivity and enhance visualisation of the entire system are the two major factors driving the market growth. Smart manufacturing has increased the adoption of digitisation in various attributes of the entire supply chain of manufacturing companies.

Major technological advancements have been witnessed in data analytics, predictive maintenance, and industrial networking. Numerous manufacturing units have adopted one or the other form of software systems. The systems are expected to be consolidated and streamlined over a single platform for providing real-time information and insights in the forthcoming years.

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Data-driven dealmakers of travel

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WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: TOM VENTURO

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Priceline the pioneers of the ultimate travel deal, with their customer-centric platform

W

e all love a deal. US-based Priceline is renowned for being the ultimate travel dealmaker and having a customer-centric platform.

“Priceline is the best travel dealmaker in the world,” said Martin Brodbeck, Chief Technology Officer who points out the online travel company has invested time during the pandemic transforming its digital platform.

“Priceline is a data-driven company and we use this data to listen to what our customers want, and rapidly adapt to any changing dynamic in the marketplace as has happened during the pandemic.”

Speaking from New York, Brodbeck says the travel landscape has changed in the US since Covid-19 with more citizens focusing on domestic travel rather than outbound vacations to other parts of the world.

But there is one thing that hasn’t changed, everyone wants a deal. Priceline founder Jay Walker recognised this back in 1997 at a time when US airlines regularly flew twothirds full, with millions of seats empty and a million hotel rooms unused every night.

Walker was also one of the first in the travel industry to recognise the business potential of the internet. His idea was to harness the internet to drive demand to fill planes and hotels by asking Priceline customers to make an offer – name their own price - rather than pay the full fare.

Another of his inspired ideas was to invite Captain Kirk (aka William Shatner) from Star Trek to become the ambassador for Priceline.

He became known as ‘The Negotiator’ and was technologymagazine.com

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so impressed by the e-commerce start-up he agreed to be partially compensated with stock. The company launch was so successful that their two servers crashed immediately as so many people wanted to name their price.

Priceline was born.

More than 20 years later, Shatner may have been replaced by actress Kaley Cuoco, known for her role in The Flight Attendant, but Priceline, part of Booking Holdings, continues to focus on the customer to offer the very best deals available on hotel rooms, flights, rental cars, vacation packages and cruises.

“Americans love to travel, but since the pandemic we are seeing more focus on domestic travel, whether it's a road trip and staying in a hotel, or going to a beach within the US,” said Brodbeck.

“Through our technology platform and our analytics we quickly saw a shift from people booking flights to road trips. Once we saw that data we started providing travel products and discounts that bundled rental cars and hotels together. We also developed specific features where users could find the nearest rental car based on their location and bundle it with a hotel to get greater discounts.”

Brodbeck, who previously worked for Pfizer, joined Priceline just before the pandemic and is shaping its digital roadmap. He pointed out how Priceline is using technology to turn the tide to bring affordable travel back to consumers with the use of product development and a multiservice digital payment platform.

“Navigating the challenges of the pandemic has been a great learning experience for me because it accelerated a lot of the things that we wanted to do as a company and created an opportunity for us to collaborate on a global level,” he said.

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“ Although Priceline is a travel company, we are essentially a technology company at heart.

More than half of the company is made up of great product and engineering talent” MARTIN BRODBECK

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, PRICELINE

PRICELINE

MARTIN BRODBECK TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

(ML), infrastructure and operations at Priceline and since joining has been working “to innovate and invest” in the future with his agile development plan. “We provide a technology platform that offers the best deals across many different travel products, including flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and packages.

“Although Priceline is a travel company, we are essentially a technology company at heart, where more than half of the company is made up of great product and engineering talent.

“We have six different offices worldwide from an engineering perspective and the pandemic enabled us to accelerate how we do agile development at scale across those locations in Winnipeg, Toronto, Mumbai, Berlin, New York, and Norwalk in Connecticut.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

COMPANY: PRICELINE Martin (Marty) Brodbeck joined Priceline as Chief Technology Officer in 2019. He is responsible for all product engineering , infrastructure and technology operations.

Brockbeck brings more than 20 years experience to Priceline, having led technology teams within the digital commerce, financial, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer products, and media industries.

During his career, he has led companies through mobile, cloud, big data, cyber security, infrastructure, content and product engineering changes that have driven new revenue, cost savings and productivity gains across enterprise companies.

Prior to Priceline, Marty was CTO at Shutterstock and earlier in his career was Chief Architect and CTO for Worldwide Technology Engineering at Pfizer.

PRICELINE

Priceline: Data-driven dealmakers of travel

“ We have a highly experimental culture where we build features and functions and experiment to make sure they actually drive revenue or operational efficiency. That’s part of our secret sauce…”

MARTIN BRODBECK

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, PRICELINE

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Travel trends in the US 2021: • 35% will embark on a road trip this year • 32% plan to visit family or friends - as the pandemic has highlighted the importance of these relationships • 57% plan to add to their bucket lists • 66% plan to take advantage of working remotely by travelling more in 2021, with parents more likely to say this (71%) than non-parents (62%).

• 78% are excited to travel and 92% are planning to do so if they haven’t already.

• 56% of Americans plan on rescheduling 2020 trips that were cancelled due to Covid-19 (Source - Priceline 2021 Work-Life Balance Survey)

Doubling down on Priceline’s digital journey Brodbeck commented that during the height of the pandemic, when lockdowns were in place around the world, Priceline took the opportunity to focus on three main areas: 1. The changing needs of the customer 2. Launch of VIP programme 3. Accelerated digital transformation “We used the period during the pandemic to double down our efforts in relation to our digital journey which centres around cloud migration to Google and how we are using data-driven analytics to improve the customer experience,” he said.

Priceline started to focus on their digital transformation two years ago and according to Brodbeck were two thirds of the way through when Covid-19 struck. As a result the company has increased their technology budget as they feel it is a key enabler to drive future growth.

Recent improvements have included personal product searches on their website, app, VIP rewards programme, and a focus on their cyber security with round-the-clock monitoring of their Network Operating Centre.

Brodbeck points out how Priceline is actively using technology to turn the tide to bring affordable travel back to consumers in the US with the use of product development and a multiservice digital payment platform.

“We actively seek to understand what our customers want and what our customers need from a travel perspective and then innovate accordingly,” he said.

“We launched a VIP Loyalty programme which rewards people who use our travel platform for buying products. The more you buy on Priceline's platform, the greater status you can achieve and the more you can save.

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www.epam.com/cloud

Delivering Personalization in Real-Time with the Cloud When Priceline launched in 1998, the internet was so new that the company’s small staff relied on just two servers, which promptly crashed under the pent-up demand for discounted airline tickets. In the intervening years (and after adding more than a few servers), customer interests have broadened into queries for rental cars, hotel rooms and travel packages.

As an eCommerce pioneer, Priceline is no stranger to growth and change. When it became clear that staying agile would mean saying farewell to legacy architecture and instead piloting to the cloud, they turned to EPAM and Google to help make the move seamless. The ultimate goal: To become cloud native for the entire business.

Priceline’s search engine is the backbone of its services. Jetsetters expect to find a dogfriendly beach cottage that can sleep 10 or a yurt with ample parking near a lake—with just a few clicks. To meet everchanging needs, the company has constantly improved its algorithms to deliver what travelers want, adding cleanliness ratings during the pandemic and bundling hotels with car rentals when everyone started taking more road trips.

By partnering with Google Cloud and EPAM, Priceline is harnessing the power of the cloud to use crucial analytics in real time, becoming even more customer centric. So instead of looking for broad trends, Priceline will be able to offer individual travelers personalized recommendations better suited to their search in the moment.

“Cloud strategy is key to better serving our customers, and EPAM is helping us transform into a faster, more agile travel dealmaker,” says Martin Brodbeck, chief technology officer at Priceline. “Their engineering and business expertise have been vital to our goal of becoming cloud native.”

Companies turn to the cloud because it offers flexibility, scalability and security.

Priceline will see these benefits and more:

•

Google Cloud Platform offers superior data analytics, warehousing and machine learning capabilities, so that the data Priceline is already collecting can become much more useful.

•

The company’s developers can deploy new functionality quickly, differentiating them from competitors.

•

Priceline will be able to make travel recommendations that wouldn’t have been possible before.

“EPAM’s expertise is supporting the engineering capabilities needed to modernize Priceline’s infrastructure and operations. This isn’t a ‘lift and shift’ program, but instead a true transformation from legacy architecture to the cloud that cuts across people, processes and technology,” says Craig Jonsson, key account director at Google Cloud.

“Here at EPAM we love complex challenges that can be solved with the help of technology, and I am especially passionate about opportunities that lead to better consumer experiences,” says Regina Viadro, vice president and co-head of NA business at EPAM. “Helping Priceline transform its complex ecosystem in a modern and scalable way, alongside our partner Google, allowed us to do just that.”

At the heart of Priceline’s modernization, EPAM is engineering a pivot from applications running on servers to applications running in containers, using Kubernetes to manage Priceline’s code, products and features much faster. The end result is service to customers that is more elastic, more portable, more cross platform and more cost efficient.

People travel for so many reasons: out of curiosity, to connect with friends and family, to get a change in backdrop. Regardless of motivation, travelers will benefit from the tailor-made options that Priceline can deliver from the cloud.

Learn More About Moving to the Cloud

PRICELINE

“ We have a high performance, fast website that provides the best possible user experience all over the world.

This comes down to our technology platform and the people that run it” MARTIN BRODBECK

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, PRICELINE

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and how many products they've booked.

“The second area we focused on was personalisation and product recommendations to our customers based on what they are searching for on our platform. The third area is that we've accelerated our digital transformation.

We have an extensive cloud migration programme going on where we're moving our entire product platform to Google Cloud running on Kubernetes.

“We are transforming our data infrastructure and architecture from a transaction-oriented model to one that focuses on providing a complete view and leveraging that data to power Machine Learning (ML) moving forward. By the end of this year we'll have our entire product platform running on Google cloud and Kubernetes, and we'll have close to 50% of our data infrastructure running and Google clouds on BigQuery architecture.

“That has enabled us to build products

PRICELINE

POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS Martin Brodbeck, Chief Technology Officer, Priceline comments on the importance of a best-in-class ecosystem and highlights the importance of three key partners.

Google Google is providing us with the next generation cloud infrastructure that is really going to help us scale and grow our business. They have been a key partner and helped us create a fantastic user experience for our online travel platform all over the world. We have Google regions running in Singapore, London and North America, and we'll be standing up one on the west coast. Having the right cloud infrastructure to power our products has been critical.

that are much more geared towards customer architecture and that can provide real-time analytics on how our products are performing. We're able to automatically scale our website based on traffic patterns and these have been key enablers for us to be able to scale the company in the last year.”

Customer-centric approach Priceline has always put the customer at the heart of their operations, and two decades after Captain Kirk beamed the company into the stratosphere with their online presence, Brodbeck is using intuitive technology to keep life simple for their clients when it comes to payments.

“To ensure the simplicity of our website, we do extensive user experience testing to ensure our customers are getting the best possible experience. Priceline prides itself on being a company that continuously likes to innovate from a user experience perspective. We capitalise on that innovation

EPAM Systems EPAM Systems has been an important infrastructure partner for us through our cloud journey. They provide us great talent and capabilities for us to move a lot of our mission critical applications and workloads from a traditional data centre architecture to one that rides on Google's Kubernetes platform. They have fantastic capabilities and insights on how to modernise a traditional data centre architecture.

DataStax DataStax has been an amazing partner for us in providing next generation capabilities that power our data infrastructure from a real-time perspective. We've been using the DataStax products for several years now and are moving to their Astro cloud platform, which will give us a competitive capability for our hotels and rental car products.

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“ Priceline strives to be the best travel deal maker in the world” MARTIN BRODBECK

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, PRICELINE

through AB experimentation, where we'll build a product feature, and test it out on our website to make sure that customers are using the new feature effectively,” he said.

“We are increasingly aware that consumers like to pay for our products in many different ways. Our job is to provide the best payment capabilities for our customers through our technology to keep customers coming back onto the platform.

Through the checkout process we offer our customers many different alternative payment methods from Google pay, Apple pay to PayPal and traditional credit cards and alternative payments which allows people to buy now and pay later.

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marketing architecture, which allows us to provide customers with the latest deals on products.”

Competitive advantage As Priceline moves into the next decade, Brodbeck reflects on what has given the company its edge in such a competitive market. “Three things give Priceline the competitive edge. The first is that we hire the brightest people all over the world who contribute to the building of our great products and help us innovate our infrastructure.

“The second is our process for software development. We have a highly experimental culture where we build features and functions

PRICELINE

and experiment to make sure they actually drive revenue or operational efficiency. Our agile based software development that allows for experimentation is part of our secret sauce.

“The third is site reliability and performance. We have a fast, high performance website that provides the best possible user experience all over the world. This comes down to our technology platform and the people that run it.”

Focus on cybersecurity As cyber attacks grow exponentially, Priceline is not taking its eye off their cyber security with round-the-clock monitoring of their Network Operating Centre.

“We have very sophisticated security

LIFE OUTSIDE THE OFFICE Martin Brodbeck, Chief Technology Officer, Priceline Holiday destination of choice and why?

London as it's a great mix of the old and new where you can visit a museum or just go for a pint of the best cask ale in an English pub.

I also enjoy all different villages in London from Mayfair to Notting Hill.

What top five items do you always pack when you travel?

• I would always take good walking shoes or sneakers • Electronic outlets to adapt to the different electrical architecture in a country • Two or three good books that I may or may not read • A good map of your destination • Comfortable clothing

Top recommendation for a US winter break?

Vail, Colorado is my favourite place to ski in the US. Favourite view?

The sunset at Martha’s Vineyard.

What is your top travel tip?

To be patient - as travel has changed significantly throughout the pandemic and be comfortable.

Do you enjoy a tech detox or take your tech with you on holiday?

I take my iPad Pro to read the news in the morning but then I like to de-plug from work.

What next destination is top of your bucket list?

Germany and a golfing trip to Ireland.

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1998

Year founded

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Employees who consider themselves “best deal makers” in the industry

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“Priceline prides itself on being a company that continuously likes to innovate from a user experience perspective” MARTIN BRODBECK

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, PRICELINE

architecture that we've made investments in over the years. From a fraud perspective we are using a technology platform from Forter that helps us identify any fraudulent activity. They have been a great partner and a phenomenal platform for us to install.

“We've made a significant investment over the last few years to combat any kind of denial of service or bot attack. We have also made heavy investments on encrypting all of our PII information at rest and in motion in our cloud environment, in our data centre environment, and even traffic within our own network is all encrypted, both in rest and in motion. We've also made significant investments in securing our code where we're using technologies from Bitbucket to make sure that there's no corruption across our GitHub repository that we use for code development.”

Brodbeck predicts the future of travel will be bright from a technology perspective.

“We are going to continue investing in ML to automate our core product and infrastructure capabilities. The best product and technology capabilities will power the next trip for all our customers.”

A deal that is sure to be given the seal of approval of Captain Kirk himself.

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EVENT REVIEW

Speaker: Kamran Khan (NTT), on The Future of the Hybrid Workplace

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BIZCLIK MEDIA GROUP:

Hosting Technology, AI & Cyber WRITTEN BY: TOM SWALLOW

LIVE

A new venture for BizClik Media Group, the Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE show brings global technology leaders together for a hybrid digital event

T

o understand the potential of technology in the future, it’s imperative that we analyse the current application of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, data analytics, and other new digital solutions. The coronavirus pandemic has somewhat heightened our awareness of the capabilities of technology, from its use in the supply chain and other private sectors to supporting the healthcare services and even warfighting efforts.

Digital transformation has allowed organisations to keep pushing for more and tackle some serious issues along the way.

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EVENT REVIEW

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“Employees are not going to let go of the tools that allow them to work so seamlessly.

They love it and it was a lot simpler compared to some of the technology sitting in the office” KAMRAN KHAN

GO TO MARKET LEADER, CX AND INTELLIGENT WORKSPACE, NTT LTD.

At Tobacco Dock, London, the Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE show brought together technology professionals and thought leaders to present company successes from the past 18 months, and provided valuable insights into future applications of technology. As a hybrid event, the show was made available to a global audience with a comprehensive virtual platform, encouraging viewers to network with industry leaders from around the world.

DAY ONE Communications, artificial intelligence and women in technology Throughout the first day of the event, the speakers touched on some very prominent topics on the current business agenda. With

Covid-19 presenting many struggles as well as some possibilities, one of the most significant changes to technology adoption was the switch to working from home.

During a high-level technology discussion, Kamran Khan, Go to Market Leader at NTT Ltd, discussed the current findings since the change to remote working, as he believes that hybrid working is here to stay. ‘Employees are not going to let go of the tools that allow them to work so seamlessly. They love it and it was a lot simpler compared to some of the technology sitting in the office’, says Khan.

Part of Khan’s talk referred to his own personal experience of remote working and the benefits that organisations should take into consideration as their employees strive for more flexibility at work. “It’s technologymagazine.com

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The World’s Biggest Sustainability Event February

23rd - 24th 2022 REGISTER FOR TICKETS

STREAMED LIVE FROM TOBACCO DOCK LONDON

A BizClik Media Group Brand

Creating Digital Communities

EVENT PREVIEW

“There are so many opportunities, including the use of technology for Covid and solving world problems around climate change” RICHARD BENJAMINS HEAD OF AI & DATA, TELEFONICA

about how organisations come to grips with that changing technology map and the changing way of decision making and architecture. Employees are a lot more empowered, they are a lot more demanding and I don’t think they will go back”.

Following the morning’s networking session, viewers were invited back into the main stage for talks that touched on cybersecurity and some AI development risks. Technological change will always present some vulnerabilities. With AI working around the clock to manage new systems, it can quite easily be applied in the wrong way. Chief Data and AI Strategist at Telefonica, Richard Benjamins, explained how AI has developed over the years and some of the risks involved in its application.

“It is true that in the media, there is more attention on negative uses, even though there are so many opportunities, including the use of technology for Covid and solving world problems around climate change, the headlines are negative and that’s a problem”, says Benjamins.

Diversity and supporting women in technology The afternoon at Tobacco Dock consisted of some talented female leaders in technology and their outlook on the current adoption of diversity in the industry. Vicky Sleight, Global Director of Human Factor, Diversity and Inclusion at TM Forum, joined Keri Gilder, Chief Executive Officer of Colt Technologies, to talk about some of the key issues that remain in the industry and how leaders and employees can play important roles in encouraging diversity.

“We can do more and I think that organisations and we as individuals need to find out what their needs are, and also make sure our organisations are running programmes like mentorships and going into schools”, says Sleight. technologymagazine.com

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In Association With:

THE ULTIMATE FINTECH & INSURTECH EVENT OCTOBER

12th - 14th STREAMED LIVE FROM TOBACCO DOCK LONDON A BizClik Media Group Brand

Confirmed Speakers Include: Jonathan Holman

Head of Digital Transformation: Corporate & Commercial Banking Santander UK

Scott Abrahams

SVP Business Development and Fintech Mastercard

Bryan Carroll CEO TNEX

Rafa Plantier

Head of UK & Ireland Tink

Lee Sarkin

Head: Data Analytics Munich Re

GET TICKETS HERE

Creating Digital Communities

EVENT REVIEW Women in Tech Panel: Keri Gilder (Colt), Vicky Sleight (TMForum), Ash Finnegan (Conga).

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EVENT REVIEW

Gilder says, “one of the aspects of inclusion is inclusive leadership and that comes with an element of empathy.

In order to enable empathy in your organisation, you have to listen to your employees”.

DAY TWO Technology and AI applications Day two of Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE brought together some interesting examples of how digital transformation impacts various sectors, including discussions on applications in the online vehicle auction business, uses for clinical research, and data management in the British Army.

Brigadier Stefan Crossfields, Chief Data Officer for the British Army, entered the stage and divulged some of the ways the Army is actively transforming the organisation’s legacy systems to take on challenges specific to the modern era of the military. He also explains how technology has helped the Army to manage a reduced level of recruitment and encourage partnerships with small-tomedium enterprises.

Meanwhile in the second stage, Rajiv Peter, Director Of Digital Technology at Notting Hill Genesis (NHG), delves into the application of its operations system, which has been custom-built specifically for the social landlord. “Our main mission is to house low-income families”, says Peter.

He discusses how the company invested in technology to improve its operations, by creating a single system that is optimised for its employees. “At that time, the view was that technology was a cost centre, similar to electricity or gas, where you go for the cheapest vendor or provider to technologymagazine.com

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“ Technology facilitated an acceleration in decision making that I have never seen in my career” SAMANTHA LISCIO

CHIEF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, NIHR CLINICAL RESEARCH

supply you that technology. The roll out of this seamless experience completely changed the mindset of our employees and our executives. After that roll out, the next thing to do was to increase that capability”, says Peter.

Samantha Liscio, Chief Information Technology Officer at National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network, goes into some detail about an important area of AI application, which has supported the healthcare services throughout one of the most difficult global situations. The company funds and manages large-scale research projects and digital transformation played a critical role in continued medical research. Creating a 188

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The Future of Cyber Security Panel: Richard Jones (Leidos), Simon Chassar (Claroty), Ross Garrigan (Host)

secure network for healthcare teams and providing them with equipment were a couple of the ways the NIHR supported organisations during the coronavirus pandemic. “Technology facilitated an acceleration in decision making that I have never seen in my career”, says Liscio.

“Technology and the creation of digital services were helping that. It was showing the art of the possible and that these things could be delivered in days or weeks”.

Needless to say, the Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE event was a huge success. It showed us how technology has allowed various industries to meet specific demands during a significant period of change for both businesses and

individuals. In hosting the event—and thanks to technology—individuals were able to attend from across the globe and allowed them to experience the past 18 months from the perspectives of other organisations. However, those who couldn’t make it to the show can view the whole thing online and watch it on-demand.

To find out how to register for the Technology, AI & Cyber LIVE recording go to www.technologymagazine.com.

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BUILDING BANKS THAT PEOPLE LOVE WRITTEN BY: GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

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BACKBASE

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BACKBASE

Example of an image caption

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BACKBASE

Backbase’s Heidi Custers discusses the acceleration of digital transformation, the unvalued innovative mindset of Africa, and its growing FinTech industry

J

2003

Year founded

1,500+

Number of employees

120+

Financial institutions around the world powered by Backbase

oining Backbase at the start of 2021, Heidi Custers is the Digital Transformation Director for Middle East and Africa at Backbase; an Amsterdam based software company and creator of the Engagement Banking Platform (EBP).

“I moved here at the beginning of 2021 from South Africa, where for most of my career I’ve worked in digital, focusing on banking and telecommunications. From an African perspective, that’s quite important because the convergence of those two industries are actually driving much of the innovation on the continent. So even though I now live in Europe, my focus is still on digital transformation in Africa,” says Custers.

Prior to joining Backbase, she worked at Deloitte as the Digital Transformation Strategy Lead for Africa “My experience of working with big banks, insurers, and telcos across the African continent has driven my interest in the FinTech industry. Tech companies are really driving the acceleration of innovation in financial services ” she adds.

Founded in 2003 – Backbase is a digitally native company that has made a massive impact in just two decades. “I've been following this company for over 10 years now, watching it with interest. Backbase has evolved into an end-to-end engagement banking platform. If you take the jargon out of it, that means we work with banks to help them transform the digital layer that their customers engage with, whether that be a web or mobile application, to become completely seamless. We enable customers technologymagazine.com

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REINVENTING THE BANKING EXPERIENCE Zafin is an award-winning, SaaS platform that helps financial institutions create personalized offerings, by externalizing product and pricing from legacy core systems.

>

Build Relationships: Execute innovative product, pricing and offer strategies to serve existing customers, attract new ones and deepen relationships

>

I ncrease Efficiency: Deploy new product, pricing and offer strategies in days rather than months with minimal IT involvement required.

>

Accelerate Digital Transformation: Simplify your core, de-risk your modernization program and accelerate project payback.

>

Strengthen Governance: Manage product information across the full product lifecycle, ensuring consistency and transparency while mitigating risk.

Zafin Helps Banks Create Personalized Customer Journeys Consumers are spoiled. They are served up with the exact experiences they desire before they even ask.

Music playlists are curated for them. Movie recommendations play automatically. Social feeds display trending topics and images. Banking has no choice but to mimic those personalized experiences. Not only because consumers expect them - but because emerging financial challengers and disruptors are already doing it. Traditional financial institutions have an enormous opportunity at this moment to build authentic, profitable relationships with customers. But it requires agility.

Externalized Product and Pricing Creates Unlimited Flexibility Zafin’s cloud-native SaaS product and pricing platform externalizes product and pricing from bank core processing so financial institutions can accelerate their digital transformation efforts and gain unlimited flexibility to create highly personalized customer journeys and bring them to market more quickly, to attract and retain more customers.

Relationship Pricing Simplified Using Zafin’s toolbox of features, financial institutions leverage the insights they already have from the treasure trove of customer data siloed across the bank or credit union. By surfacing this valuable information in the Zafin platform, they can strategically configure and launch loyalty and rewards programs, multi-product bundles and relationship pricing that is deeply personalized, down to the individual, to resonate with their customer’s individual financial situation and life stage. Most core systems can’t do that – and they shouldn’t.

When financial institutions embrace an ecosystem approach to technology, in which they can select best-in-class partners that align with their strategic goals, they advance their modernization efforts more quickly without the obstacles of core rigidity or a costly internal build.

Expanded Hyper-Personalized Offerings As a key partner in the Backbase ecosystem, Zafin unleashes enormous possibilities for financial institutions to expand their offers well beyond traditional bank or credit union accounts and pricing models. Zafin’s product and pricing platform even opens up the option of packaging additional customer-driven services and conveniences from outside of the financial industry.

As banks focus on offering hyper-personalized experiences in every channel, from in-person to online to mobile, they will require a full-featured tech stack that removes friction and propels innovation. Our cloud-native product and pricing platform is the engine powering this transformation in dozens of global financial institutions, from North America to Europe to Africa and Asia.

LEARN MORE

www.zafin.com

BACKBASE

Backbase: Building Banks That People Love

to have an experience with their bank that is easy, that compares to some of the worldclass neobanks like N26 or Revolut, and to do so in a way that is easily reusable across different lines of business,” says Custers.

“To achieve this, we integrate with banking systems, whether they are legacy tech or the digital-first, pricing engines like Zafin or core banking solutions like Mambu.

Backbase partners with companies to allow banks to place Backbase on top and create captivating and intuitive experiences for the customers no matter what other technology they’ve chosen. We have traditional banking customers that have gone from having an onboarding experience of 180 minutes, to 5.7 minutes on Backbase which is right up there with the neobanks.”

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building banking experiences that people love and be a platform that integrates easily with the rest of the banking ecosystem. The platform powers an endto-end user experience across all channels.

Backbase orchestrates the experience from start to finish when customers get onboard. “We are a fully-fledged engagement banking platform. Many analysts agree with us because we're consistently seen as the leading EBP in the world.” says Custers.

Authentically Living the Company Promise When asked what she thinks makes the operations at Backbase special, she says: “I've seldom worked for a company where the promise made to our clients is authentically lived within the company day-to-day as much as it is at Backbase. We

BACKBASE

“ Backbase has decided that it's going to focus very squarely in the business of building banking experiences that people love, and being a platform that integrates easily with the rest of the banking ecosystem”

HEIDI CUSTERS TITLE: D IGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR INDUSTRY: COMPUTER SOFTWARE LOCATION: NETHERLANDS Heidi Custers has been working with leading African enterprises to guide them through the various aspects of their digital journey since 2006. The focus of her career has been on the importance of customerled digital transformation, and how convergence of the financial services and telecommunications industries is changing the African landscape.

After working in banking, marketing and management consulting, she recently made the move to Amsterdam and joined Backbase as Digital Transformation Director for the Middle East and Africa. Heidi and Backbase share a vision to build banks that people love, and believe that Africa is the perfect place to accelerate the digital revolution.

HEIDI CUSTERS

really live our mission help banks to innovate and improve speed to market. This passion is reflected in the operations at Backbase. We live our values authentically. We have a flat structure within the company; the culture is very much one of autonomy. We hire the best in the business, and then we allow them to just get on with it,” explains Custers.

Growing at breakneck spend, Backbase has consistently doubled in size over the last couple of years, sitting at over 1,500 employees and operating in fifteen hubs around the world. Yet Custers says that the company still feels like you are working within part of a startup.

“Honestly, the company is very fastpaced. Our operations are changing all the time, but it's not uncomfortable, because we give people a sense of purpose and autonomy to do their jobs in the way that they feel is right for our customers.

EXECUTIVE BIO

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR, BACKBASE

Organization on a mission to make an impact on millions of people’s lives by solving our clients’ challenges in a digital, connected and cashless world.

We achieve this through delivery of world-class digital business solutions and insights transforming the world through seamless services at various lifestyle occurrences.

business innovation engineers Business Innovation engineers?

Yes, They do exist.

At the heart of every great business innovation in the 21st century, is the ability to identify challenges faced by the human race, and application of technological advancements to meet the needs or challenges in whatever shape of form this may be.

Business Innovation engineering is a unique methodology of delivering Digital Product offerings that combines business logic and technology innovation to create the perfect mix to address increasing digital solutions to global community. This is achieved through use of system thinking to help organisations and individuals find, filter and fast-track big and functional business ideas.

A great example of this is in the African financial services segment, where great innovations that address human lifestyle and sustainability needs have produced some of the greatest large scale digital financial inclusion solutions that have been a result of the convergence of applying great technology to work to achieve a human need. This has resulted in the African Financial services segment leapfrogging some of the innovative solutions in more developed regions such as in the US and Europe, driven primarily by partnerships with non-financial institutions like Telcos and fintechs and their drive to become lifestyle platform providers.

At Bring Global, we love the African story, with extensive roots in Africa, and the success of the African continent as a strategic pillar of our existence in the African market, we have partnered with Backbase technologies to deliver Digital Omnichannels solutions for Banks and Financial services providers across Africa that not only work, but make commercial sense through origination and creation of innovative monetization methodologies of this digital solutions.

We are committed to supporting the Africa Digitalization success story by providing software delivery capabilities from our Africa Hub in Nairobi to help build digital financial solutions that consider the modern day African residents Digital financial lifestyle needs, and now more than ever, supporting banks to build their ecosystems and services to be an integral part of this story.

Having successfully partnered with some of the largest banks in the African continent, we welcome you to join us in being part of the journey to digitise the African continent.

We are Business innovation engineers, and we are here for the African story.

learn more

LINKEDIN

BACKBASE

This means we can be incredibly flexible and move at lightning speed. I've seen decisions made that change the course of the business in an hour and a half meeting, and then be implemented immediately after, which is not something that companies usually do when they get beyond a certain size,” comments Custers.

“A word that often comes up when you read about Backbase is ‘love’, because our credo is ‘become the bank that people love’, and our mission is to get 10% of the people in the world using Backbase as their engagement banking platform. This is infused into the way that every one of us at Backbase thinks. We don't just care about our banking customers, we also care about the customers experiences, whether they are consumers, businesses or large corporations. Our CEO and founder Jouk Pleiter is testament to how well this company has been built. It's filled with energy and passion, even though we're growing so quickly."

Tech Companies Disrupting the African Financial Services Sector “Africa is an interesting space,” says Custers. “I believe true innovation is born out of constraint, it doesn’t often happen in a vacuum. If there is nothing forcing it, it is seldom able to accelerate. The first world has historically benefitted from a lot of technology and connectivity infrastructure.

In my opinion, that means that technology in financial services has innovated and evolved at a linear pace.” In Africa, Custers explains that the limitations can often seem overwhelming. “Internet connectivity is still very low and unemployment is very high, in some countries over 30%. It’s these constraints, coupled with a really deep entrepreneurial spirit of the African people, that are driving non-traditional players to dominate innovation in financial services, by doing things that often leapfrog what you’ll see in the developed world.”

Some of the examples of this come from financial services, technology and telecommunication collaborations. “Often spoken about is M-PESA in Kenya, as a

“ I believe true innovation is born out of constraint; it doesn’t often happen in a vacuum. If there is nothing forcing it, it is seldom able to accelerate” HEIDI CUSTERS

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR, BACKBASE

BACKBASE

BACKBASE AND PARTNERS

DID YOU KNOW...

digital currency based on your mobile phone using your mobile number. But, so much has happened beyond that, which I think the rest of the world could learn from. An example of this is ‘Juice’ by MCB in Mauritius, powered by Backbase. This is essentially enables for people to make payments and payment requests on their mobile without logging into their bank and making a transfer. Out of 'juice' comes 'juicing,' a new term born in Africa that is beginning to catch on in other countries," claims Custers.

Something else that is happening more and more in Africa is that banks that initially felt the FinTech and telco threat have adapted and see partnering with companies that are not financial institutions as strategically imperative.

The most impactful industry convergence is that of the banks and the mobile network operators.

“Partners are just human beings,” says Custers. “A human-based partnership strategy for any bank or large enterprise wanting to do business in Africa is actually as important, if not more important than anywhere else in the so-called developed world. Because the continent is so unique, it has so many constraints and so many different regional, country and cultural nuances that it’s critical to have a really good network of partners that absolutely understand how human beings in Africa think, and the differences in the way that African people act country to country.

It’s not just about partnering with the companies that have the best tech, or the most advanced developers.”

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BACKBASE

Backbase in Under Two Minutes — an Introduction to our Engagement Banking Platform

In most countries in the region, telecommunications companies own the customer share of wallets more than anywhere else in the world. In many cases, the one connection to the internet that a household has is on a single mobile phone.

This is often a feature phone, without apps, or a very rudimentary smartphone. The mobile network operators facilitate that connection to the world. Everything from the ability to speak to family, to access education, make purchases, and even run businesses – which are often small subsistence enterprises.

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reach into Africa, Custers says: “Telcos have become the dominant force across various countries. It didn't take very long for them to realise that if they own the customer connections, as soon as they unlock the ability for that customer to transact, save, or even borrow, using their platform without a bank account – because over 50% of the continent is still unbanked – they would be able to own the customer entirely.”

“That’s when banks started to realise that they either needed to radically transform digitally and go beyond banking, or partner with telcos or risk their connection to their customers being eroded.”

BACKBASE

“ There’s a very old African proverb; ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far go together’. In this fast-paced, everchanging digital world, I believe you can go far, and you can go fast if you go together” HEIDI CUSTERS

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR, BACKBASE

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BANKING DIGITALISATION DELIVERED DIGITAL ENABLEMENT is driving

a new age in banking and financial services.

DVT’s 20+ year history of servicing major banking and financial services institutions delivers digital solutions in shorter time frames.

Digital initiatives in financial services encompass a variety of technology areas requiring experience and skill.

DVT provides a complete array of critical skills and services including web and mobile application development, DevOps, Backbase digital banking engagement implementation, UX / UI, data and analytics.

DVT is a proud

implementation parter

Accelerate your Digital Initiatives. Today.

www.dvtsoftware.com www.dvt.co.za

BACKBASE

An example of this is a Zimbabwean bank that Custers has worked with in 2018, and cites as the proudest moment of her career.

“FBC Bank is a perfect example of this. In Zimbabwe, 70% of all people who carry out financial transactions do so primarily through their telco, and less than half even have bank accounts. So, you can imagine the power that these telcos actually have, and how important it was for the bank to take bold steps in their digital transformation. Three years later, they are winning awards for their digital experiences, and they are doing so in the face of overwhelming odds.”

BRING GLOBAL AND DVT

PARTNERSHIPS...

“On the face of it, these two Backbase partners could be seen as doing the same thing; they are often seen as competitors to each other.

But I think this is where the uniqueness of being part of the Backbase partnership ecosystem comes into play, because we believe they are both leaders in their respective fields, in different countries, and in different capabilities where they’ve chosen to play. We work well with both of them and understand exactly how to partner with them to improve a bank’s digital transformation,” says Custers.

DVT “DVT is a new partner to Backbase. But what we’re seeing is they have a passion for innovation and a commitment to really ensure that the customers of the banks that we work with get the best experience, as well as to accelerate development. So we look forward to working with them and finding the nuances where they can accelerate the transformations of banks that have chosen the Backbase platform.”

Bring Global “Bring Global, has a longstanding partnership with Backbase. In fact, they consistently win Backbase partner of the year. We’ve been working with them in Kenya, Ghana, and Angola, as well as in all sorts of other places around the world. Bring Global understands the way that the African continent moves.

It also has a deep understanding of the Backbase platform and the way that it is implemented in banks.”

ZAFIN “Backbase recently announced a global partnership with Zafin; the global leader in SaaS cloud-native product and pricing solutions for financial institutions, to integrate Zafin’s award-winning relationship-based product and pricing capabilities into our Engagement Banking platform. The exciting thing about partnerships like this one, is that it allows our customers to instantaneously deploy products and offers with pricing optimised to each individual customer, no matter their core system. This unburdens institutions and allows them to launch at lightning speed.”

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BACKBASE

Another example of African ingenuity is in Kenya, where the dominance of telcos in financial services is absolute. In response to this, Equity Bank, CBA and KCB strategically partnered with Safaricom to improve financial inclusion. Custers does not think this is a coincidence: “As I’ve already said, it’s often constraints that force companies, even those who traditionally compete, to innovate creatively and work together with the endcustomer experience in mind.”

This unique brand of innovation is not constrained to the private sector, in Custers’ opinion; “I think Africa one place in the world where we've really seen that combination of constraint and community make a tangible, continent-wide difference and actually improve GDPs of countries, often forcing governments to digitally transform because the innovation in the private sector is

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moving so fast that the citizens now expect that of the governments. If you look at Rwanda, for instance, it is fast becoming a digital-first government, mostly because of the partnerships between banks, FinTechs, government and telcos.”

FinTechs helping African banks Accelerate Their Digital Transformation Backbase and its partners are contributing to the digital transformation of Africa in two different ways. “On one hand, we are working with the leading banks in Africa, not only creating neobank-like experiences for their customers on their own digital channels but also giving them the opportunity to have an engagement banking platform that seamlessly plugs in the best FinTechs on the continent to augment their capabilities, allowing them to scale at speed.

BACKBASE

Backbase provides a class-leading omnichannel experience, not only for customers through web and mobile but also for employees by giving them access to digital experiences with the same user experience the customers enjoy. “We're helping banks to create a future-fit architecture, that is cloudfirst, and powered by APIs. By unburdening our clients across the Middle East and Africa, and enabling them to adopt engagement journeys that have been proven on a global level – over more than 150 implementations in the USA, Europe, LATAM and Asia – we accelerate their digital transformations. The learning goes both ways, however. We also leverage the innovations built on our platform by our African clients and feed it back into our 750 people strong Research and Development team, giving the rest of the world the opportunity to learn from this incredible continent.”

“ Banks started to realise that they either needed to radically digitally transform and go beyond banking, or partner with telcos or risk their connection to their customers being eroded” HEIDI CUSTERS

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR, BACKBASE

The other way Backbase is accelerating digital transformation in Africa is through its partnership network. Custers explains; “We partner with some of the leading Fintechs, advisory firms and development shops across the globe. The Backbase marketplace consists of both accelerators and connectors to Backbase so that a bank can essentially create an end-to-end banking ecosystem almost out of the box in a six month period, or less.

The necessary integrations and configuration on the platform can be easily delivered by Backbase, our delivery partners or the bank themselves in our flexible delivery approach.”

Custers is clear on Backbase’s vision for Africa. “The bottom line is, we want to work with the banks, the FinTechs and other partners across the region that share our passion to build banks that people love. There’s a very old African proverb; ‘If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far go together’.

In this fast-paced, ever-changing digital world, I believe you can go far, and you can go fast if you go together.”

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HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

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HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

TRANSFORMING

IRELAND'S HEALTHCARE INTO A

WRITTEN BY: LEILA HAWKINS

PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

DIGITAL LEADER technologymagazine.com

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HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

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HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

Martin Curley of the Health Service Executive tells us how Ireland is set to become a digital healthcare leader

M

Martin Curley Health Service Executive

artin Curley is the Director of Digital Transformation and Innovation for Ireland's Health Service Executive, also known as the HSE. His team have ambitious plans for the country's healthcare to significantly transform so that Ireland becomes a digital leader that other healthcare systems can follow. "Healthcare is around 10 years behind other industries in terms of digital technology, and Ireland is behind the rest of the OECD countries," Curley explains. "We're trying to transform Ireland to go from being a digital laggard to a digital leader in five years."

Curley leads a small team of people he describes as catalysts whose goal is to use digital technologies to innovate and transform the healthcare system. "Our ambition is that by 2025, we will be one of the leaders in Europe for digital health, we will have significantly transformed the HSE and our health service for our citizens, our clinicians, and indeed, for business staff."

The HSE's digital innovation strategy, which they launched in 2018, is called Stay Left, Shift Left and extended the concept of "Shift Left" which was first introduced

by Intel Corporation's Doug Busch and Andy Grove. It is an approach to using solutions to make people's health better.

"It's very aligned with Ireland's National Health Policy called Sláintecare," Curley explains. "Essentially, we're looking for digital technologymagazine.com

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IMPROVING PATIENT OUTCOMES by #MakingEveryBreathCount PMD Solutions was founded to fill the fundamental clinical need to measure patients’ rate of breathing, which if amiss, is a significant indicator of early deterioration.

RespiraSense is a solution for avoiding preventable respiratory failure.

A novel wearable device that measures respiratory rate in a continuous and motion tolerant way. PMD Solution’s creation of RespiraSense has revolutionised the early diagnosis and intervention of medical events, by #MakingEveryBreathCount.

TWITTER

LINKEDIN

YOUTUBE

PMD Solutions and its Vision for Respiratory Care

Myles Murray (PMD Solutions) and Martin Curley (HSE) discuss their partnership and PMD Solutions’ vision for Respiratory Care.

Respiratory Rate is the earliest sign of deterioration says Myles Murray, CEO at PMD Solutions. The reason for this is that your breathing is driven by how healthy you are. An infection or fluid building up in the lungs from Pneumonia or COVID requires your lungs to work harder in order to stabilise the body.

Respiratory rate is wellestablished globally as the earliest and most sensitive indicator of deterioration, Murray adds. However, the challenge has been to measure this sentinel vital signs accurately.”

Adding to Murray’s comments, Martin Curley, Director, Digital Transformation and Open Innovation, at HSE, says that “there has been very little innovation in actually measuring respiration rate.

It’s very subjective. We found that in almost 80% of the cases, the subjective measurement by the nurse were different. And this isn’t because they are bad nurses. It’s because it’s inherently difficult to measure. So the ability in a general ward to measure respiration rate really is a game-changer.”

PMD Solutions and HSE Reflecting on the genesis of this partnership, Murray starts off by explaining that RespiraSense was launched as part of the COVID response in Beaumont Hospital. “Within a few weeks they saw enormous value from the technology, and because of that success, RespiraSense were very kindly introduced to the Digital Transformation team at the HSE.” Taking just three months to deploy nationally as a de facto standard of care in respiratory compromised patients, Curley reflects on a recent meeting: “one of the more senior clinical engineers in the network commented at one of our meetings that she was amazed at how fast this could be rolled out. She said “normally, a new programme like this would take two to three years in the HSE, and it took three months.”

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HSE: Transforming Ireland's healthcare into a digital leader

interventions or solutions that in the first case help keep people well or help them manage their conditions in their homes.

That's the "Stay Left'' part.`` "Shift Left is about moving patients as quickly as possible from an acute to a community to a home setting. Every time we make a digital intervention, or an innovation intervention, we're looking for four characteristics, sometimes called the quadruple aim: improvements in the quality of care, in quality of life, reduction in costs, and improvement in the clinician/patient experience."

He adds that Stay Left Shift Left is a way to state the direction of HSE's innovation strategy. "Thankfully, we've been able to mobilise the ecosystem that works with us - large multinational companies as well as smaller SMEs - to help find solutions that help us Stay Left Shift Left."

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“ We propose a healthcare system that is mainly home and communitybased, is proactive, predictive, mobile and cloud-enabled, as well as opensource where possible” MARTIN CURLEY

DIRECTOR OF THE DIGITAL ACADEMY AND OPEN INNOVATION, HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

MARTIN CURLEY TITLE: DIRECTOR OF THE DIGITAL ACADEMY AND OPEN INNOVATION

2005

INDUSTRY: HEALTHCARE LOCATION: IRELAND

Year founded

130,000 Number of employees

€20.6bn spend

that it had to begin slowly. "Our first efforts were to create a digital academy to start building digital capability and capacity in the Irish health service. Working with eight Irish universities, we co-designed and launched a Masters in Digital Health Transformation.

We used a paradigm called design science research, where instead of students writing a 30,000-word dissertation, they actually have to develop and deliver a digital change project."

This approach has had remarkable success, as in the first year, 18 out of the 20 projects delivered were found to be viable and are either fully implemented or in development.

Given that Ireland lags behind OECD countries in terms of digitalising, Curley and his team developed a Leap Frog strategy to move the healthcare system forwards.

"Many countries have installed monolithic electronic health records into their hospitals

EXECUTIVE BIO

Revenue

Martin Curley is Director of the Digital Academy and Open Innovation at the Health Service Executive (HSE), helping enable the digital transformation of Ireland’s health service.

Most recently Martin was Chief Information Officer (CIO) at the HSE. Prior to joining the HSE Martin was Senior Vice President and group head for Global Digital Practice at Mastercard. Previously Martin was Vice President at Intel Corporation and Director/GM of Intel Labs Europe, Intel’s network of more than 50 research labs which he help grow across the European region. He also served as a senior principal engineer at Intel Labs Europe leading Intel’s research and innovation engagement with the European Commission and the broader European Union research ecosystem. Prior to this Curley was Global Director of IT Innovation and Director of IT Strategy and Technology at Intel. Earlier in his Intel career, he held a number of senior positions for Intel in the United States and Europe. He also worked in research and management positions at GE in Ireland and Philips in the Netherlands.

riMedik

R E D E F I Care NING CARE Redefining

HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

Transforming Healthcare Transforming Care Through Innovative in the HSE Through Innovative Technology Patnerships Technology Partnerships

Improving Vital Patient Care Worldwide Dr Róisín Molloy (TriMedika) and Professor Martin Curley (Health Service Executive) discuss how TRITEMP™ thermometer has helped drive the digital innovation agenda in Ireland.

Developing devices that really make a difference for patients.

Working in the medical industry for 25 years, Dr Róisín Molloy, CEO at TriMedika, could see areas where technology wasn’t keeping up with patient need. “We set up TriMedika to provide the most accurate clinical devices for hospitals, and this is where we see ourselves as being different.”

A particular area that Dr Molloy explains hasn’t seen much development is thermometry.

“There has been no development for 15 years.

Yet it is one of the routine diagnostics that we use around the world, so we set about making the TRITEMP™ non-contact thermometer.“ “The key things that came from talking to doctors, nurses and healthcare workers within the HSE, were obviously the savings on cost and time for the healthcare workers at the hospital, but also to manage infections, and we were keen to build the future for thermometry.”

TriMedika and its Partnership with the HSE. For the last four years, TriMedika has been selling into the HSE, now in over 200 locations

in Ireland, as well as hospitals in over 20 countries. “We have been working with the HSE team to really understand their needs and their pain points, as well as looking at research to make thermometers better and develop them so that they are better for nurses and hospital teams. The HSE is a very forwardthinking organisation”, says Dr Molloy.

Adding to Dr Molloy’s comments, Professor Martin Curley, HSE Director of Transformation/ Maynooth University, says, “It has been tremendous to partner with TriMedika. The ambition of the HSE is to move Ireland from being a digital health laggard to a European digital leader in the years ahead. To do that, we need to partner with the best and the brightest, both here and abroad.”

“We have an overarching strategy, which we call ‘stay left, shift left’. Stay left is about using technology to keep people well in their home, or if you happen to have a chronic condition you can be managed best of all from home.

Shift left is about moving patients as quickly as possible from an acute to a community, to a home setting. Every time we make these digital interventions, we’re trying to achieve the quadruple aim: lower cost, improved quality of care, improved quality of life and improved clinician experience. TriMedika delivers on all of these.”

“The TRITEMP™ is a superior thermometer because it is non-contact, thus helping with infection control - very important during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s going to be an essential tool for preventing Hospital Acquired Infections. It’s also more sustainable with no consumables making it about a fifth of the total cost of ownership of conventional thermometers.”

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over the last 15 years or so," Curley says.

"Ireland didn't do that, even though that was the intention. What we propose instead is moving to a healthcare system that, instead of being paper-based and presence-based around acute hospitals, is mainly home and community-based, is proactive, predictive, mobile and cloud-enabled, leveraging opensource where possible.”

Curley says there is a real opportunity for Ireland to lead in this space. "We have this really unique point in time where we have all these disruptive technologies available in the cloud-like machine learning and the Internet of Things, that enable us to do things that weren't possible five years ago."

One example of this is remote monitoring via pulse oximeters and apps, which they deployed during the pandemic. This led to an innovative platform for remote respiratory management developed in a 'Living Lab', which today has 850 patients with chronic respiratory conditions being monitored remotely while they're at home.

"A Living Lab is where a technology or solution is actually tested in context, in a clinical setting and quickly co-designed in an agile way. We have four phases of innovation: exploration, proof of concept if that's successful we move to demonstrator, proving the business value and clinical efficacy of a solution, and lastly, broad adoption," Curley explains.

"We try to develop a consistent innovation pathway, a place where good ideas and embryonic solutions can be generated and evaluated, and if we feel there's significant value, we can deploy these in a living lab."

Members of the government, industry, academia and patients or citizens themselves participate in these labs, with the benefit of utilising patients as 218

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co-innovators in the process, rather than treating them as research objects. "We're getting really good results," Curley says.

"We're able to speed up projects, and we're usually hitting all four elements of our quadruple aim - reduced costs, improved care, improved quality of life, and improved clinician experience."

The Digital Transformation and Innovation team has set up over thirty

HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

living labs across Ireland, for example a virtual rehab lab in Drogheda, an emergency general surgery living lab in Letterkenny hospital, and a distributed heart care at home lab working with patients with heart failure conditions. This lab, set up in conjunction with Centric Health and Roche is in the demonstrator phase. The early results are very promising - in a cohort of one hundred patients who

“ We think using this new digitalbased, home-based approach to healthcare can be transformation” MARTIN CURLEY

DIRECTOR OF THE DIGITAL ACADEMY AND OPEN INNOVATION, HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE technologymagazine.com

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“ We're trying to transform Ireland to go from being a digital laggard to a digital leader in five years” MARTIN CURLEY

DIRECTOR OF THE DIGITAL ACADEMY AND OPEN INNOVATION, HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

Telemedicine video on the move RedZinc constantly innovates in wearable video solutions for on-the-move video communications for the healthcare industry.

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are being monitored remotely, thirty two early interventions have been made which have avoided the need for a hospitalisation.

In the near future, HSE hopes to roll out a solution called Vital Signs Automation, which will automate the process of collecting the observations nurses do to monitor vital signs. "This will also automatically compute something called an early warning score, which detects whether a patient is deteriorating so that an intervention can be made. We're testing it in a Living Lab in Cavan General Hospital, and the nurses really love it - it's transforming their role. It's eliminating much of the paperwork they have to do and giving them back more time for caring.”

Another solution called RespiraSense has also proven to be very effective, in this case for patients with COVID-19. RespiraSense wirelessly transmits a person's respiration rates while they're lying in bed, using innovative piezoelectric technology and advanced processing algorithms. "Historically, it has

been very difficult to actually measure the respiration rate of a patient; nurses monitor it subjectively. In a trial in one of our Living Labs, we found that 80% of nurses reported respiration rates were incorrect, so we were making care decisions based on information that wasn't quite right."

RespiraSense, which was co-introduced with PMD Solutions, gives accurate rates as well as a 12- hour notice if a patient is going to deteriorate, which has helped move people to the ICU quickly when needed. "Typically, it enables shorter lengths of stay and better results for the patient," Curley says. It helps identify to clinicians which patients might need more care in a busy ward.

PMD Solutions also helped them integrate RespiraSense into the vital signs solution, enabling all vital signs, including blood pressure, pulse oximetry, and respiration rates, to be automatically recorded. "We think this is a global first, that we could be the first hospital technologymagazine.com

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system in the world that has automated respiration rates as the standard of care in our non-ICU wards."

Another key partner is Irish software-asa-service company RedZinc. HSE worked with RedZinc on a new video conferencing solution for St. James's Hospital, Ireland's largest teaching hospital and HSE’s mental health division. "It works very simply. The consultant that needs to speak to a patient sends them a text, the patient clicks on the text, and it immediately opens a secure two-way video conferencing solution. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic we had the solution in place in a matter of weeks before we started to see some of the more mainstream solutions become adopted."

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He attributes the speed at which they've been able to innovate to their partner ecosystem, which includes large companies, universities, policymakers and SMEs. The stakeholders work with an approach called Open Innovation 2.0. "Open Innovation has been around for a while," Curley explains. "It was popularised in 2003 by Henry Chesbrough. I had the privilege of working with the European Commission and leading a group focused on Open Innovation over the last nine years or so. We were tracking what was happening with Open Innovation and recognised a new paradigm has emerged: Open Innovation 2.0.”

"Where Open Innovation is a collaboration between two parties, Open Innovation 2.0 is a multi-party collaboration with many actors from different areas all coalesced around

HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE

a shared vision. Through working together based on a shared vision, we're able to deliver far greater impacts than we could if we just innovated on our own. We've worked with a pipeline of around 15 different SMEs to co-innovate solutions in the last year alone."

One company that mobilised really quickly was Trimedica, which created the TRITEMP thermometer. This uses infrared technology to measure the temperature of a patient and requires no contact - it can even be used while a patient is sleeping without needing to wake them up. "This was also very important in terms of COVID-19 when we knew very little about the disease. The limited contact between the clinician and the patient reduces the risk of COVID-19 spreading, so it's very beneficial."

Curley adds that another benefit that is often an afterthought is the total cost of medical equipment or medical devices, which in the case of TRITEMP is around a fifth of a conventional device because it doesn't have disposable parts. "It's a very sustainable solution. Once we identified this solution, TRITEMP had shipped hundreds of these devices to us within a couple of days, and they were deployed immediately by public health nurses going out to people's homes and in our hospitals."

The overarching aim of building HSE's digital capacity to transform healthcare is to improve the lives of patients, as well as those of the clinicians. "Ultimately, if we're successful, Ireland will be a really healthy society. The focus of the healthcare system will move from recovering from illness to maintaining wellness. We'll use techniques like social prescribing rather than always prescribing pills as the solution. It will be a proactive, predictive system and is based primarily in the home and community - we will still have acute hospitals, but they will be highly digitised.

"We think using this new digital-based, home-based approach to healthcare can be transformational," Curley adds.

"Every healthcare system in the world is struggling and has budget and service challenges. We think we can provide a design pattern for other health systems to copy. Most importantly, we hope patient experiences and outcomes will be better, clinician experiences and outcomes will be better, and people will live longer and more fulfilling lives."

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TELEKOM INFRA

TELEKOM INFRA: STARTUP AGILITY AT MNO SCALE WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING

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Shibu Varghese, Managing Director & CEO of Telekom Infra talks 5G, the company’s T-Mobile carve out, and the future of the European tower-co.

The European telecommunications landscape is changing. As mobile network operators (MNOs) increasingly look to transform themselves into tech-focused platform operators - all the while contending with an ongoing industry-wide step change to 5G - independent infrastructure companies are increasingly coming to the fore.

“Across Europe, the whole telecom infrastructure industry is consolidating,” says Shibu Varghese, Managing Director and CEO of Telekom Infra, the Netherlands’ largest tower-co, following its carve-out from T-Mobile Netherlands in 2019, and which recently merged with the infrastructure business belonging to Cellnex. “You can see this trend with the Cellnex-Deutsche Telekom merger, as well as with Vantage 226

October 2021

Towers (which are part of Vodafone) doing a similar kind of thing,” Varghese continues.

Varghese joined Telekom Infra to oversee the company’s carve out from T-Mobile Netherlands two years ago. “It’s been a rollercoaster ride - building up a new network with a totally independent mindset,” he reflects. From building a team and reinventing an IT stack, to building new relationships with a host of key partners, Varghese and the rest of Telekom Infra have accomplished a lot in the past 24 months.

They now find themselves once again at the start of another exciting journey as the Cellnex merger creates new synergies and opportunities to expand, and the Netherlands braces for the next stage of the 5G boom.

TELEKOM INFRA

Finding their Feet Telekom Infra is the largest tower-co in the Netherlands with over 3,200 locations - a substantial portfolio in a country less than 42,000 km² in size. When it came time to plot a course forward for the newly carved out Telekom Infra, Varghese knew he needed to build a company that could leverage its new infrastructure assets from the ground up.

“First, we focused on building the team. We had no one when I arrived, so our first priority was to bring some very experienced people on board,” he says.

“I was very lucky to get the people who became my head of operations, my head of business development, technology, and finance - getting the right people on my team really was the first step in building this business the right way. Deutsche Funkturm (DFMG) the Deutsche Telekom Infra in Germany chipped in with some mentorship as well.”

THE RISE OF THE TOWER-CO Over the past few years, there has been a schism between the networks that MNOs build, own, and maintain, and the infrastructure that supports those networks.

Increasingly, independent companies (which are often subsidiaries or business units owned at least in some part by the MNOs themselves) are stepping in to act as dedicated telecom infrastructure operators, sometimes offering their services to multiple MNOs at once.

The trend represents an interesting shift in perspective. During the 1990s and early 2000s, cell towers were not considered to be saleable assets, as they were too closely tied to the MNOs core business competencies. Then, around 2014, several companies (including Cellnex and American Tower) began the acquisition spree for the cell site assets of various telcos looking for greater liquidity in the face of the Recession. The industry today follows a very similar business model to the colocation data centre sector, with MNOs selling their infrastructure (in much the same way they have sold off their data centre assets) to dedicated operators, who in turn lease capacity back to them at favourable, infrastructureas-a-service rates.

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Telekom Infra: Startup agility at MNO Scale

With the right people in place, the next step was to fill the gap left by the removal of T-Mobile’s IT capabilities. “We were originally dependent on the T-Mobile Netherlands systems, so the priority was to build up our own IT systems,” Varghese explains, adding that once the human and technical elements were in place, the final phase was to “leverage both the technology and the people into a company culture that was uniquely our own. We knew we wanted to have a startup mentality because, although we were under the Deutsche Telekom umbrella, we were small, we were different - we were not an MNO. So, we developed this new culture with the aim of becoming this sharp, agile startup company that can, at the same time, still leverage the Deutsche Telekom group's strength.”

The Anchor for 5G Immediately following the completion of the carve out, Telekom Infra became a key element of T-Mobile Netherlands’ 228

October 2021

5G rollout. “We enabled T-Mobile to be the number one Network Service Provider in the country for 5G. They were the first to launch a commercial 5G service in the Netherlands because of us. We really enable our anchor customer - which is T-Mobile - to be the market leader, particularly relating to 5G,” says Varghese. “In order to help T-Mobile Netherlands achieve that goal, we had to make sure we were ready for the launch of 5G far ahead of schedule.

T-Mobile switched on its 5G network in the Netherlands in July of 2020, and we had been working to be ready for that launch since the beginning of 2019. The launch has been a phenomenal success for us, and for T-Mobile Netherlands.”

Preparing for the 5G rollout in the Netherlands, Varghese adds, was not without its complications. One of the key challenges, he explains, for an operator looking to upgrade to 5G, is that “a lot of the latest technologies, like Advanced Antenna System

TELEKOM INFRA

Shibu Varghese TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO COMPANY: TELEKOM INFRA

EXECUTIVE BIO

INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE Shibu has been in highly responsible global leadership roles in Telecom, Technology & Infra domains, presently the CEO & Managing Director of Telekom Infra (Deutsche Telekom) since Feb 2019.

Shibu is known as a dynamic, results-oriented leader, with a strong track record of performance in CXO level technology business & successfully drive growth. He has been recognised as a strategic thinker and innovative leader who takes ownership of the business as his own, and has been invited and entrusted many times by CEOs and CTOs to plan, build and modernise their networks in diverse markets. He has also demonstrated the ability to work under challenging business situations across with multiple teams.

“Across Europe, the whole telecom infrastructure industry is consolidating” SHIBU VARGHESE

MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, TELEKOM INFRA

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Unlock exponential value…

Beyond Connectivity We believe our evolving digital lives will demand access to secure, resilient and reliable digital services from telecom service providers. This is a huge opportunity for telcos to transform into customer-centric digital service providers.

Building on belief Click here to learn how.

TCS: delivering bespoke organisational and IT consulting Carol Wilson, Vijaya Bogadapati of Tata Consultancy Services and Shibu Varghese of Telekom Infra discuss the key partnership between their firms.

When Telekom Infra, a Dutch tower-co, was carved out of Deutsche Telekom in 2019 – and tasked with finding their feet as a brand new company – their Managing Director & CEO, Shibu Varghese, knew that success was going to require an experienced strategic partner.

“I was asked to set up Telekom Infra from scratch following the carve-out from T-Mobile Netherlands. When I started, the entire company was basically just a contract signed between T-Mobile Netherlands and Deutsche Telekom. There was no organisation, no business model, no clear growth plan,” explains Varghese.

Telekom Infra selected TCS as a key strategic partner, he continues, because “of their experience in both telecom and IT; it was the sweet spot of expertise we were looking for because they helped us be agile, modern, and build the business more or less from scratch.”

Carol Wilson, Vice-President & Head of the Communications, Media & Information Services business of TCS in UK & Europe, and Vijaya Bogadapati, who heads up the CMI Unit at TCS in Europe, have been a key factor in helping

Telekom Infra hit the ground running in the middle of the Netherlands’ race to launch 5G. For Telekom Infra, going from carve-out to competitive tower-co as smoothly as possible was a critical goal, made all the more important by the 2020 launch of 5G services by T-Mobile, the company’s largest customer.

“We absolutely had to keep our new business running smoothly for T Mobile. They were in the middle of their 5G launch when Telekom Infra carved out from T-Mobile Netherlands, and Telekom Infra was key to supporting their push to be the first 5G carrier in the Netherlands – and one of the first in Europe. In order to make sure we didn’t drop the ball we were holding for T-Mobile, we knew we needed a great partner to support us in our business continuity,” Varghese explains, adding that, in addition to helping with the T-Mobile project, “The new Processes and BI capability from TCS helped us in offering custom rooftop sharing options to KPN and onboarding a large wireless machine-to-machine network in the Netherlands, as well as adding a global swift navigation provider as our customer.”

“The topmost priority for us from day one was to ensure that Telekom Infra’s carve out went as smoothly as possible,” says Bogadapati.

“By leveraging our consulting expertise and experience, we were able to lead the transition activity in a way that ensured technical and operational stability for Telekom Infra all the way through the carve-out and beyond.”

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TELEKOM INFRA

“ We were small, we were different we were not an MNO” SHIBU VARGHESE

MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, TELEKOM INFRA

(AAS) and Massive MIMO, use a completely different radio than other generations. These multiband new radios are huge; they give you up to six times the capacity, but they're also much heavier, and have a very different form factor to the equipment we had previously installed across our sites.”

While Telekom Infra operates a number of masts throughout the Netherlands (many of which still required strengthening in order to support the new 5G equipment) a significant number of its sites are based on rooftops, meaning the company exists in a constantlyshifting state of symbiosis with more than 2,500 individual landlords throughout the country. “We had to convince the landlords in many of the buildings where our sites are located that installing this new kind of antenna on their roofs was absolutely necessary,” says Varghese. “Then, because of the size and weight of the new 5G equipment, we were having to strengthen our masts, and even strengthen the roofs 232

October 2021

of some buildings where it was determined they wouldn't be able to stand up to the strain of the new antennas. We had to negotiate with landlords, draw up new contracts, and then actually get the physical equipment ready. It was very intense work, but it was very successful.”

On the same day that T-Mobile received regulatory clearance to switch on its network, Telekom Infra’s infrastructure was ready to support it. In 2020, T-Mobile’s network was ranked best in the world by Umlaut. “We are very proud to be an anchor infrastructure partner to the world's best 5G network,” says Varghese.

Building for the next Boom Now, Telekom Infra is once again taking the steps to ensure it is ready for the next

TELEKOM INFRA

step change in the Netherlands’ The other trend currently 5G rollout - the availability of reshaping the Netherlands’ 3.5GHz and above high-band telecom infrastructure sector 5G. “There is going to be a huge is, Varghese explains, more of a Year founded 5G infrastructure boom in the challenge than an opportunity.

Netherlands when the government “The Netherlands has been going releases the 3.5GHz spectrum, through a real estate boom, not Revenue which is a higher frequency, with only in the housing market but large available spectrum and also in the commercial real estate capacity, but low range,” Varghese sector,” he says. As a result, the Number of Employees explains. “That frequency of 5G is prospect of both expanding going to need many more locations and maintaining Telekom to support the MNOs being able to offer Infra’s symbiotic relationship with the high-capacity, low-latency indoor and highlandlords who host the company’s rooftop density area 5G coverage. We know there infrastructure is increasingly running the risk have been some delays in the government of dangerously narrowing its margins. “While allocating that spectrum, but we're the locations where our equipment is on prepared for it and, when the 3.5GHz band masts, we have a little bit more control, but is released to the MNOs, we'll be ready.” the increase of rental OpEx is a big potential

2012

€60mn 25-50

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concern for us because we have a substantial number of rooftop locations and we want to avoid passing on these rent increases to our customers as our margins get narrower,” reflects Varghese, adding that “We have to constantly look for new ways to keep those costs reasonable.”

Right now, the Netherlands’ telecom sector feels like it’s holding its breath, as MNOs continue to be “hesitant to build new sites” before the government releases the 3.5GHz band, and the country’s real estate and regulatory landscape continues to shift beneath the industry’s feet.

“When the 3.5GHz band is released to the MNOs, we'll be ready” SHIBU VARGHESE

MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, TELEKOM INFRA

The Future of Tower-Cos Despite this challenging moment in the history of the Netherlands’ telecom sector, Varghese has his eye firmly fixed on a bright future brimming with opportunity. When the 3.5GHz spectrum is released, Telekom Infra will be ready for the sudden boost in competitiveness throughout the market.

Now that the Cellnex merger is complete, the two companies are embarking on a six to 12 month integration which will leave them both stronger for it. “There's good synergy between our two companies and we're excited to start leveraging their complementary experience in active networks,” Varghese enthuses. “So far, we have technologymagazine.com

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DID YOU KNOW...

PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS

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From day one, Varghese knew that - in order to stay as agile as possible, and maintain the company’s startup mentality - Telekom Infra would live or die by the strength of its partnerships. “We don't want to scale up and do everything ourselves,” he says emphatically. “That was always a key part of our vision for the company from day one; we wanted to build our core competency inside the company, and meet all our other needs with our partnerships…”

“TCS is one of our core partners. They were involved in the post-carve-out when we had to define all our processes and systems, like implementing and testing SAP S/4 HANA for our ERP. They also helped us set up our IT architecture to be fully future-proof, as well as on a fibre project that we did during the last two years.”

We also partner with Innso, who have a lot of experience working with MNOs and handling the landlords. We have 3,200 locations with more than 2,500 individual landlords that we rent from. They could be farmers, homeowners - anybody really - and it's not always easy to engage all of them with our small team. Innso has been very helpful in supporting those relationships which would otherwise be very labour intensive.

We also work with Koning & Hartman.

They're a large maintenance company that we use to look after our network.

We obviously handle quality control and demand management from our side, but they're the ones who physically visit the site, climb the towers, and do the repairs.

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TELEKOM INFRA

“We are very proud to be an anchor infrastructure partner to the world's best 5G network” SHIBU VARGHESE

MANAGING DIRECTOR & CEO, TELEKOM INFRA

been primarily focused on passive networks and Cellnex has been already working with more diverse networks.” Going forward, the two firms will be able to share expertise, as well as expand the new enterprise’s footprint in the Netherlands to around 4,000 locations, which Varghese believes “will make MNOs more confident to use its services because of our increased scale, and we will have the CapEx and to build or acquire new site locations and data centres.

Lastly, Varghese sees the merger - as well as Telekom Infra’s success as an individual entity - as a sign of things to come in Europe.

“I think at some stage we will see the market coalesce into two or three big tower-cos that serve all of Europe,” he predicts. “That would enable the MNOs to do some much more exciting things, rather than just focus on their infrastructure. They should be rolling out a great network experience for consumers; they handle the spectrum and the design process and leave the rest to an infrastructure company to manage.”

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Leading digital healthcare in Scotland WRITTEN BY: LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

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SCOTTISH COMPANY GOVERNMENT NAME

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SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Jonathan Cameron tells us how his department at the Scottish Government is driving digital healthcare in Scotland

J

onathan Cameron is the Interim Director for Digital Health and Care for the Scottish Government, responsible for the overall strategy for digital health and care across the whole of Scotland. His role includes the commissioning and delivery oversight of major programmes that improve the health and wellbeing of Scottish citizens through digital means, linking the health and care sectors and delivery partners from the statutory, private, third sector, innovation and academic fields. More recently, he has also been responsible for many of the COVID-19 digital tools and apps delivered to support the pandemic response, work that is also guided by the Digital Health & Care Strategy.

Cameron’s team ( made up of 76 staff - 26 of whom are Scottish Government employees) advises Scottish ministers on policy and strategy, and ensures funding is effectively allocated to achieve ministerial priorities; the Directorate has a budget of just over £100 million and responsibility for oversight of hundreds of millions of NHS IT spend.

Scotland has in fact been working on digital health approaches since the 1990s, beginning with the ambition to use eHealth.

"For a long time, there's been a recognition of the importance of digital healthcare, not just for the day-to-day work of clinicians, but also just in terms of changing outcomes for patients and making a difference for healthier lives," Cameron says. technologymagazine.com

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Driving the digital strategy The last decade has seen a big push to drive a digital agenda, with Scotland’s first Digital Health & Care Strategy published in 2018. It was a bold and ambitious strategy that recognised care for the people in Scotland can, and should, be enhanced and transformed through the use of digital technology. What the 2018 strategy could not have envisaged is the pace and scale of change brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. This necessitated a rapid expansion and use of a wide variety of digital tools to support the continued safe and effective delivery of care, hence the need for a refresh of the strategy to reflect these advances and build on successes.

The refreshed strategy is underpinned by the "Once for Scotland" approach, which exists to avoid duplication of work.

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“ We're looking at how we can personalise medicine so that it results in a better outcome for patients. I think digital will absolutely be at the forefront of that” JONATHAN CAMERON

HEAD OF DIGITAL HEALTH AND CARE, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

"The Once for Scotland approach is about trying to reduce duplication and make sure that we work and collaborate together” Cameron says.. “That's underpinned by the sharing of standards or the agreement to use open standards where possible. The approach is about more than saving money, it is about ensuring better outcomes for people" Cameron says.

“Many of the challenges in implementing a digital approach are around people/ organisations using different systems, different standards and different software.

We are working hard to ensure better interoperability and consistent standards across the sector and across systems.”

“The clinical element to that is really important as well, as our clinicians are a critical part of our team and help us drive forward our digital journey. It's very much a partnership in collaboration, whether it's

with citizens, the clinicians, or those on the frontline that need to use these tools."

Currently one of the directorates long term partners is software vendor InterSystems, who has been providing services for around 15 years.

"InterSystems are the provider across the vast majority of our hospitals, so it fits our Once for Scotland approach. They underpin much of what that we're doing, not just around acute care, but supporting data too, providing access so that data can be shared across Scotland. They are critical to our delivery of patient care and are a longstanding strategic partner for Scotland."

Linking health and social care A key part of the strategy is the link-up of health and social care. “We're very keen to ensure we continue to bring health and care together so that it's centred around the citizen, so what drives our strategy is really just doing the right thing, and the desire to link up different sources of information and different areas," Cameron adds.

This ties in with the commitment strategy to improving health and wellbeing outcomes for citizens. "We've been focusing on digital citizens, and during COVID around how we engage with people, with a particular focus on bridging the digital divide and reducing the inequalities that exist. How do we encourage more people to become digitally confident, and how do we support them on their journey towards that? What drives that is choice, so we do recognise that not absolutely everybody will be able to or want to use digital," Cameron says.

There is work in progress to ensure people who want to access health and care services digitally are able to, while Cameron and his team are also working with partners through the Connecting Scotland programme to build skills and access to digital services. technologymagazine.com

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USING TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE HEALTH AND CARE ACROSS SCOTLAND

The pandemic highlighted just how fragmented and disparate our healthcare system is. The lack of integrated care systems mean healthcare teams and clinicians are information poor.

This creates limited understanding of the bigger picture, longer waiting lists, poorer patient outcomes and staff shortages as it’s difficult to anticipate where support is most needed.

Scotland’s Digital Health Transformation Program is particularly progressive, aiming to empower a 21st century Scottish NHS to provide effective, fair, and affordable care. Scotland’s new strategy reflects the way we need to rethink healthcare.

Patients must be at the centre of their own treatment which is proven to create efficiencies, improve outcomes and experiences as well as promote overall wellbeing. Healthcare services need to change to support this model. Online appointment booking, at-home care and video appointments are fast becoming the touchpoints for our health management but are only possible with the right technology and reporting.

Patient data must be protected and made available both to clinicians and patients but too often, this isn’t the case.

InterSystems has more than a decade’s heritage unifying healthcare across Scotland. We recognise our part as one of the key components of the healthcare ecosystem and the solutions we provide that improve patient care, modernise clinical processes, and encourage more cost-effective ways of working.

Which is why we place transformation and interoperability at the heart of everything we do, ensuring our customers can face the future, whatever it throws at them, with confidence.

In this new normal, the only constant is change so technology needs to help healthcare teams adapt to meet evolving needs.

InterSystems.com/uk/Scotland

@InterSystemsUKI

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

“We need to recognise that we are facing a real challenge in terms of people who've had to pause their care, and they need that restarted again” JONATHAN CAMERON

HEAD OF DIGITAL HEALTH AND CARE, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Building digital skills The Digital Health and Care Directorate has also been working on the idea of a digital workforce for several years prior to the pandemic. Its aim is to develop the digital skills of staff, build confidence and promote digital as the right approach. To do this the Directorate is working with Scotland’s university and college sector on prequalification skills.

The pandemic meant this became a standard way of working, and Cameron tentatively says it is here to stay. "I fully expect greater use of webinars and hybrid events, and that applies to the delivery of training as well as the use of digital tools. We're looking forward to building on what we've done before and continuing to mature not only the skills that people have, but also encouraging people to think digitally and about what that could bring to changing processes."

This will take time, he says, but COVID19 has presented a real opportunity to accelerate it. "It's opened up greater flexibility, as people don't have to worry about traveling to get together. But inclusion is hard to gauge, and there will be groups of people who have found it challenging, that 246

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find it hard to engage via digital channels or who may have broadband difficulties. It's a little hard sometimes to understand who's been left behind, and we really don't want anyone to be left behind. But I do suspect as we come out of the COVID-19 response and into more of a business as usual recovery, that there will be people who say they really struggled and want to be back in the office full time or need more support. But I think that overall, people have really embraced digital and have worked incredibly hard during the last year and a half to deliver care across Scotland."

Adoption of digital services One example of people successfully embracing digital healthcare is the NHS Near Me service, a video consultation platform available only in Scotland.

Cameron says that usage prior to the pandemic was low - there were around 300 Near Me consultations a week before March 2020, rising to nearly 17,000 a week by June. "We've actually just had our millionth video consultation. The platform is a great example of something we had in our toolbox that we were able to pull out and support patients with.”

EXECUTIVE BIO

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Jonathan Cameron TITLE: HEAD OF DIGITAL HEALTH AND CARE INDUSTRY: GOVERNMENT LOCATION: SCOTLAND Jonathan is the Head of Digital Health and Care in Scottish Government, and is currently leading the Digital Covid-19 response across the NHS and Care sectors, including the Covid Vaccination system and Protect Scotland app. Jonathan has overall responsibility for the Digital Health and Care Strategy for Scotland, and for ensuring delivery of major programmes which support the strategy.

Prior to joining Scottish Government in November 2019, Jonathan held a number of NHS IT and Digital posts, and has delivered major data, IT and eHealth projects and programmes across the UK. Innovation has also been a key focus and Jonathan was a CivTech challenge sponsor for this major SME development programme.

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"We've had technology-enabled care programmes for well over 10 years," Cameron adds. "I think that reflects the remote and rural nature of Scotland. If you're in the Western Isles or in Orkney and Shetland, for example, getting access to certain clinicians can be very challenging.

You've got to work in very imaginative ways.

We've had great take-up in terms of things like blood pressure monitoring services and, more recently, on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), so people don't need to come into hospital for a routine check-up because they can rely on the equipment and the digital readout of how the patient reports they are feeling.”

"The consultant can see them without having to necessarily see them face-to-face.

We've saved a number of acute visit follow-ups that way."

Another benefit of video consultations has been reducing the impact of conventional healthcare services on the environment: “We actually had the concept of Health Miles before COVID-19. We’ve had tremendous success reducing journeys by using video consulting, and I think it's a great example of how we’re supporting environmental efforts going into COP26. Digital health and care has a big role to play in this, which we’ve shown through the work we've done with Oxford University on Near Me.” A data-driven approach Cameron and his team are about to embark on a consultation for a data strategy, which will be Scotland’s firstever dedicated Data Strategy for Health and Social Care. This will include detailed consideration of how to increase citizens’ trust and transparency in data sharing, as well as addressing issues around ethics and legislative requirements. "We want to 248

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have that conversation about how to use data safely, and to discuss what is ethically the right thing to do. We actually put an ethics framework in place as part of our COVID-19 work. I think the foundations of ethics and information governance need to be in place before you get into things like AI. Trying to make data-driven decisions, and using data as a way of driving innovation runs through a lot of what we do in Scotland.”

This work is being led by the Data Lab, Scotland's Innovation Centre for Data and AI. “Our idea is that we will join up data in lots of different ways to drive better outcomes for patients, or better decision-

making from clinicians or simply just putting people in touch with each other” Cameron says. “It's often not the really complex world of machine learning and AI that makes the difference, it’s simply people being able to understand who's there and what services are available.”

Separately from the Data Lab, Scotland has the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI), which exists to enable the Scottish Government to engage with suppliers, and as Cameron explains, “understand the maturity of different products, and in some cases actually use it as a sandbox environment to actually prove that something will work. I think

“ What drives our strategy is doing the right thing and the desire to link up different sources of information and different areas” JONATHAN CAMERON

HEAD OF DIGITAL HEALTH AND CARE, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT technologymagazine.com

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“ We're looking forward to building on what we've done and continuing to mature the skills that people have and encouraging people to think digitally” JONATHAN CAMERON

HEAD OF DIGITAL HEALTH AND CARE, SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

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the challenge that a lot of suppliers have is duplication and overlap and sometimes they have a lack of clarity about what the problem is they're trying to solve.”

“AI is a great example - the number of times I've seen a great presentation of an AI platform but what is it going to do for the patient or the clinician?

The future for Scotland’s healthcare Cameron says his team welcomes innovation. “We are really encouraging of any company or potential supplier coming to Scotland. We’re open to innovation and new ideas, and are seeking to be a leader in the use of data in healthcare. Part of our wider strategy is going beyond health and the immediate challenge of supporting patients and clinicians is to supporting the economy and climate change as well.”

Looking ahead, Cameron says that their first goal is recovery. "We need to recognise that we are facing a real challenge in terms of people who've had to pause their care, and they need that restarted again. Our immediate goals are around getting back to whatever a normal state may be, but we need to focus them away from corporate greed. In terms of long term goals, I think we will certainly have gone a long way to achieving them if we are able to put the patient at the centre of their care, in charge of their care and potentially able to direct it, or at the very least have a personalised experience.”

“We're looking at genomics and other examples of how we can personalise medicine so that it results in a better outcome for patients. I think digital will absolutely be at the forefront of helping people towards that."

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Pioneer of a

sustainable global health system WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE

PRODUCED BY: JAMES BERRY

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Atos, powered by Dell Technologies, is connecting the dots in healthcare IT to make digital transformation a reality for patients and providers

A

tos, together with strategic partners such as Dell Technologies, is connecting the dots in healthcare IT, making digital transformation a reality for patients and across the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem. “This is a once-in-ageneration opportunity,” says Adam Lewis, Global CTO, Healthcare and Life Sciences at Atos.

Lewis, who has been at Atos since 2014, comments, “Now that organisations are forced to think differently, we are witnessing a tectonic shift in investment and innovation. We are proud to have supported many organisations since before the beginning of this global crisis.”

“Our vision is of a world with a sustainable high-quality health system, where all people have the right to enjoy good health and wellbeing. But this is a challenge. The pandemic notwithstanding, changing demographics, such as a growing and aging population, are putting huge pressure on care systems, capacity and affordability.

“Along with our partners, we believe that technology can contribute to solving that problem. We can improve healthcare systems, productivity and efficiency. But most importantly we can change the approach to healthcare, enabling the move from treatment to prevention, and from illness to wellbeing.

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“That’s our mission: to work with healthcare providers, payers and life science organisations to build healthcare systems that keep people healthy. We want to do that by helping to predict and prevent illness, with more personalised precision and connected care.”

Describing himself as an architect-ofchange, Adam is a Distinguished Expert and Member of the Scientific Community at Atos, and at the forefront of the company’s digital transformation as it partners with Dell Technologies to drive a sustainable future.

Speaking from his office in London, he points out that digital transformation is crucial to enabling the shift from reactive treatments to wellness across the whole population, both within and increasingly outside of hospital or laboratory settings.

“We have a unique opportunity with technologies that have emerged over the last few years to do something fundamentally different,” says Lewis. “At Atos, we are committed to helping our customers to create a positive impact on patient outcomes, employee experiences, cost efficiency and effectiveness. And this will positively transform the future of healthcare and life sciences.

“We are investing in our portfolio of services to support this transformation.

And we are working closely with very smart subject-matter experts, inside Atos and with

Atos

Adam Lewis, Global Chief Technology Officer technologymagazine.com

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our partners, to develop the building blocks to enable our customers to innovate in a sustainable way.”

Atos, which is the European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and highperformance computing, provides end-to-end orchestrated hybrid cloud, big data, business applications and digital workplace solutions and is committed to securing a decarbonised digital future.

The company’s history spans a century, from the creation of the first tabulating machine by Fredrik Rosing Bull in 1919 to its most recent success enabling the most digitally connected Olympic and Paralympic Games at Tokyo 2020, with its sights now set on Paris 2024.

Digital hospitals of the future As Lewis reflects on Atos’ success with the Olympic Games, renowned for its motto Citius, Altius, Fortius (faster, higher, stronger), which could easily translate to Atos’ mission 256

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and culture. “Atos has been working with global and local healthcare providers for many years. The skills, insights and knowledge we gained means we’ve been able to support organisations like the NHS in the UK since the start of the pandemic, rapidly standing-up service desks in support of the ‘pop up’ Nightingale Hospitals for example.”

Lewis returns to how the company is working in the healthcare arena and starting to shape the digital hospitals of the future.

“Right now, organisations around the world are upgrading and expanding hospitals while thinking about what the smart hospital of the future will look like. The patient experience is about to change for the better. In addition to treatment rooms, you might have booths where clinicians can conduct telehealth sessions. Next to central hospitals, the setup of satellite outpatient facilities is in progress. The power of having in place the right networks, connectivity, security and storage will change the future of care forever.”

Atos

So, what will hospitals look like in five years and how are Atos meeting those needs today?

According to Lewis, Atos is putting in place capabilities for telehealth and remote patient monitoring. “We are working with emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), deep learning, mixed and virtual reality to see how they can support patients at home rather than in hospital. For example, for post-operative rehabilitation, AI-enabled smartphone apps to accelerate disease recovery.

“Arguably, the pandemic has forced many industries to understand the benefits of change. Healthcare was perhaps too secure using processes, techniques and tools from the past, and unable to embrace new technologies or see the broader opportunities ahead. We have seen that when you have access to the right skills, technologies and the correct data, you can transform the simplest of ways in which a patient engages.

“What’s more, the way we can crunch data at scale will enable the earlier understanding of disease; this also applies to emerging microbial and virus variants. By being able to model and understand protein structures, as part of vaccine production, scientists can investigate how potential vaccines or drugs

ADAM LEWIS

GLOBAL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, Atos

TITLE: GLOBAL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER INDUSTRY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM

EXECUTIVE BIO

“We work together to stand apart”

ADAM LEWIS

An internationally recognised executive and CTO with a passion for technology, Adam Lewis has global responsibility for technology & innovation strategy, delivering Industry-leading solutions and services for healthcare and life sciences customers.

Lewis has more than 20 years’ experience in client-facing roles across many sectors, including healthcare, life sciences, financial services, central government, transport and manufacturing.

He has a track record in leading innovation and strategy initiatives, building and guiding product development teams and driving the adoption and consumption of digital services. He has an MSc in IT, is a Fellow of the BCS, a Chartered IT Professional and Chartered Scientist.

Transforming healthcare and life sciences Innovate faster and build competitive advantage with a new approach to digital solutions from Atos and Dell Technologies

Innovation

Seamlessness

Resilience

We accelerate innovation that is aligned with solving our customers challenges.

We work as one, with a focus on essential interoperability for the health ecosystems of the future.

Scalable, secure, high-performance building blocks, from edge to core to cloud.

Connecting people and data across the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem to enable smart, secure and sustainable health and wellness for all.

Spanning over a decade, Atos’ alliance with Dell Technologies is one of the most enduring and largest collaborations, giving our clients a digital advantage

in line with their requirements and strategy. Together, we provide world-leading solutions with best-in-class integrated services. From smart hospitals and electronic medical records, to cybersecurity and digital workplace, our combined experience, expertise and solutions can help deliver value. A proven and trusted partnership you can rely on.

Learn more

Atos

interact with disease. These advances in technology have accelerated the pace of R&D to levels not possible five years ago. It’s amazing to think about the advances they could bring within 10 years.”

What is precision medicine?

One area in which Atos is working with Dell Technologies is exploring how they can together help to push new boundaries in precision medicine.

“In many ways we already have the building blocks for precision medicine: connectivity, secure data sharing, compute processing at the edge and in the cloud.

Enabling precision healthcare requires the ability to derive information from multiple data sources such as large imaging datasets, streaming data from medical devices and data held in shared patient records. We can then leverage the technological advances, tools and techniques in areas such as AI and machine learning (ML). We are enabling the amalgamation of ‘big data’ and ‘streaming data’ with smart data layers that allow us to combine data from a multitude of devices, such as the smart-watch to the most sophisticated medical imaging systems,” says Lewis.

“This is one of the reasons why precision healthcare is being accelerated. It's all about making sure you've got access to the right data; and it's about capturing that data and ingesting it in a way that gives certainty around accuracy, privacy and security.

“By working with Dell Technologies, we can now architect platforms based on smart data fabrics that can be leveraged across the ecosystem. This includes a focus on the customer experience; for example, clinicians can use secure mobile apps to get early notification about changes in people's conditions. The future of precision 260

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healthcare is incredibly exciting and we are only at the start of the journey.”

How will AI transform healthcare?

In 2020, Atos set up its HPC, AI and Quantum Life Sciences Centre of Excellence at the Wellcome Genome Campus near Cambridge. “At the Centre, we are focused on collaborations and investment to explore how advanced technologies can address specific medical conditions and support patients, clinicians and specialists in a way that delivers better healthcare outcomes,” says Lewis.

“One example is the detection of skin cancer. We can use AI and ML to look at the images captured from a patient’s mobile phone or modern derma-scopes, protect the privacy of the images, and build models and algorithms to provide

Atos

earlier diagnosis, which will go on to potentially save many lives.”

Data-driven insights on population health When it comes to population health, Lewis points to data-driven technologies such as wearable devices that record a patient’s heartbeat, oxygen levels and sleep patterns.

“One of our teams in North America worked closely with a healthcare provider to monitor sleep apnoea. By using wearable devices, you can monitor people living in communities; you can track them in their sleep and feedback that data directly to physicians for assessment and review. This can apply to chronic or long-term conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular conditions and even asthma. You need data and secure connectivity to do it; and you need accuracy in interpreting the results and security in the way they are recorded.

“We have a unique opportunity with the technologies that have emerged over the last few years to do something fundamentally different” ADAM LEWIS

GLOBAL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, Atos technologymagazine.com

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“It’s a fantastic time to be involved in the industry and at the centre of those discussions.

If we can harness and hone just some of the momentum, the possibilities will be endless” ADAM LEWIS

GLOBAL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, Atos

“In this way, we're very excited not only to introduce new technologies, but also to pivot more traditional technologies so that healthcare providers can get outcomes faster without having to do a massive digital transformation.”

Trusted partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Games When it comes to cybersecurity, Lewis acknowledges the threat landscape is changing rapidly, which is why Atos has built the capabilities and tools for a rapid response to any security breach.

He highlights Atos’ relationship with the Olympic Movement as a trusted IT partner for more than 20 years.

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Tokyo 2020 was the first summer Olympic Games fully delivered over the cloud, for example. As lead technology integrator, Atos migrated all critical systems to the cloud, limiting the environmental footprint; the company is now building the replicable model for Paris 2024.

“Cybersecurity attacks are evolving rapidly and automated in a way that wasn’t possible a few years ago,” says Adam. He points out that the Games are one of the most highprofile events in the world and Atos can report that there have been zero security incidents since the partnership began.

“While ransomware attacks are not slowing down, working with the right partners and with the advanced proactive

FOUR PILLARS

ATOS

“ Customers demand integrated cloud solutions that are consistent, flexible and focused on business outcomes” DENISE MILLARD

SVP, DELL TECHONOLGIES

Atos OneCloud is a joint strategic offering to support organizations developing smart strategies to modernise their apps and processes. This includes the collective capabilities and portfolios of Dell Technologies, VMware and Atos.

Building the platform that its customers need to solve their business, technical and financial challenges on their journey to the hybrid-cloud, Atos’ new approach focuses on four pillars:

Atos DIGITAL HYBRID CLOUD Scalable, secure and innovative private cloud solution which allows organizations to run both legacy and cloud-native applications on one single platform, across both private and public environments. It combines industry-leading hardware and software from Dell EMC and VMware to bring together traditional platforms and the new world of DevOps.

APPLICATION TRANSFORMATION AND MODERNIZATION Armed with the VMware Tanzu portfolio running on Dell EMC VxRail, Atos’ experts

analyze existing estates, recommend modernization strategies, and deploy agile applications to any digital cloud platform powered by Atos’ Digital Hybrid Cloud solution. Benefitting from up to 66% faster development lifecycle and up to 300% increase in developer productivity at lower costs.

KUBERNETES-AS-A-SERVICE (KAAS) Powered by Atos’ Digital Hybrid Cloud, Atos KaaS not only provides the enterprise digital cloud platform for application modernization initiatives, but it gives DevSecOps the ability to build, run, and manage Kubernetes workloads with ease. Customers can enjoy the efficiencies of private and public cloud and use up to 35% less IT resources.

Atos CLOUD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Provides enterprises a complete, unobstructed view of their cloud estates’ utilization and cost. These capabilities utilize CloudHealth by VMware and further extend to include advisory services to optimize cloud resources that can help reduce cloud spend.

“Customers demand integrated cloud solutions that are consistent, flexible and focused on business outcomes,” said Denise Millard, SVP, Global Alliances at Dell Technologies. “Building on the strength of the Dell Technologies and Atos portfolios, this solution enables customers to execute on their cloud transformation journey by implementing platforms that support their competitive strategies and bring together IT infrastructure in simple, cost-effective ways.”

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monitoring services, we can identify threats at a very early stage. As a result, we can take additional precautions and reduce or remove any risk or associated impact. The recognition that we've earned in the security domain is significant; yet we will continue to grow and innovate relentlessly in this space. It’s great to be recognized as the number one in Europe for managed security services and hopefully soon, number one in the world.

“We have recently teamed up with Dell Technologies to create a new cyber recovery service. We do this by creating a ‘safe vault’ for our customer's data, which provides protection from the impact of hostile security events.

“If, for example, there's a zeroday exploit, which has not been seen beforehand, that manages to find its way to our customers’ systems, working with Dell Technologies and our cyber recovery 264

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services, we can rapidly re-enable those services. This means that customers can minimise business impacts that would otherwise be so significant and costly, both financially and reputationally.

“More broadly, as we look at the dynamics of change across the world, together with priorities such as sustainability and climate action, we bring all these things together through our focus on secure decarbonized digital transformation. We are continuously looking at how we can ensure and secure global technology landscapes while improving the quality of experience for our customers, their customers and employees, and wider society.”

“Companies won't be judged on the way they handle the actual attack. They'll be judged on the speed of recovery.”

Christina Oldroyd, Global Marketing and Sales, Dell Technologies

Atos

10 OFFERINGS OF Atos ONECLOUD • Industry specific consultancy services to develop cloud business solutions at scale • Multi-cloud orchestration across private and public to maximize application migration and portability, lower operational costs, and ensure cloud interoperability • Highly standardized and automated management framework and architecture • Next generation private and sovereign cloud platform, ready to be deployed and managed in any data centre

Atos and Dell Technologies “We work together to stand apart” is how Atos sees its 12-year relationship with Dell Technologies.

This strategic partnership has enabled Atos to accelerate the recently launched Atos OneCloud suite of services, lowering the barrier to entry to cloud and digital while providing a proven framework across 10 key areas. Atos OneCloud enables organisations to navigate and accelerate their digital journey, whatever their digital maturity. Atos OneCloud is known for the way it connects business-critical applications and harmonises data in a codefree and intuitive manner.

“We've cultivated the right relationships with global strategic partners, and Dell Technologies is at the forefront of those. We've been on a journey together to transform the future of application landscapes and we share the same vision. When we have an R&D-to-R&D relationship and sponsorship from top down,

• Cloud application development and modernisation/re-platforming • Cloud AI and ML to enhance business processes, create new solutions and monetise enterprise data • Bare Metal solutions (high processing capabilities servers) to support nonvirtualised business critical applications adjacent to the cloud, to increase the breadth of consumabl • Cloud edge and far edge solutions (local/field servers) combined with new 5G connectivity • Cybersecurity supervision services • Decarbonisation offerings guaranteeing year on year carbon footprint reduction of cloud infrastructure, data and applications

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“At Atos, we are committed to helping our customers to create a positive impact on patient outcomes, employee experiences, cost efficiency and effectiveness. And this will positively transform the future of healthcare and life sciences” ADAM LEWIS

GLOBAL CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, Atos

as we have with Dell, we can focus and put the customer at the forefront of our thinking.

That means we do portfolio alignment, including co-innovation around hybrid cloud and cybersecurity.”

Lewis points out that this extends to setting a vision of vertical services, which includes supporting Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems from early implementation and throughout their lifespan, including new industry integrations and new interoperability demands.

Focus on sustainability with Dell Technologies Atos is pushing the boundaries of scientific and technical excellence to ensure the future extends to carbon-neutrality for its own organisation, and for customers and partners.

“Both Atos and our customers will be measured on the way we make investments,” explains Lewis. "It's our job to provide leadership, working with partners like Dell Technologies, to maximise the potential of existing assets, extending the natural lifespan so we can make technology more sustainable, including by recycling.

“There's a tremendous opportunity to drive sustainability via digital. It is recognised that the healthcare provider industry alone makes up 4.4% of global emissions. We take that seriously and we need to be looking at how we can address this and transform. This could include using new chip sets that reduce the power consumption, and making more agile and flexible designs which can grow naturally with the organisation. That also means accelerating the journey to public clouds and using the right cloud providers.

“It’s a fantastic time to be involved in the industry and at the centre of those discussions. If we can harness and hone just some of the momentum, the possibilities will be endless.”

In a rapidly changing world, Atos and Dell Technologies are working to ensure that healthcare customers can thrive in a safe, secure and sustainable environment.

“We are on the cusp of change and want to seize the opportunity,” concludes Lewis.

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EXPANDS SCOPE OF CRITICAL CONNECTIVITY SOLUTIONS WRITTEN BY: DOMINIC ELLIS

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PRODUCED BY: STUART IRVING

CSL

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Hiran Ravat, Head of IoT Business Development and Partnerships at CSL Group, explains how it broadens critical comms reach to meet continuity demand

Hiran Ravat, Head of IoT Business Development and Partnerships

M

ost of us have a fairly good idea about what constitutes critical comms – or at least, in the pre-pandemic sense.

Your mind would think of fire prevention, security cameras and the whole host of applications that are essential for ensuring public and staff safety. Today, critical comms has expanded to include the vital nature of business continuity, which in part has been exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

No sector has been unaffected by COVID19 and in the critical comms space, there has been soaring demand for business continuity solutions as lockdowns swept the world and remote working has become the norm. It is this new and emerging area which Hiran Ravat, Head of IoT Business Development and Partnerships at CSL Group, which has 25 years’ experience, is now actively targeting for growth.

“One of the biggest changes over the past 18 months is people are viewing connectivity differently,” he says. “People are working from home, away from their offices or factories, so we’re getting lots of unique critical connectivity cases outside our core heritage business. As we’ve started to delve into this new area, we’ve found more and more examples where critical connectivity can enhance existing solutions. It’s not something the MNOs can support as to be a critical communications supplier you need added resilience. To achieve technologymagazine.com

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Critical Connectivity Explained

this, our solutions incorporate connectivity from 2 independent network operators in the event a particular operator has an outage. These network operators naturally wouldn’t offer services in partnership with their competitors, so this is a unique offering from CSL.” Hiran has experienced the changing dynamics only too well, having moved to CSL Group in March 2021. Previously he worked at Vodafone for 18 years and ticked off a wide range of roles – covering consumer, enterprise and IoT – and then moved to O2, where he worked for two-and-a-half years, setting up their IoT Solutions Partner Ecosystem.

“It’s been a massive eye-opening experience,” he says. “I’ve been working in the mobile network space and always thought the value of connectivity sticks with the network – but what we do at CSL is work with the network operators, and 272

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“ As we’ve started to delve into this critical solutions world, we’ve found more and more examples, and it’s not something the MNOs can support without working with their competitors and providing a managed service around it” HIRAN RAVAT

HEAD OF IOT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS, CSL GROUP

CSL

“CSL has been a long-standing partner of Vodafone in the IoT space for well over twenty years. We’ve taken that partnership to new levels in more recent times, where we’ve begun to collaborate on some exciting connectivity deployments. CSL continues to be a key part of our partner ecosystem with several significant projects to be launched in 2022”.

Kathy Quashie, Director of Enterprise Indirect Partnerships, Vodafone

then convert that connectivity into a value added solution.”

To that end, he is keen to emphasise three unique propositions that can drive value to the IoT market.

“The first is a dual SIM managed router.

The market has lots of dual SIM routers, so that’s not unique, but what is different is we will manage, configure, fully support and encrypt it for the customer. It’s literally a plug and play solution that is offered as a service.

“We have another managed router offering, but this one takes the fixed line broadband, which we provide or it can be an existing line, and the resilience element is a SIM that roams on any network, and again, we do all the management and security.

“In an IoT world where the market is built on platforms and portals, the myth is that all end users want to self manage via these tools. However, speak to a retailer who on

a busy Saturday has a network issue, they then have to call their IT department who will log into these tools and spend what can be hours doing diagnostics to get back up and running, or worse still, they have no IT department and have to log in and do this themselves. We are that simple alternative where in that same situation the retailer simply contacts us and we get them back up and running whilst they focus on their trade.”

“Another great offering we have is our signal analysers, which don’t really get the attention in the market they deserve considering the value they provide. They monitor wireless broadband and mobile SIM signals so you know that you’ve got the strongest signal wherever you’re placing your device, so it improves the customer experience considerably. Imagine how many IoT devices are assumed to not work simply down to where its positioned, this offering ensures that is not the case.” technologymagazine.com

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CSL Group, which has just opened a new headquarters in Watford, has over one million connected devices globally and handled over four billion ‘events’ last year via their Gemini Global Platform. Funded through private equity, the group is on a sure financial footing.

Hiran explains that CSL aims to drive growth in a broader IoT market through these managed solutions that are scalable whilst also still being affordable. CSL takes the complexity out of adopting communications solutions, handling all diagnostic checks, configurations and service continuity. CSL owns and manages its own infrastructure with a massive focus on security built into their propositions.

The ‘here and now’ of IoT covers a wide remit where CSL see the need for Critical Communications, such as Smart Street Lighting, Asset Monitoring, Access Control, Construction Site Monitoring, EV Charging, Retail Library Kiosks, to name a few.

“We provide an end-to-end solution, so the customer doesn’t really have to do anything,” added Hiran. “We will charge a small connection fee for the router, and a monthly cost, including the connectivity, which gives the managed service and security we supply.”

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“Here at Tele2 IoT, we have been working with CSL as partners for over 7 years, with CSL providing a managed service to complement our connectivity solutions. Given the critical connectivity sector in which CSL work, they challenge us every day to provide the most resilient and reliable solution possible, through innovation and technical collaboration. This has led to significant joint success across multiple verticals, including CSL Router, with Tele2 Iot providing a connectivity platform to almost 2,000 Post Office stores in the UK. Working with partners like CSL is one of Tele2 IoT’s key strategies for the future and we look forward to continuing to build on this partnership to drive further growth.

Cyril Deschanel, Managing Director, Tele2 IoT

Complementing Telecoms is another key sector firmly in CSL’s sights. With the end of PSTN lines in the UK and Ireland in the next five years, there will be plenty of upgrade opportunities as many security systems utilise this legacy network and we are already helping the market to move to mobile.

“So we’ve got a massive opportunity there and it’s just another example of capitalising on what we’ve done for years,” he said. “We work with all the leading mobile network operators – who want more consumption of their network and we’re adding value by creating a solution that integrates these networks, so a perfect collaborative partnership.”

“We’re working collaboratively to offer our managed services back to the network operators, to go and help their own customers and win new business. This is a growing trend and something we’re really focusing on and

CSL

Hiran Ravat TITLE: HEAD OF IOT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS INDUSTRY: TELECOMMUNICATIONS

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM Hiran joins CSL from O2, where he spent two-and-a-half years in a similar role, launching an IoT Partner programme into the MNO (Mobile Network Operator). Before that, Hiran spent 18 years at Vodafone, joining as a graduate and working his way up to UK IoT Channel Manager. In this role he also worked closely with partners to launch IoT products. In his new role with CSL, he will be focusing on working with partners and MNOs to deliver new, secure connectivity solutions.

Hiran commented: “I am delighted to be joining CSL and such an exciting time in their story. CSL has a unique offering, and I am thrilled to be working with customers and partners, new and old, to deliver leading IoT solutions to the market. My experience from MNOs means I understand what is needed to deliver critical connectivity and the integral role CSL can play in providing an end-to-end managed solution.”

Ed Heale, CSL’s CEO, said “Hiran is an expert in all things IoT and adds to the growing wealth of knowledge we have across our business. As we look to expand our offerings and work with partners across new sectors, his experience and practical understanding will be hugely important to us. I am thrilled to have Hiran on board with us and wish him every success with his career at CSL.”

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DID YOU KNOW...

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

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Our reputation in the market has already opened up some great new opportunities outside of our heritage sectors. We have recently partnered with a smart street lighting company who is seeing their solution being adopted by large customers globally who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint. The biggest issue they had was a reliable communications method to control the services of these street lights. They partnered with us as our managed offering made this simple and ensured the street lights were always connected. Another example is air conditioning monitoring

October 2021

if you’ve got around £40,000-worth of IT equipment in a server room, and the air-conditioning starts to leak, it could create an amazing amount of damage – not only to the supplier, but to the provider whom that service is supporting. We were able to ensure the sensors used were always connected so that any leakages can be monitored.

Other new areas we are currently working on are communications in utility monitoring stations, ANPR Solutions, Access Control, Unmanned Petrol Stations, Critical Infrastructure and the list grows frequently.

CSL

“We work with all the mobile network operators – they want more utilisation of their network and we’re adding value by integrating this to our solutions, so it’s a perfect fit” HIRAN RAVAT

HEAD OF IOT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIPS, CSL GROUP

have had great success in doing already. The value we bring back to the network operators is that they can offer an end-to-end solution that utilises their networks but they don’t need to have any of the complexity or cost of managing these solutions as CSL does for them.”

CSL Group, which employs nearly 200 staff, prides itself on its customer service and has an NPS Score of 86.5% from over 51,000 surveys sent out last year. “It only works to

“Three and CSL have been working closely for the last 10 years. Three has been providing CSL with roaming capabilities across all networks ensuring the very best connectivity for their customers. Currently, we are working closely with CSL to develop a new opportunity that will bring additional value to their current and future customers. We look forward to developing our business relationship into the future with new products and services.”

Jennifer Wallace, IoT Business Development Manager, Three

have a managed offering if what you’re doing is of a high standard and customers see that value in your service and in this regard our NPS score is testament to how great a job we do in providing a managed service. In comparison, many of the well known technology suppliers average around the 50% mark,” said Hiran. “I’m sure we’ll see more companies entering this space and of course we have competition, but we have built up the CSL Group over 25 years. It takes lots of investment, expertise and effort to deliver high standards of service on a managed offering that can maintain this at the scale and growth that we do.”

In the telecare wearable devices sector, it manages over 100,000 connections, and in the retail market, manages the communications for over 7,000 Post Office sites.

“When communication solutions are considered often the customer procures the different elements from different suppliers and then has to set up a method of being able to self manage this which is timely and complex.

When working with CSL we ensure they are always connected, delivered through a single supplier and support model all through us.

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ECOONLINE

Today’s canary in the workplace WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE PRODUCED BY: CRAIG KILLINGBACK

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Safety in the workplace is the focus of EcoOnline who create safe, sustainable workplaces with user-friendly SaaS tools

Øyvind Bauer, Chief Technology Officer

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A

canary in a shield is a powerful symbol created by EcoOnline which depicts how animals have long observed impending hazards within the workplace.

The new branding from Norwegian-based EcoOnline clearly connects with their mission to help customers create safe, and sustainable workplaces through user-friendly SaaS (Subscription as a Service) tools. Øyvind Bauer, Chief Technology Officer at EcoOnline, highlights that through innovation and engagement they enable companies to protect their employees and limit their impact on the environment while reaching compliance and increasing productivity.

The focus for EcoOnline is EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) and chemical management. EcoOnline uses innovative technology to help their clients build a deeper understanding of their operational and EHS risks. By designing EHS software with ease of use at its core, it lowers the barrier so that anyone can report incidents, near misses or other important events – wherever they are.

They use data captures and connect these to drill down into the root cause of the incidents, risks, or emissions. Through easy to use and understandable dashboards everyone can take a role in spotting trends, corrective actions and contribute to protect employees, contractors, customers, and the public.

Chemical management gives control back to those managing chemical safety by directly sourcing safety data sheets from the manufacturer and supplying the tools to complete custom and relevant COSHH risk assessments which will be compliant and ensure the safety of employees.

ECOONLINE

ECOONLINE

EcoOnline: Today's canary in the workplace

Speaking from his office in Tønsberg Bauer said: “This year alone we have had three acquisitions and increased our staff by more than 100 people. EcoOnline was founded in early 2000 by Kjell Einar Hamnes, and for a long time focused on chemical management as the core domain. But through acquisitions and organic growth we have positioned ourselves in the EHS landscape and plan to cover more of this massive area moving forward.”

Commenting on what gives EcoOnline its competitive edge, Bauer said it was down to having a culture of extremely engaged employees and the ability to be innovative: “People across all business areas that are willing to put in extra effort to deliver the best experience possible for our customers and that care about our mission and vision, and for EcoOnline to be a positive benefactor. Also, the fact that we are innovative and explore and execute on exciting technology opportunities that can give our customers positive benefits.

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“The canary was a symbol of safety for miners, acting as an early warning signal when carbon monoxide levels became dangerous.

With our new logo, we pay tribute to this extraordinary little bird and the continued innovations in health and safety.”

Vision, mission and strategy Bauer outlined EcoOnline’s vision, mission and strategy: “We have set ambitious goals for ourselves and decided to incorporate all this into our core company strategy.

“ For me, I love getting out of bed, going to work and contributing towards a better world through my role in EcoOnline” ØYVIND BAUER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, ECOONLINE

ECOONLINE

“Our vision is to be the preferred provider of HSEQ tools and services, by delivering sustainable results for our customers and the planet. Our vision underlines that we want to be the best software provider in our area and make impactful and important results for our customers. It's also our way to take responsibility in doing something good for the world.

“Our mission is to help our customers to create safe, sustainable, efficient and attractive workplaces, through userfriendly SaaS tools. The mission further puts a spotlight on the fact that we want our customers to achieve this through the usage of our software, and so helping them get maximum output, revenue and results by actually doing that. We also want our software to be engaging and fun to use.

“On the strategy side we want to land and expand through creating good relationships with our customers, partners and authorities. We want to grow with the customer and help them in their journey so that they get maximum output from our

ØYVIND BAUER TITLE: CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER INDUSTRY: COMPUTER SOFTWARE LOCATION: NORWAY Worked in the company for 15 years, following EcoOnlines entire technology and growth journey and has been through the technology career from starting as a Junior Developer until the CTO position about four to five years ago.

Is passionate about building and leading a great R&D team to work across borders and acquired companies to deliver the best SAAS solutions possible.

Lives in Tønsberg, Norway. Have three kids and a cat.

In his free time, enjoys golfing, running and all kinds of skiing activities.

When staying inside, I enjoy cooking a great meal, watching series and movies or playing a good video game.

2000 1bn NOK

Annual recurring by 2025

450+

Employees in Ireland, UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland

6,000+ Customers

EXECUTIVE BIO

Year founded

ECOONLINE

Cloud can help relieve the digital pressure on CIOs The next generation of cloud is not just about people, processes, and technology. This ebook looks in detail at how cloud can deliver business outcomes in three key areas: advancing innovation, business resilience and digital transformation.

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products. Another vital component is growing both organically but also through mergers and acquisitions.

“Our endgame is to become a complete and integrated EHSQ management tool for all kinds of businesses and sizes, intuitively connected through our platform with a seamless user experience and using state of the art and smart technology to facilitate change and engagement across all EHS.”

WHAT IS ECOONLINE EHS?

Software for a safer workplace Bauer points out that facilitating a strong safety culture, EcoOnline provides an easy to use solution with multiple innovative ways to enter data.

“By doing this, we make information regarding health, safety and environmental information more accessible to the whole workforce, and create positive habits that support a strong safety culture.

EcoOnline EHS is a comprehensive SaaS solution that gives customers access to the tools they need to get on track with health and safety management.

Plan, manage and implement, in a single, and highly flexible tool designed to support the way you work. Build checklists, conduct inspections, assign actions and report accidents. Customise your own templates with our intuitive smartforms, or use one of

ØYVIND BAUER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, ECOONLINE

the default templates made by EcoOnline’s experienced safety professionals.

“Our tools are easy to use, and cover a wide range of EHS topics making it a great one stop solution for our customers, which is further supported by our recent changes to create a unified UX experience across all products,” said Bauer.

“We provide best practice content out of the box, along with a high level of

DID YOU KNOW...

“ The canary was a symbol of safety for miners, acting as an early warning signal when carbon monoxide levels became dangerous. With our new logo, we pay tribute to this extraordinary little bird and the continued innovations in health and safety”

configurability so that each business can adapt the system to fit their business perfectly.

Innovation is a key focus for EcoOnline and so we’re always looking to develop new ways of working that will help our customers, from WhatsApp reports, QR codes, reporting Kiosks and the use of AI bots for Q&A responses.”

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ECOONLINE

“Some examples of this are being able to report Incidents via WhatsApp or SMS using our AI bot – many people are used to using these tools in their day to day lives, and so not only are they able to report when they’re on the go using a mobile device, but the experience is familiar and easy which encourages more usage.

“We also facilitate the use of QR codes for quick entry, which supports ease of use around different working environments from offices to manufacturing sites. In addition to our mobile offerings, easy entry forms and high level of configurability, we also offer powerful analytics that can be shared around the business to support learning and continuous improvement. As a result, our software is more than just a tool to record data, it becomes a way of working that makes positive changes to create a safer workplace.”

“Our vision is to be the preferred provider of HSEQ tools and services, delivering sustainable results for our customers and the planet” ØYVIND BAUER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, ECOONLINE

Benefits of chemical safety software “By empowering our customers with the ability to take control of their SDS management, risk assessments and chemical reporting they both become compliant to regulations as well as help enforce a safer work culture and workplace.

“Additional modules like substitution can help our customers reduce the technologymagazine.com

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ECOSYSTEM OF TRUSTED PARTNERS Øyvind Bauer, Chief Technology Officer in EcoOnline outlines the importance of EcoOnline’s collection of trusted partners: Basefarm (Orange Business Services) Our cooperation with Basefarm has lasted for more than 10 years. They have been our trustworthy hosting partner over all these years, and paramount to our recent full transition over to AWS. We have used them as consultants and cloud architects from our previous Basefarm privatecloud setup to our brand new AWS infrastructure.

DID YOU KNOW...

Basefarm has the responsibility to keep our production environment running and helping us deliver a top in class SLA, as well as helping and advising us on our continuous cloud journey.

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AWS We are the portfolio company for Summa Equity which has the most assets on AWS. Our EcoOnline EHS solution is fully hosted on AWS EU, and also through Basefarm we now have our remaining core products, Platform and Chemical Manager also on AWS. Our goal is to continue forward to bring all future offerings to AWS and continue to exploit advantages and innovative product areas with services available there.

We have discussed together how to further enhance our cooperation so that AWS will assist us in training and AWS certifications, as well taking advantage of exciting opportunities in our Cloud architecture.

October 2021

Jamf Some of our employees prefer and need a Mac computer in order to fulfill their assignments in a good and efficient manner.

But since we strive to protect our customers and employees by having secure IT solutions, we had doubts if we could support Macs in our internal environment.

Jamf provides us with the tools we need to securely support Mac devices by centralised security and operational management for these devices.

Orange Cyberdefense Information security incidents are on the rise, and we need relevant competence in order to protect our assets in a reasonable and efficient way. Orange Cyberdefense has been a long standing vendor and advisor regarding most of our internal security measures. They have proven to be competent in critical security infrastructure solutions.

Insight Insight contributed with assisting EcoOnline to put together a DataLoss prevention system which became a requirement through our UK acquisition Airsweb, and has proven important to certain enterprise customers.

ECOONLINE

number of chemicals that are dangerous to health or the environment, reducing their environmental footprint, as well as limiting the exposure to chemical hazards at the workplace. We also have QR codes that our customers can print out and attach to a room, for instance laboratories.

Once scanned these links provide a wellstructured overview of potential hazards and access to information about the safe handling of chemicals.

“Additionally, we can provide solutions for registering and monitoring exposure to chemicals that are hazardous to health (like carcinogens), which can significantly contribute to important insight and analytics to enable the company to actively work on limiting chemical exposure for the employees,” he said.

“ Our endgame is to become a complete and integrated EHSQ management tool for all kinds of businesses and sizes, intuitively connected through our platform with a seamless user experience and using state of the art and smart technology to facilitate change and engagement across all EHS” ØYVIND BAUER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, ECOONLINE technologymagazine.com

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Investors onboard with EcoOnline include, Summa Equity, Goldman Sachs, Premier Milton Investors, Swedbank Robur, Capital World Investors, Ophir Asset Management, Dider & Gerge Fonder and Viking Venture.

Focus on Machine Learning This is an area EcoOnline has carefully explored for a couple of years and is now tuning up its innovation and investment efforts.

“We recently started a new sub-department in R&D called “machine learning,” and recruited a great leader for this team, who stepped in as our Chief Data Scientist and is now bringing four more ML developers,” said Bauer.

“We want to exploit possibilities in our products to both simplify and automate processes so that we can both help ourselves and our customers save time and money.

We already have an enormous amount of data to which we can develop and apply ML models to achieve advantages. Examples being automating data input, suggestion and recommendation engines and ML empowered search mechanisms.

“We have also recently invested in a very exciting company called Protex .AI which focuses on Vision based AI. With them we want

our products to be more helpful in real time situations and aid our customers in avoiding dangerous situations through predictive video analysis. This is an extremely interesting and promising area.

“In terms of innovation we are also exploring other areas and have already taken quantum leaps in our cloud architecture journey. All our main assets are now on AWS and we are then able to empower our applications with a multitude of services available there.”

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“ Our software is more than just a tool to record data, it becomes a way of working that makes positive changes to create a safer workplace” ØYVIND BAUER

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, ECOONLINE

so that you are able to react and adapt on a constantly evolving journey and rapidly changing technology landscape.

“You must be prepared to quickly onboard and get new developers to deliver value quickly, as well as making sure your technology and architecture can withstand the ravages of time, and have the flexibility to constantly evolve and grow with the business.

When it comes down to everything, we are expected to help deliver ARR and key results, technology is a main enabler for this, so it's vital to also have a healthy business

understanding as well to support this and see the broader picture.

“I also want to underline the importance of “everyone contributing”. Having a Mission and Vision for the company that is inspiring is critical for both the internal culture, how the customers, market and media perceives you as well what is important for you in life.

For me, I love getting out of bed, going to work, and contributing towards a better world through my role in EcoOnline.”

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TRICON INTERNATIONAL LTD

THE LEAN MACHINE WRITTEN BY: SIMON HOWSON-GREEN PRODUCED BY: MIKE SADR

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Craig Wood, Director of Infrastructure and Security

TRICON ENERGY

Craig Wood of Tricon Energy talks about his plans for the commodities trading platform and how the smartest IT and the most committed partnerships are the key to success

C

raig Wood believes in Pedal Power.

That efficient use of energy driving a cyclist’s legs and converting their movement into the most effective, economic momentum of the wheels.

Earlier this year Wood took time out from his role as the Director of Infrastructure and Security at Tricon Energy to endure a 740km cycle ride through the sweltering heat and endless seas of corn in the state of Iowa. Not only completing but surviving such a gruelling challenge was all about the super-efficient use of resources.

Craig Wood is keen on what he calls leaness. That’s all about running a business with no unnecessary fat on the bones – just a lean machine. Something a devoted and passionate cyclist would understand.

Tricon Energy is also a ‘well-oiled’ superefficient business. That’s largely down to Craig Wood’s approach and how he has navigated the company through the even more challenging landscape of the digital age.

Tricon Energy is a Houston TX-based leader in the global trade and distribution market. Its technology ensures its clients can trade commodities such as chemicals, plastics, fertilisers, and unprocessed dry bulk materials efficiently and in real time.

Underpinning this commodity trading is Tricon Energy’s commitment to utilising the very best IT and the most rewarding business collaborations.

“ To the board of a company, technology is magic and the CIO is a wizard” CRAIG WOOD

DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY, TRICON ENERGY technologymagazine.com

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Tricon Energy - Success through super efficient I.T. and partnerships

“ I learned how to use IT effectively and the importance in recognising the differences between vendor relationships and true partnerships” CRAIG WOOD

DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY, TRICON ENERGY

Craig Wood has a reputation for innovation in the way he manages technological change. He’s been developing leadingedge technologies to get the most effective interaction between businesses and their clients throughout his career. So, how much store does he place in this experience in his role at Tricon Energy?

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“I think it's been a very large contributor,” he says. “I come from a small managed service provider. This is where I really cut my teeth with IT services. That was where I learned how to use IT effectively and the importance of recognising the differences between vendor relationships and true partnerships.”

Really understanding the nature of risk “With Tricon being a very lean organisation, especially regarding IT services, we have spent a great deal of time identifying and building partnerships to propel us forward in our annual growth and innovation towards digital transformation and risk mitigation of cyber threats, which are evolving rapidly and constantly.

“This has led us to adopt a strong industry toolset which educates and informs employees of potential risks to both Tricon and our clients and partners so that we can respond appropriately in today's IT threat landscape.’

TRICON ENERGY

But according to Wood the key to success when detecting and combatting cyber threat is not just about using the best IT for the job.

That’s only part of a bigger picture.

Wood says mitigating risk is often down to understanding and anticipating simple human nature. ‘No solution or tool is 100% effective to the daily threat evolution, so the first line of defence needs to be employee awareness and diligent communication.

“Artificial intelligence catches a good 97% of most phishing threats but that risky three percent can shut down an enterprise and cost millions of dollars, for that reason, awareness is one of the company's greatest assets.”

CRAIG WOOD TITLE: D IRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY INDUSTRY: OIL & ENERGY LOCATION: UNITED STATES

1996

Year founded

$7.4bn Revenue (2019)

500+

Number of employees

EXECUTIVE BIO

The lean, mean machine Wood attributes much of Tricon Energy’s early success to what he calls its leaness.

‘Effective IT tool sets can help a company become lean and efficient companies can use those tool sets more effectively.

Leaness and using the right technology go hand in hand.’

Wood says matching tool-sets to employees is a balancing act many businesses fail to understand. It’s a movable feast which should be continually under review.

‘I think this has an absolute effect on the technologies you use,’ he says.

Craig Wood is a passionate cyclist. Many of the principles he applies to hard core cycling he equates to his role at Tricon.

He is a dedicated, results driven IT Professional with proven success more than 20 years’ experience in directing a broad range of businesses with dynamic infrastructure needs. Detailed focus around industry standards and innovation while participating in planning, design, analysis and responding to executive feedback and business objectives to help manicure custom, effective solutions aligned with business needs complemented by fiscally responsible partnerships and well-managed project execution.

Accomplished at leading team members in designing, implementing, and maintaining comprehensive and secure networks, architecture, testing, and ongoing support of complex multisite and global organisations under ITIL standards and governance.

TRICON ENERGY

Attackers start with people.

Your security should too.

Proofpoint protects your people, data and systems by stopping threats, training users and securing information everywhere it lives.

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© 2021 Proofpoint, inc. All rights reserved.

TRICON ENERGY

Why? Because, he argues, there is always a trade-off between the technology you use and the employees you engage to run them. Wood believes that CIOs often face a dilemma – almost a law of diminishing returns.

‘I believe a CIO’s efficiency it goes up until you start spending a certain amount of time on your tool-sets…then you have negative returns.

‘The more time the CIO spends working at that level with the tool-sets the less effective they are in their job and their tasks.

‘The greater the number of tool-sets you have, the more complex the environment, so you either need more employees, and more highly skilled employees.’

Wood says this is the challenge all CIOs face.

‘If you don’t get the ratio right, you face a fall in efficiency. He says the real skill is learning how to measure the tool-sets you have and know how to measure what your staff can support.

You need to ensure that you're identifying optimisation and the value in the tools that are available. Just having them isn't enough.’

Waving the I.T magic wand Wood says he is passionate about getting the relationship between the Board of a business and the CIO right too. “It’s absolutely key,” he says.

“It’s interesting,’ he says. “I recently heard someone say that, to the board of a company, technology is magic; the CIO is a wizard.”

“ Partnerships are the backbone of building a business such as Tricon Energy” CRAIG WOOD

DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY, TRICON ENERGY

“The board says: ‘We say we want this outcome’ and the board hears the wizard say: ‘I've got a magic wand, and this is what's going to fix it for you.” Most often regardless of what the CIO actually tells them.”

“But if you can't deliver actual outcomes to demonstrate and recognise where there's risk as well as identify that we have additional risk that needs to be addressed and you don't communicate that to the board then the board is going to be surprised, and if that surprise results in ransomware it's going to create a lot of issues.”

But according to Wood, that’s only half of the equation space in. The other half is all about looking beyond your internal assets. Again, he stresses that balance is everything. “What you can’t get from that ‘well-oiled’ internal employee mechanism you need to complement with partnerships.” technologymagazine.com

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True partnerships “Partnerships are at the backbone of building a business such as Tricon Energy,” he says.

So how much of a role does Wood have in Tricon Energy’s partnership strategy? A lot.

“I don't just influence the process, I make decisions about our technology partnerships.”

“This is critical. It is very important to chose the right partner when you're going to run a efficient organisation. Many would argue that every organisation, as far as IT goes, is ‘lean’. It’s often considered a cost centre. One company may see it as a red line at the bottom of the general ledger, another company may see it as a black line and as an aid to empowerment to the business.”

“Either way,” says Wood, “IT still has a job in the partnership process.” And, it is partnerships which Wood champions. He is not a fan of vendor relationships.

“The partnerships you make are going to determine whether or not you end up with a vendor relationship – which I do not believe in, I prefer to nurture a partnership and grow together.”

Wood is sceptical of vendor relationships.

He says they tend to miss opportunities and lack true commitment from both sides. A

TRICON ENERGY

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“ I believe, very much in educating my staff and helping them grow” CRAIG WOOD

DIRECTOR OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY, TRICON ENERGY

good partnership is engaged with what is happening in your company, and is part of the journey.

“A vendor may be more concerned with margins my margins? They may not necessarily be interested in a log lasting business relationship, and determine what tool-sets to use and how to best manage them for the betterment of the business rather than the vendor margins.”

“Yes, you're going to have to have some partnerships that are less strategic than others, because you need a ‘widget’ to work, but core partnerships must have the core relationships to be successful.”

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“With a true partnership you're addressing the situation together that you're encountering and you're both working on to be good custodians of the business.”

Wood cites Tricon’s partnership with Long View Systems as a good example of how this relationship should work.

“I have a great working relationship with a company called Long View Systems, who is our managed service provider. We work very closely together and I include them in a lot of decision making an input into what we do.”

Wood says working within a company such as Tricon Energy requires a very different approach to the old days when

TRICON ENERGY

he was a consultant. It’s about trust and equality within a partnership.

“With Tricon we've got motivation that is driven by efficiency and innovation, and we have a subset of tools that that help Tricon. Having to cut away at the tools we utilise limits my field of vision, as far as what technologies are developing, how they are used, and what their impact is.

So, my decision-making capacity is limited in that regard. This means I must rely on my partners to give me good information which is not biased towards them.”

Craig Wood describes himself as a servant leader. He says trust and

collaboration is everything.

“I believe, very much in educating my staff and helping them grow. I do a lot of work to ensure that they can progress. They are the only reason I’m successful and so I make sure I put that first. I empower my employees, so that they can educate and grow and have a clear line of succession.”

Wood says this approach is how he can take sleep at night, take vacations and even take time to cycle across an entire state in the heat of Summer.

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LEVERAGING DEEP TECH FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

WRITTEN BY: LAURA V. GARCIA PRODUCED BY: KRIS PALMER

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Alice Guehennec, Group Chief Digital & Information Officer, shares how tech is defining the water services of the future

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he flood gates are open on digital transformation at Saur. Alice Guehennec, Group Chief Digital & Information Officer at Saur, doesn’t mess around.

Guehennec’s mission is to define how digitalisation can help to deliver water services of the future and has devised a clear digital strategy and transformation plan. About six months into her position at Saur, Guehennec has set her budget and got her shareholder and stakeholder buy-in.

The team is now currently in the second year of execution.

“It's a very challenging programme because we are transforming the whole company. In fact, it's not just IT. We are building a solution that is transforming the way people deliver water services, and that involves the entire company.”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)- The Water War It’s a highly ambitious plan that is expected to take another two or three

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years. Meanwhile, they continue what Ms. Guehennec calls the water war. To ensure success she takes a no-nonsense approach, grounded in the trust of her team and the supportive foundation she and the rest of the CxO group at Saur have laid. It’s an approach that aligns well with Saur’s corporate commitment to business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). In fact, it’s why she joined Saur in the first place.

Saur started a very ambitious CSR programme with the corporate positioning of standing for water. “We are not talking about just delivering water. We are talking about how to preserve water in terms of quality and quantity because we know that all over the world, there is climate change happening. And this has a very big impact on water resources.

And the question is how we will manage the water volume compared to the population in the future, knowing that we have very dry periods in the summer and problems of flows in the winter, and that winter overflows can’t be used to make the drinking water for summer. It’s an immense challenge brought on by climate change, and at Saur, we have

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“ We are not talking about just delivering water.

We are talking about how to save water” ALICE GUEHENNEC

GROUP CHIEF DIGITAL & INFOMATION OFFICER, SAUR

made it our mission to be the one water service company that will save and contribute to winning the water war.”

Success, Built on Trust and Alignment of Values Saur believes their strong core values and corporate culture afford them a competitive advantage that’s built the strong bonds of trust found throughout their ecosystem. Over nearly 90 years, Saur’s values of responsibility, service awareness, transparency, solidarity, and local presence has been the underpinning of success.

Guehennec herself stands as president of the diversity network in Saur and working to drive increased diversity.

“In particular, we are working to change the balance between the male and females in the company. Our industry is historically a business where there's a lot of men, and so we are all pushing to have an equilibrate rate of men in the company, particularly at management level.”

To ensure a full alignment of values, personal engagement, and clarity of expectations across the organisation, Saur published its Ethics Charter in 2014 and Code of Conduct in 2018.

Guehennec says that “in terms of ethics and compliance, we have to be clear, transparent and compliant with regulation. There is no option.”

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EXECUTIVE BIO ALICE GUEHENNEC TITLE: GROUP CHIEF DIGITAL & INFORMATION OFFICER LOCATION: PARIS Alice Guehennec holds a Master's degree in Digital and IT from the University of Technology of Compiègne and begins her career in the early 2000s as an IT Consultant. From 2002 to 2010, she successively holds three positions within Capgemini, a French digital services company : Senior Management Consultant, Technical Director, then Business Unit Director. Between 2010 and 2014, Alice Guehennec is Deputy Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO) at the Ministry of Homeland Security, then joins the international consulting and technology company Accenture as Senior Manager until 2016. She becomes CDIO for Sodexo before joining Saur in June 2019 as Group CDIO. Since taking up her position, Alice Guehennec is co-chairing of the EllEau network, for professional gender diversity in Saur Group. In 2021, Guehennec and her teams were awarded CDIO of the Year and CDIO for good by IT for Business Magazine.

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Title of the video

Communication- the Key to Change Management “Change management is very important in the company because the entire company is changing at the same time — corporate, finance, logistics, operations, customer relationships.”

“Success is an accumulation of parameters.

First, support from the shareholders and general management, because without strategic alignment, it doesn't work. Second, the team, because of course, alone, you are nobody. Success is the capability to mobilise and to explain first, because if you have people that are not confident and don’t understand the targets, it, again, doesn't work.

In the end, I think that mentally team spirit is very key to success.”

“ At Saur, we have made it our mission to be the one water service company that will save and win the water war” ALICE GUEHENNEC

GROUP CHIEF DIGITAL & INFOMATION OFFICER, SAUR

She walks us through the most critical step, communicating to the team. “It's important that people in the company understand where we are going, because if you are able to make them understand that, even if they are a little bit lost during the journey, they can refer to this vision and say, okay, we are a little bit struggle at the moment, but we know we will make it happen.” technologymagazine.com

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“And then providing training assistance during the rollout of all the solutions.

So, step by step, we'll say, okay, we will share that with you in one month. In two months, we recheck that for you.

And then, six months, we will change that for you.”

“We have to be very person-oriented. What does it change for me as a professional hazard field worker, dispatcher, or as a financial person?” Ms. Guehennec explains that fear is stage two of the change curve, and so it’s vitally important to communicate exactly what the change means, in a relevant way to employees and letting them know what the next steps are so they know what to expect.

An Ambition Vision; Leveraging Big Tech for Better Ways of Working “To understand what digital transformation looks like at Saur, you have to understand what we manage,” Guehennec says.

“We manage clients, and we manage infrastructure. That means water plants and networks (pipes). So there are two parts to our digital transformation.”

“Operationally, what is first and foremost is the digital experience for our consumers, B2B and B2C. For B2B, that means things like the capability to manage their installations and infrastructure remotely with full transparency on the data, predictive modelling, and prescription analytics. For B2C, it also means full transparency and consumption and how to use nudge exercises to change the behaviour of the consumer to save water.”

“And then there is the operational part with infrastructure and plants networks), where the objective is to automate the ways of working of our plants and network.”

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“I think that mentally team spirit is very key to success” ALICE GUEHENNEC

GROUP CHIEF DIGITAL & INFOMATION OFFICER, SAUR

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The water ecosystem depends on a myriad of factors such as weather and movement of population. Guehennec explains that in tourist areas, for example, between summer and winter, water consumption is completely different. “So the parametrisation of the plants can be different. A storm, a dry period, everything can very highly influence the water ecosystem.”

To better predict and plan, she looks to leverage deep tech such as predictive modelling and prescriptive analytics to help determine courses of action, mitigate risk, and optimise operations.

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“ In terms of ethics and compliance, we have to be clear, transparent, and compliant with regulation. There is no option” ALICE GUEHENNEC

GROUP CHIEF DIGITAL & INFOMATION OFFICER, SAUR

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with a part for offshoring IT services. So it's big partners because it's a very big transformation.”

“The choice was a good one because they have some standard industrial processes we were able to quickly implement. In this very strategic, challenging transformation with very stretched planning, it's really important not to lose time in defining how to work. So they came armed with their industrial mode, and from day one, we started with standard processes.”

Supplier Selection: Big Ambitions, Big Suppliers “This was the biggest challenge in my career,” says Guehennec. “Because I had to manage two transformations at the same time – business and IT transformation.

When you have such a big challenge in front of you, you can't choose just any partner.

My experience is that there are only a few companies in the market that are able to manage this size of transformation. So we have selected two big companies, one for the business transformation [Capgemini] and one for the IT transformation [Accenture],

Optimising Costs with Coupa In order to gain better control on spend and lower costs by leveraging volumes, Saur went on the hunt for a P2P provider and found Coupa.

“We started by issuing an RFP on the procurement project with different tools, and Coupa was selected to become the procurement tool in Saur for the full P2P process. It was then deployed in the field for purchase requests to be done through the catalogue. That's the interest of this kind of solution. And then the workflow of the group.

So validation of the order is fully implemented in Coupa, as well as validation of invoice for payment.”

For Guehennec, the objective was to rationalise the catalogue of products and gain tighter control on spending in order to better leverage volumes with a few key suppliers. “So a little bit of discipline to have people use the same catalogue of products and the same providers allows you to ultimately reduce and optimise costs.”

Whether it’s cost, diversity, or digitisation, it seems to me Ms. Guehennec has no problem getting her team onboard and meeting objectives, however ambitious they may be.

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RE-IMAGINING THE FUTURE: HOW TCS HELPS CLIENTS TO INNOVATE WRITTEN BY: JOHN O'HANLON PRODUCED BY: BEN MALTBY

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Tony Kagoo, Head of Innovation, Communication, Media & Information Services for TCS in the UK and Europe, discusses the challenges facing telcos

H

owever, whatever sector a customer is associated with, in today's world communications must be central to their concerns. For Antony (Tony) Kagoo, based in London and Head of Innovation for the Communication, Media & Information Services unit for TCS in the UK and Europe, innovation – keeping a step ahead of implementation and constantly re-imagining the future – is the most important part of his work. “Many organisations invest in research, of course, but I see the challenge for them as understanding where to invest most effectively to get the best returns on those investments.”

To make sure this happens, and that the most relevant and advanced thinking is brought in, TCS established its Co-Innovation ecosystem (COINTM) to leverage emerging technologies along with a global partner ecosystem. Tony Kagoo is a great evangelist for this initiative.

“Within our COIN ecosystem we have 2,500 start-ups globally, venture capital firms, industry specialists and consultants, and technology alliances with the major cloud and technology companies. We also have more than 65 academic partnerships with leading universities and research institutes.”

The COIN global team, he says, is focused on finding disruptive technologies in areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, cybersecurity, Robotic Automation, Advanced Analytics and the like. “We bring these technologies on board,

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Tony Kagoo, Head of Innovation, Communication, Media & Information Services, TCS

TCS

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TCS: Innovation at the leading edge of communication

so the customer does not have to start the innovation journey from zero, but starts with a real head-start.”

When the pandemic struck global business in 2020, it broadly changed the way TCS customers thought about innovation.

The most vital lifeline for businesses and consumers alike was connectivity, which while enabling businesses to work remotely, had not even been tested for efficacy across scenarios. “It really proved the truth of the saying, 'the fuel for disruption is disruption itself,' so the need for smart investment in relevant technology quickly came to the fore. And with people in the 320

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major economies all working from home, communication technologies were at the centre of the conversation. We've been able to help our customers to re-imagine a future, shape it, evaluate the hypothesis, understand whether what they want to do with technology actually has a value in the market, then help them to formulate a structure, a roadmap or a business case to decide the right investment options.”

But if connectivity was indeed the lifeline, CSPs should have witnessed a sharp rise in revenue and profits, which unfortunately was not the case, with many stagnating and some recording a slight dip at the start of FY '21.

TCS

ANTONY KAGOO TITLE: HEAD OF INNOVATION, COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA AND INFORMATION SERVICE INDUSTRY: SERVICES LOCATION: LONDON

EXECUTIVE BIO

Gathering PACE of change Transitioning to a Business 4.0TM mindset needs guidance if effort and investment are to be results-focused. With this in mind, TCS developed an experiential brand called TCS PACE TM. The TCS PACE TM brand was introduced as a brand identity encompassing its research, innovation and digital transformation capabilities, applied within a business framework. Tony Kagoo explains: “TCS Pace draws together our research, innovation, and digital transformation experiences for a smooth transition to Business 4.0. You could describe it as a 'client engagement arena' that channels

Antony (Tony) has 14 years of experience in the CMI industry, leading customer relationships across multiple CXO domains with a strong focus on contact experience, networks, enterprise functions and emerging technologies. He has been leading Innovation for TCS’ CMI customers in the UK and Europe regions for about two years now, evangelising the 'Art of Possible' in an uncertain world.

Antony works with customers to create and implement innovation strategies that enable them to deploy the right investment models, understand market propensity, and meet end user needs. He also works with TCS’ research teams to build futuristic propositions to create blue ocean markets for global CMI companies.

TCS

TCS

FOUR TCS SERVICES HOSTED AT PACE PORT AMSTERDAM

“ CSPS HAVE THE POWER TO GATHER DATA AND INSIGHT ON HOW INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS FUNCTION IN THE CONNECTED WORLD” ANTONY KAGOO

HEAD OF INNOVATION, COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA AND INFORMATION SERVICE, TCS

the formidable domain expertise we've accumulated, across many decades and organisational units, into internal and external co-innovation programs” As a practical way to access all these resources, TCS is establishing co-innovation centres, called Pace Ports, at selected regional hubs. The most recent of these, joining facilities in New York and Tokyo, is in Amsterdam. “Amsterdam will be a hub for our TCS teams to co-innovate with UK &

• TCS Innovation Showcases: A sensory experience of ongoing R&I stories • TCS COIN™ Accelerators: An entrepreneurial forum to solve specific client problems • TCS Think Spaces: A space to create new solutions via digital forces and design thinking • TCS Academic Research Labs: A collaborative medium for partnerships with academia • TCS Agile Workspaces: A space to deploy TCS’ agile methods for rapid pilots and MVP

European customers, guiding them through the discovery, definition, refinement and delivery phases of innovation. It will also give them rapid prototyping capabilities.

Pace Ports have a clear focus on finding and creating sustainable solutions.”

Innovation Leadership “At TCS we are groomed to be leaders in whatever role we play,” Kagoo explains.

“One of the key aspects of my role is to define an innovation strategy integral to TCS’ growth and transformation strategy. Managing multi-stakeholders is a leadership skill essential in today’s world.

Innovation leadership is key in creating a collaborative ecosystem to drive exponential value across horizontals and verticals. technologymagazine.com

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Anis Chemli, VP of Sales and Marketing Guavus

“Collaborating with a larger research and innovation ecosystem to drive growth and transformation for our customer is one part of the puzzle: there are other critically important ones as well. While keeping our eyes on the big picture we should never forget that people and culture give meaning to innovation.

“Developing a culture of innovation is vital to the success of an organisation’s innovation strategy. At TCS we foster an innovation culture that is inclusive and diverse, not just in domain and technology 324

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“ WE BRING THESE TECHNOLOGIES ONBOARD SO THE CUSTOMER DOES NOT HAVE TO START THE JOURNEY FROM ZERO, BUT STARTS WITH A REAL HEAD-START” ANTONY KAGOO HEAD OF INNOVATION, COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA AND INFORMATION SERVICE, TCS

TCS

CLOUD-SCALE AI ANALYTICS, SYSTEM INTEGRATION AND IMPROVED BUSINESS PROCESS ENGINEERING FUEL MOBILE OPERATORS’ 5G SUCCESS 5G networks promise to be faster than 4G, more reliable, massively scalable and will enable mobile network operators (MNOs) to develop a broad range of new applications and services for consumers and businesses.

At full scale, 5G networks will also bring orders of magnitude more complexity compared to today’s 4G networks. The MNOs that Guavus (a Thales company) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) work with know this all too well. Everything increases: more connected devices, 5G cell sites, radio elements and antennae, bandwidth, cloud-native infrastructure, on-demand services and more data running over their networks.

5G scale and complexity are requiring operators to leverage artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ ML) and real-time analytics to augment their human operators for time-critical decisions and actions.

Guavus and TCS are collaborating with operators globally to leverage Guavus’ best-in-class 5G analytics solutions and TCS services and consulting to master this 5G complexity, increase operating efficiency and ensure a high-quality customer experience -- while protecting their existing investments and familiar processes associated with legacy 4G and older solutions. The bottom line for operators is reduced opex and organisational change while ensuring a smooth migration to 5G -- providing a sound base from which they can unlock the accelerated revenues and growth that 5G promises.

Guavus’ cloud-scale AI/ML and real-time streaming analytics and services are aimed at helping operators transform into true digital service providers, delivering a new generation of 5G services that empower their users and serve as a critical link in their enterprise digital value chain.

Vendor-neutral in a complex ecosystem – from 5G edge and core to cloud Serving the world’s largest operators for more than 15 years, Guavus’ analytics products use streaming analytics and advanced AI/ML algorithms to ingest a wide variety of high-velocity telemetry data, and then perform context-aware operational and behavioral analytics to generate real-time insights benefiting MNO stakeholders in network operations, network engineering, service operations, customer care, field operations and marketing. Operators are using Guavus’ analytics to collect and analyse petabytes of data every day and generate millions of dollars in opex savings and monetisation.

Guavus’ AI/ML-driven 5G analytics solutions help automate network operations, service orchestration and business processes throughout operators’ 5G networks. To ensure interoperability in these complex, multi-vendor environments, the company’s 5G solutions are fully open, extensible and adhere to industry standards such as the 3GPP Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) standard. 5G’s virtualised, disaggregated, cloud-native infrastructure fosters the growth of a more diverse supplier ecosystem than 4G/LTE. This places a premium on multi-vendor interoperability in the 5G RAN, core and edge -- which extends to the data analytics functions that drive network automation. Guavus’ 5G-IQ NWDAF product takes a 3GPP-compliant ‘open NWDAF’ approach, providing operators multi-vendor analytics interoperability from the 5G network edge to the network core to the cloud.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a proven systems integration, business process and IT managed services partner that has experience running Guavus solutions as a service for the world’s top communications service providers and multiservice operators.

Tony Kagoo, TCS Head of Innovation, Communication, Media and Information Services, comments: “Telcos need business agility and insightdriven operations such as zero-touch that can enable the delivery of new value-added services to their customers. At TCS we have strong business process advisory and system integration experience, and we strongly believe our partnership with Guavus can deliver customer experience and operational excellence to operators with the AI/ML-based analytics technology Guavus brings across multivendor 5G edge, core and cloud domains.”

“TCS and Guavus have always seemed like ideal partners,” says Anis Chemli, VP of Sales and Marketing for Guavus. “TCS is very strong in the managed services space and Guavus is considered a leader in the telecom artificial intelligence, analytics and machine learning space. We have many mutual customers and both companies, by their very nature, take a vendor-agnostic approach.”

“It’s a complex 5G ecosystem but we can simplify all of that with our AI-driven analytics – this capability complements TCS’ services because they’re used to integrating a very broad vendor environment for their customers. Partnering made every kind of sense and offers strong benefits to operators worldwide,” says Chemli.

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but also in people and the roles they play. It is this embedded culture that I take to our customers as a living example during our conversations.

“To create a pervasive innovation thought-process, it is important to enable people with the right attitude and mindset.

Building the next generation of innovation leadership is a key measure that I own and work at every day. The conversations we have with customers and the wider ecosystem should not be restricted to a few but there is a fundamental need for it to be pervasive and outcome focused.

“Innovation without outcomes is like running without a destination! In TCS we have embraced agile innovation at the core of how we partner with customers for Innovation.

Our journey always starts with the outcome in mind. It is important to define success and failure before reaching decisions.

“Again, where there is a strategy there are always key performance indicators (KPIs). I am often asked to define the right KPIs for innovation. Measuring innovation should be rational, and transcend the normal boundaries of strategy, finance and process.

KPIs should also include people and partners like: what percentage of our people who engage, participate and really come through with disruptive or creative solutions? How often do we conduct campaigns focused upon solving our customers’ problems and identifying unmet, unarticulated needs that could be a hotbed for disruption? How many partners do we engage and co-create solutions with? Identifying key measures that help us to understand the human part of our innovation strategy is an absolute must.

“As leaders it is our responsibility to enable and equip the wider organisation with right tools, processes, frameworks, knowledge and awareness to create meaningful and 326

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impactful habit-forming products and solutions for customers.”

Innovation at the heart of CSP strategy Communication Service Providers (CSPs) are at the cusp of industry evolution, connecting the different touchpoints in a user's journey whether they are an enterprise or a consumer, Kagoo believes. “CSPs have the power to gather data and insight on how individuals and organisations function in the connected world. This means they

TCS

are best placed to create a collaborative ecosystem with partners and organisations to shape the future. One of the key trends we are observing is that enterprises in the B2B segment are constantly trying to disrupt themselves by re-imaging their business model to address a new world of consumers in the future.”

It is very clear that innovation should be part of a customer’s business strategy and align with their vision for the future. Strategy is of course a living and constantly evolving collateral, the

key is execution, he believes. “One of many challenges is to break down the vision into rational pragmatic elements in the strategy that need to be positioned as part of the organisational culture and operating model.”

Disruptions are happening on all fronts In the last year, we have seen how the necessity for remote working has fundamentally disrupted the way business is conducted globally, and the extraordinary demands this has placed on telcos in technologymagazine.com

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particular. It's been no small task for them to address unanticipated demands in the short term but how might they need to change in the future?

“To understand the future, we need first to identify the forces at play; society, environment, science, technology, geopolitics and the changing economic and regulatory environment,” he says.

“Understanding how these forces influence the future we foresee plays a pivotal role in identifying problem statements and market gaps. We work with our customers to identify the intersections of industry, research, technology and society, where we strongly believe the opportunities exist. We work together with customers to evaluate and prioritise the opportunities. The innovation portfolio we create will help in deciding what needs to be done today, tomorrow and the day after. Only now we are strategically poised to start the execution phase of innovation and developing roadmaps for short-term, mid-term or long-term investments. Rapid delivery of prototypes to test hypotheses will help to reduce the time to innovate. One of the ways we provide rapid prototyping is through Innovationas-a-Service (IaaS). The as-a-service model helps customers to be on the fast track to develop solutions by leveraging the investments we have made in Research and Innovation (R&I) along with the decades of experience built across industries globally.”

For TCS innovation is not just creating prototypes, but helping customers in shaping the future, shaping problem statements, and finally delivering impactful solutions to address these problem statements.

“One of my primary jobs, conversations with a diverse set of customers who manage innovation across multiple functions in the 328

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EXPERIENCE RESULTS Experience Leadership • With TCS, you get more than what you asked for, says Debbie. TCS’ strong technical leadership is the foundation behind our partnership, she says. “TCS understands our 2020 strategy, and it dovetails quite well with their Business 4.0™ approach.”

Experience Partnership • Applauding TCS’ hard work and strong partnership with Vodafone, Debbie says, “TCS has not just brought good people, but they have also brought a lot of innovation. As a result of that, over the last two years, we have managed to go through the TMMi accreditation, and I am delighted to say that as a result of TCS' hard work, we have delivered TMMi5.”

organisation, is not just to talk about success stories but also deliberate on what did not work – why they failed. These lessons and best practices along with contextual knowledge, belief in creating a better future through impactful products and solutions, uniquely place us to collaborate and accelerate our customer’s transformation journey – underpinned by innovation.”

A good illustration of this approach is seen in the March 2021 expansion of the strategic partnership between TCS and VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands to help the telco speed up its fixed fibre network rollout, enabling superior connectivity for subscribers and faster launch of new services. As part of the partnership, TCS is deploying AI and ML technology as well as TCS TwinXTM, its digital twin solution for enterprises. The digital twin model will help VodafoneZiggo gain a deeper understanding of its existing network infrastructure and embrace a data-driven roadmap for the rollout of its B2B fixed fibre network.

5G and essential partnerships Technology has to have relevance, Tony Kagoo insists. Just because blockchain exists, that doesn't mean every enterprise should adopt it, but in the world of the CSPs he deals with some are clearly spearheading the conversation and it's vital for them and their enterprise customers and end-users that fast-expanding technologies like AI, blockchain, edge computing and of course 5G, are realistically considered, matched, and applied to solve specific problems. We have already seen how TCS COIN is just one platform to bring together in an agile partnership the best minds and innovators.

For TCS CMI one of the key areas of collaboration with partners is in the area of 5G and networks. “As 5G matures into technologymagazine.com

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Tata Consultancy Services 5G & MEC Use Case | Verizon

a more commercially viable connectivity enabler and technology, ecosystem partners will be a catalyst to unlock market potential and drive purpose-led and insightful products and services.”

5G will mature as we progress through 2021/22, he predicts. “This dynamic is already driving CSPs to start re-imagining themselves as a technology company that provides curated and contextual products to specific industries. Piggybacking on CSPs' 5G connectivity will herald a wave of partnerships that will usher in the age of ecosystem-driven businesses.”

One of the key partners Kagoo and his team are working with in this space is Guavus, a Thales company and a pioneer in the application of big data, streaming analytics, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). The partnership is working to solve critical operational and business challenges, and currently spearheading the development of analytics products for 5G network operators, 330

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mobile IoT applications and cloud-based digital services. “We are observing that telcos face the challenge of huge 5G investment and are keen to explore opex reduction measures.

Telcos need business agility, real-time insightdriven operations such as zero-touch, that can enable the delivery of network slices seamlessly for enterprise business. At TCS we have strong consulting, advisory and system integration experience and we strongly believe our partnership with Guavus can focus on delivering customer experience and operational excellence to CSPs with the technology they bring across network domains from the 5G edge and core, to the cloud.

“As 5G increasingly gains momentum, TCS’ partnership with Guavus enables operators to deploy best-in-class Guavus 5G solutions such as 5G-IQ Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) and Ops-IQ which add huge value. However, in conjunction with TCS advisory, consulting and services capabilities,

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“ WE ARE OBSERVING THAT TELCOS CURRENTLY FACE THE CHALLENGE OF HUGE 5G INVESTMENT” ANTONY KAGOO HEAD OF INNOVATION, COMMUNICATIONS, MEDIA AND INFORMATION SERVICE, TCS

this means that operators can protect their existing investments and familiar processes associated with their legacy 4G and older solutions, migrate and scale them to the levels required for 5G, whilst in parallel supporting 3GPP standards compliant 5G solution. This preserves previous investment, simplifies the analytics landscape, reduces opex and organizational change, and ensures a smooth migration to 5G. Further, this provides a sound base from which to unlock the accelerated revenues and growth that 5G promises.”Humanity makes progress through the power of its ideas and its quest to perpetually make

things better, concludes Tony Kagoo. “If we peel back the layers of innovation, at the core we uncover the forces and dynamics that drive today’s world – and people like us. For several millennia, our inventions have created greater futures for humans by helping us transcend the limitations of our biology and our environment. As a species we have been able to imagine and create the world we want to live in. As individuals and as a business we have a responsibility to invent a greater future for all.”

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