Business Chief APAC October

October 2021 | businesschief.asia

APAC EDITION

Edge Centres: Solar Power at the Edge

TECHNOLOGY LEADERS IN ASIA-PACIFIC

The Rise of JANE SUN

One of only a few female CEOs in China’s tech industry, Jane Sun has grown Trip.com Group in size, revenue and female representation

Dole International: A Fresh Approach to Indirect Procurement Oper8 Global: Data Centre Expertise As-a-Service

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The Business Chief Team EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

SCOTT BIRCH

EDITORAL DIRECTOR

SCOTT BIRCH CREATIVE TEAM

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

PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

GEORGIA ALLEN DANIELA KIANICKOVÁ

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

OWEN MARTIN PHILLINE VICENTE JACK THOMPSON

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

PRODUCTION EDITOR

MOTION DESIGNER

PRODUCTION MANAGERS

JANET BRICE

TYLER LIVINGSTONE

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

MARKETING MANAGERS

KIERAN WAITE

ANDREW STUBBINGS SAJANA SAMARASINGHE

PROJECT DIRECTORS

THOMAS LIVERMORE JAMES RICHARDSON MICHAEL BANYARD JOE PALLISTER JAKE MEGEARY KRIS PALMER MIKE SADR RYAN HALL BEN MALTBY TOM VENTURO STUART IRVING CRAIG KILLINGBACK JAMES BERRY

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Creating Digital Communities

FOREWORD

Aukus uproar “Two superpowers are indirectly making their presence felt”

A fascinating power play is playing out in Asia Pacific, as Australia joins forces with the US and UK in an unexpected splinter alliance. In a clear statement to Beijing, the US will share nuclear submarine technology with Australia – which has increasingly been at loggerheads with China over alleged cyber attacks and political tampering which has also seen a trade war escalate between the two.

But this is far more than just some pact between allies, and Australia has put itself out there by taking such a stand, while seemingly disregarding the opinions of its near neighbours. The ASEAN countries, for instance, rightly feel that they should have been consulted (while quietly perhaps welcoming the move as China continues to flex its military muscle in the region).

Make no mistake, this is something of a precedent, and while US President Joe Biden keeps saying that he does not want another Cold War and that diplomacy will come before military, there seem to be two superpowers indirectly making their presence felt.

The world is watching, and wary.

BUSINESS CHIEF MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY

SCOTT BIRCH

scott.birch@bizclikmedia.com

© 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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CONTENTS

Our Regular Upfront Section: 08 Big Picture 10 The Brief 12 Timeline: Shangri-La Group 14 Legend:

Jane Sun

18

Edge Centres

Solar Power at the Edge

34

Leadership & Strategy Reimagining the future of Business events

66

Oper8 Global Filling in the gaps

48

Dole International

A Fresh Approach to Indirect Procurement & Procurement Excellence

58

Corporate Finance

The State of Regtech in APAC

78

Event Preview Fintech

86

Top 10

Technology Leaders in Asia-Pacific

BIG PICTURE

8

October 2021

Game on!

APAC region

Following a lockdown year that saw gaming thrive, reaching nearly 3bn global gamers (30% of the world’s population) the momentum is set to continue with China and Southeast Asia driving much of the revenue growth. And while China recently introduced the world’s strictest limits on video games for kids, analysts believe this won’t have much impact as minors make up a small fraction of the gaming industry.

This is especially true in esports where Asia generates nearly half of all global revenue following 21% growth in 2020 and an expected 10.5% growth this year.

While Korea and Japan are more mature esports markets, Southeast Asia is seeing ever-increasing growth. Unsurprisingly, global brands are starting to establish their sponsorship strategies for esports in Asia with Nike signing on as exclusive apparel partner for T1 last year, and nonendemic brands increasingly getting in on the esports action. Like luxury brand Louis Vuitton, which recently tied up with video game developer Riot Games for the League of Legends World Championship. businesschief.asia

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THE BRIEF “ASIAN BUSINESSES ARE PUSHING HARD TO DEPLOY TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS CLOUD, APIS, MOBILE APPS, RESILIENCY, AND ANALYTICS TO REAP THE REWARDS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION”

BY THE NUMBERS

Global adoption of crytocurrency *Surging an incredible 881% in the last year, cryptocurrency is being adopted most quickly by emerging countries with the top three located in Asia.

 Scott Patterson APAC Fintech and Financial Services Lead, Enterprise Ireland READ MORE

“There is a stronger appetite for digital or hybrid events in Asia… visitors from Asia are significantly more likely to convert from attending a new event digitally to attending in person in the future”  Kai Hattendorf CEO, UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industryn

CHINA 0.16%

PAKISTAN 0.36%

VIETNAM 1%

PHILIPPINES 0.16%

INDIA 0.37%

THAILAND 0.17%

READ MORE

93%

$20bn

$3.8bn

The increase in gross profit to US$19bn achieved by ByteDance, the Chinese parent of TikTok, in 2020, almost doubling revenues as usage of the hugely popular video app boomed. The rapid growth of the privately-owned Beijing-based company has led to analysts estimating its value at up to US$100bn.

The total amount of corporate venture capital deals and equity funding given out in Asian markets in the first half of 2021, according to CB Insights, nearly as much as the whole of 2020 and meaning that VC in Asia is second only to the biggest name in VC, the US.

The funds South Korean video game company Krafton raised in going public, making its IPO the second largest in Korea ever after Samsung Life Insurance in 2010 (US$4.4bn). Both IPOs are expected to be outdone by the IPO of vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solutions, planned for Q3 2021, and expected to raise US$9bn.

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October 2021

 ALIBABA CLOUD AIDS APAC DIGITAL GROWTH

EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT THE… US-SINGAPORE CLIMATE PARTNERSHIP? What’s that?

A partnership established in August between the US and Singapore in which both countries will better collaborate on the green economy. The aim? To create opportunities for businesses and workers in green growth sectors.

What sectors will be spotlighted?

Sustainable finance, including the use of private capital for sustainable infrastructure and environmental risk management in the financial sector; energy transitions

Alibaba Cloud unveils Project AsiaForward with an initial US$1bn to cultivate a millionstrong digital talent pool, empower 100,000 developers and the growth of 100,000 technology startups across APAC in the next three years.

 SAMSUNG TO INVEST BILLIONS IN KEY INDUSTRIES Samsung Group will invest US$206bn over the next three years across biopharma, AI, semiconductors and robotics to help strengthen the Group’s global position in key industries such as chip-making while also seeking growth opportunities in new areas.

including sustainable transport; and quality carbon

 ASIA’S COAL INVESTMENT

credit markets. The partnership may also involve expert

Five Asian countries together account for 80% of new coal power investment with China, India, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam planning to build 600-plus coal power units despite renewable energy being cheaper than most new coal plants.

consultations on the setting of green standards and the management of environmental financial risks. In 2022, the countries will launch new programs to help cities become more sustainable via lowering of emissions.

Why these two countries?

The US and Singapore have a longstanding, multi-faceted bilateral relationship with a shared vision and mutual interests. Both are fully committed to taking bold climate actions and believe sustainability and economic growth can go hand-in-hand.

What else will they partner on?

Other key areas of cooperation will include cybersecurity, supply chain resilience, and economic cooperation.

They’ve concluded three agreements on cybersecurity and announced the launch of a new Partnership for Growth and Innovation with plans to convene on a highlevel dialogue on supply chain resilience.

 PING AN REPORTS FALL IN NET PROFIT China’s largest insurer by market value, Ping An Insurance Group, reported a 15.5% fall in firsthalf net profit following a US$3.2bn loss suffered on investments in indebted developer China Fortune Land Development.

W A Y U P

OCT21

W A Y D O W N

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TIMELINE SHANGRI-LA GROUP CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF ASIAN HOSPITALITY Pioneers of Asian hospitality and one of the world’s most iconic Asian hospitality brands whose portfolio spans 100-plus properties, 75 destinations, and four hotel brands, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts Group celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We pay tribute.

1970s-1980s

Shangri-La was born in Singapore in 1971 by Robert Kuok, paving the way for a new standard in Asian hospitality. During the 70s, three more ShangriLas debuted, two in Malaysia and one in Fiji.

In the 80s, Kuok formed Shangri-La International Hotel Management, and the group accrued hotel location firsts, including Hong Kong, China and Thailand, and unveiled new hotel brand, Traders, opening the first in Beijing.

1990s

The 90s saw Shangri-La International Hotel Management assume control of all owned properties and Shangri-La Asia go public, the latter buying the former. There were numerous Asia-wide hotel openings including debuts of Shangri-Las in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Jakarta and the launch of third hotel brand First Kerry Hotel, opening in Beijing. The Group’s guest loyalty programme Golden Circle was introduced.

2000s

The Group entered North America and Australia with Shangri-La openings in Sydney and Vancouver and expanded in Asia with debuts in Japan and India. Shangri-La unveiled its first branded spa, Chi, The Spa, in Bangkok, and first commercial complex with office/ retail space, in Mongolia.

And in 2009, the Group unveiled its flagship CSR programmes to support social and environmental development.

2010s

This decade marked the 100th Shangri-La opening (Xiamen, China), and saw Shangri-La enter Europe (Paris, London) and expand Asia-wide entering Sri Lanka.

Reiterating its brand values (nature, sustainability), Shangri-La launched the ‘It’s in Our Nature’ global campaign; unveiled an initiative in support of local/fair sourcing; listed on the Hang Seng Corporate Sustainability Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices; and introduced its ‘No Shark Fin’ policy. Launches included: fourth hotel brand (Hotel JEN), dedicated interactive kids’ play space (buds by Shangri-La), and first standalone dining venue (Shang Social, Singapore airport).

2020s

The Group upped the ante on tech this decade, becoming the first international hotel group to deploy robot butlers (JEN hotels, Singapore), and the first hotel group to offer e-services under WeChat including online pay and offline deposit for guests, a partnership with Tencent.

Recent happenings include Shangri-La Istanbul debuting the world’s first Baklava butler, opening of Shangri-La Saudi Arabia, launch of the Group’s family-centric brand Fam.ily, and celebrating Shangri-La’s 50th anniversary in 2021 with the launch of a new brand logo featuring a designed inspired by Asian calligraphic elements.

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LEGEND

Jane Sun

One of only a few female CEOs in China’s tech industry, Jane Sun has grown Trip.com Group in size, revenue and female representation

W

hen Chinese businesswoman Jane Sun made the transition from a multinational engineering firm to a travel startup in 2005, her intention was to be part of a business that “brings happiness to the people”. And 16 years on, she’s not just achieved this but done so on a grand scale, having been instrumental in the creation of the largest online travel agency in Asia.

Joining Trip.com as CFO in 2005, Sun became COO in 2012 before being named CEO and successor to the firm’s founder, James Liang, in 2016. A consistently powerful force in the group and travel industry worldwide, Sun is respected for her extensive experience in operating and managing online travel businesses, M&As, financial reporting and operations.

And the proof is in the pudding. Since joining as CFO in 2005, the market capitalisation of the NASDAQ-listed Trip. com Group has grown from US$1bn to US$20bn and its global footprint has expanded dramatically.

14

October 2021

“ At Trip.com Group we are proud to be home to an over 50% female workforce.

Our goal in pursuing gender equality is to ensure equal opportunity and rewards for success for all individuals, regardless of gender.”

But it’s not just in size and revenue where the firm has seen growth. Under Sun’s leadership, Trip.com Group has grown in female presence and empowerment too.

Throughout her exec leadership at Trip. com, 53-year-old Sun has championed female success, fostered a positive work culture and implemented a raft of genderinclusive employee policies, from birth gifts to financing education, becoming the first company in China to offer egg-freezing as a benefit. Women now represent more than half of Trip.com Group’s 45,000 employees, with 41% holding midlevel managerial roles and over 30% executive roles.

It’s a gender balance achievement Sun describes as far exceeding “the average internet companies in China and Silicon Valley”.

And she should know, having lived and worked in both, including as an audit manager for KPMG in Silicon Valley.

As the only female CEO in China’s online travel industry, and one of just a few female CEOs in the Chinese tech industry and global travel industry, Sun feels a responsibility to not just champion women in business but inspire them too.

A responsibility she considers even greater given that she’s the mother of two girls. businesschief.asia

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Meet the Top 100 Leaders in SupplyChain

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Creating Digital Communities

EDGE CENTRES

SOLAR POWER AT THE EDGE WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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October 2021

PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

EDGE CENTRES

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EDGE CENTRES

Jon Eaves, Founder and CEO of Edge Centres, talks solar power, modular design, and taking the future of the internet “off-grid”

T

he global digital infrastructure industry is evolving. From Silicon Valley to Nairobi, the growing demand for interconnection and data centre services is simultaneously pushing the industry in two independent directions. “In the market right now, it’s obvious to me that there are the two main asset classes: the hyperscale facilities and the decentralised edge.

Traditional colocation assets are also a part of the market, but the sector is definitely in decline,” explains Jon Eaves, the founder and CEO of Edge Centres. Eaves, who has spent the last two decades building data centres and web hosting services throughout Australia and the Middle East, recently turned his attention to that second group of assets: data centres at the decentralised edge. “Rather than go into the hyperscale market, which is very heavily populated in Australia - Sydney alone has more than 100 data centre facilities of which 20 are hyperscale, which is epic we’re looking at the edge,” he says.

Eaves’ new company, Edge Centres, launched earlier this year, and is currently on the cusp of a sizable rollout across Australia. They’re hoping to capitalise, Eaves explains, on what he calls the “edge wave”, an imminent boom of regional digital infrastructure set to transform connectivity in the country forever. In the process, through adversity thrown up by the COVID19 pandemic, regulatory restrictions, and

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October 2021

EDGE CENTRES

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EDGE CENTRES

Edge Centres Space

available technology, Eaves and his team have hit upon some truly unique solutions.

These discoveries stand to make Edge Centres’ modular, solar-powered, batteryfirst, “off-grid” facilities a key part of Australia’s future at the edge.

Building at the Edge “Moving away from normal third-party colocation towards the edge was a strategic move. At the moment, I would still say that Australia is a year to 18 months away from the IoT and edge wave arriving,” Eaves says. “The towns where I'm building Edge Centres' facilities have never had a data centre in their entire histories. These are areas that have never had access to smart telecommunications.

In the Wild West, the towns that had railroads pass through them were the first to progress and grow, and it's much the same in regional Australia with data centre infrastructure.”

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October 2021

Edge Centres’ test case for a regional data centre site is located in Grafton, a city of fewer than 20,000 in the northern part of New South Wales. “It's the largest National Broadband Network (NBN) interconnection point in the whole of Australia,” explains Eaves. “Australia's broadband network is decentralised across 127 points that the NBN connects to, and Grafton is the largest one with 145,000 premises connected to it.”

Grafton has been a critical proving ground for Edge Centres’ first facility, soon to be the template for another 19 throughout Australia set to “connect Cairns in the far North of the country with Melbourne in the South,” Eaves explains. “We're creating a new North-toSouth network that currently doesn't exist point to point.”

Right now, the Australian NBN links hundreds of smaller regional hubs like Grafton with the country’s major metropolises like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane (where Edge Centres is based). “We call it the great

EDGE CENTRES

“ IF YOU CAN ONLY DROP ONE SITE EVERY SIX MONTHS, EVEN IF YOU BUILD THEM CONCURRENTLY, YOU'RE GOING TO END UP WAY BEHIND… WHICH IS WHY WE STARTED LOOKING AT SOLAR” JON EAVES

FOUNDER & CEO, EDGE CENTRES

Australian trombone,” says Eaves. “If you send an email from one company to another in Grafton, that email boomerangs all the way to Sydney and back, like a trombone.”

All the data created and consumed in Grafton (as well as other small towns where Edge Centres has purchased land, including Dubbo, Toowoomba, Mackay, and Hobart) from emails to Netflix shows has to negotiate the country’s highly centralised network.

In other countries, centralised hyperscale data centres serving the entire network isn’t so much of an issue, because the entire country might fit within a single latency zone.

In Australia, where populations are massively focused around coastal cities, and getting from Sydney in the East to Perth in the West takes 42 hours by car or six on a plane, latency is more of an issue. “All the Netflix in Australia is consumed from Sydney,” Eaves elaborates.

“That means that, if you're in Western Australia - which is six hours by plane away from Sydney - your video is still streaming out of Sydney.”

The result is national digital infrastructure that is woefully unprepared for the impact of Industry 4.0, 5G, and the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). In 2019’s global internet index rankings, conducted by Speedtest, Australian internet ranked 68th in the world, a full four places behind Kazakhstan. However, Eaves explains, regional edge infrastructure will be the vital step towards bringing data “as close as possible to eyes on glass,” adding that “As these edge facilities start coming online, the service providers that currently can't get a foothold in regional areas - because the facilities themselves don't exist - are going to be able to expand.”

However, rolling out 20 edge data centres across regional Australia and beyond isn’t a straightforward undertaking by any measure, and the process got a lot harder in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In overcoming these challenges, however, Eaves explains that Edge Centres hit upon something truly revolutionary. businesschief.asia

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EDGE CENTRES

ONE STULZ. ONE SOURCE. At Stulz Oceania we have truly maximised our service offering as a holistic data centre infrastructure player by providing cooling expertise, power and rack solutions, including uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems.

We provide expert and reliable support to ensure the best possible operating performance of your world leading equipment.

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EDGE CENTRES

Jon Eaves TITLE: FOUNDER & CEO INDUSTRY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & SERVICE

EXECUTIVE BIO

LOCATION: AUSTRAILA Dedicated Chief Executive Officer who is highly regarded for driving innovation in IT initiatives that maximise operational initiatives and increase productivity, growth, and internal/external customer satisfaction. Recognised as a Technology Evangelist, with success devising and implementing solutions that reduce costs and deliver a strong ROI. Ability to champion innovation with a focus on developing flexible and scalable solutions for consumer and organisational problems.

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“ IF YOU'RE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA - WHICH IS SIX HOURS BY PLANE AWAY FROM SYDNEY - YOUR NETFLIX IS STILL STREAMING OUT OF SYDNEY” JON EAVES

FOUNDER & CEO, EDGE CENTRES

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EDGE CENTRES

Going Off-Grid One of the things that Eaves is most emphatic about is just how effective solar power can be at the edge. IT equipment in facilities at the edge is a lot less dense than “in a traditional hyperscaler.” Rather than facility load being measured in megawatts, a modular edge container, like the ones being built by Edge Centres, have densities in the realm of 100-300 kilowatts. “That means that the traditional ways of cooling and powering those facilities can be disrupted to suit our requirements, which is what led us to solar,” Eaves explains.

“ BECAUSE THE EDGE IS SO DIFFERENT TO A STANDARD BRICKS-AND-MORTAR COLOCATION FACILITY, A LOT OF THINGS CHANGE WHEN IT COMES TO THE DESIGN PROCESS” JON EAVES

FOUNDER & CEO, EDGE CENTRES

Solar power, he continues, “wasn’t our original play,” but rather an invention born of necessity, as the saying goes. When Edge Centres acquired its land in Grafton, the greenfield site had never been connected to the national grid before and, when Eaves applied for utility power, his plans bumped up against a six month waiting period. “Six months is just the way it is; those are the rules for everyone,” he reflects stoically. A six month waiting period isn’t a huge problem if you’re a hyperscaler (or even a traditional colocation company) that can only spin up one to two large data centres a year.

Eaves’ rollout plan for Edge Centres involves bringing a new batch of multiple data 26

October 2021

EDGE CENTRES

centres online every four months. “If you can only drop one site every six months, even if you build them concurrently, you're going to end up way behind,” he explains. “So, we started looking at solar as an alternative way of powering these facilities.”

Edge Centres began exploring the possibility of running an edge data centre site using solar panels with a backup generator and no connection to the grid (at least at first). “It came to the point where we calculated that we could probably run our sites completely off-grid,” he recalls.

When Eaves and I spoke, the Grafton data centre had been running on exclusively solar power for just over three months with no connection to the national grid. “We're now at 93 days today - not that I'm counting - of being 100% solar powered. At the moment, the site has a backup generator, which we haven't needed to run, and no utility feeds,” says Eaves.

Pushing the Boundaries of Power and Cooling A huge part of what makes Edge Centres’ sites function independently from both the grid and (so far) their own UPS generators is the innovative approach that Eaves has taken to powering and cooling his facilities. Again, Eaves reflects that the challenges of the past year were a pivotal source of innovation.

“We've actually developed our own air conditioners which sit differently to the units you can buy off the shelf. The problem with the off the shelf units is that, because of the pandemic, the world has a shortage of containers, which makes trying to get things delivered a challenge,” he recalls.

“My first container full of cabinets was moved off a ship because another customer was paying more. I've had critical components delayed by two weeks because businesschief.asia

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EDGE CENTRES

people are paying more for priority. What used to be about a $2,000 price tag to get a container from the US or China to Australia is, as of this morning, $6,600 - we're more than three times the pre-pandemic shipping cost of a shipping container. Then, in Melbourne, I've also got three containers waiting on the dock to be X-Rayed, and they've been there since the sixth of June, three weeks ago.”

As a result, the Grafton site is pulled together from locally available modified components.

Normally, when you power a data centre, you run your electricity from your centralised power source to a mechanical and electrical board to be distributed where it’s needed. “What we've done with the air conditioners is split the power, so we have AC and DC units. So, because we're using purely DC from solar, we tap into that and run both the fans and electronics directly 28

October 2021

from the DC without inverters. We only use AC to run the compressor as and when required, so it's a lot more efficient,” Eaves explains. “Then, on the electrical side for the IT load, rather than having a centralised UPS, we run the power straight to a board, which means that each customer has its own dedicated UPS — which are made specially for us and procured by Stulz.”

Edge Centres builds its facilities inside non-standardised containers, which allow for extra space and hot-aisle/coldaisle containment. Power is housed in a separate container on site, with two power packs per site - an A and a B feed that are completely separated from the data centre itself. Those individual units carry the batteries, the inverters, and the main board. Each inverter (of which there are five pairs) has its own bank of solar panels in place of a utility power connection. The pairs can be reconfigured on the fly allowing

EDGE CENTRES

DID YOU KNOW...

PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS: STULZ When delivering on hyper specialised design objectives in an industry where off-the-rack just won’t cut it, developing key partnerships is essential. “Because the edge is so different to a standard bricksand-mortar colocation facility, a lot of things change when it comes to the design process,” says Eaves. “When we started out and looked at the kinds of off the shelf technology that was available, we saw that a lot of it wasn't fit for purpose. It was functional, but didn't give us the ability to increase our efficiency as much as we wanted, or to do free cooling.”

In order to be able to build its edge data centres the way they need to be built, Edge Centres has partnered with climate control specialists, Stulz.

“We went to Stulz, who I'd had a great relationship with in the past, and we figured out a way for them to modify their standard units to make them fit for our purposes. The units we use from Stulz are custom-made just for our facilities,” says Eaves. Following that success, Stulz has also played a role in outfitting Edge Centres with dedicated UPS, as well as hot aisle containment equipment.

for different combinations that creates an impressive level of redundancy. “You need to lose two completely independent solar banks to lose power. By using solar power, our sites are actually more redundant in terms of power than a typical data centre,” says Eaves.

“You need to lose two completely separate, paralleled inverter banks, and your batteries, in order for you to lose your load and have an outage.”

Solar, Eaves reflects, has been an amazing discovery for Edge Centres, and is the key driver behind the truly staggering efficiency of the company’s sites. “Even if you have 200-300 kilowatts of live, available solar - which we have - if you only need 30 kilowatts because you're a low-loaded new site, all the panels generate is 30 kilowatts.

It only generates what it needs. Our PUE is incredibly low as a result,” Eaves explains. “Our operational PUE is 1.04 because we're only creating exactly what we require.” businesschief.asia

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EDGE CENTRES

“IN THE MARKET RIGHT NOW, IT’S OBVIOUS TO ME THAT THERE ARE THE TWO MAIN ASSET CLASSES: THE HYPERSCALE FACILITIES AND THE DECENTRALISED EDGE” JON EAVES

FOUNDER & CEO, EDGE CENTRES

In order to ensure constant power generation throughout the day, Eaves has positioned his solar banks in pairs, facing East and West (the industry standard is to face North or South, so that each panel gets some sun throughout the whole day). “When the sun comes up in the morning, the East panels get full sun with a little going to the West panels, and then we get the inverse in the afternoon,” says Eaves. By using a technique called solar clipping, each pair of panels runs into a single inverter through a multi-point power tracker.

“You can double your bank's capacity from multiple panels, but the inverter only ever receives 30 kilowatts. Rather than having a solar power generation curve throughout the day, we can feed the East and West-facing panels into the inverter to generate the full 30 kilowatts from daybreak until sunset,” says Eaves.

In case of a prolonged spell of bad weather, the hyper-efficient lithium-ion phosphate batteries that Edge Centres has selected are capable of running the site for a full 24 hours before the generator needs to kick in. “A battery-first facility that loses solar for whatever reason is really resilient,” says Eaves. “If you lose power from the solar array, your generator or utility connection only needs to run for an hour in order to fully charge our batteries, which can then run the site for 24 hours before the backup power needs to be switched on again.”

The Future of the Edge When it comes to the future of data centres at the edge, even the sky doesn’t pose a limit for 30

October 2021

Eaves, who launched a modular data centre into space earlier this year. As far as I can tell, he did it because he thought it would be cool, and he’s not wrong. “As part of our branding and our launch, we sent the EC1X modular data centre into space. It was up there for an hour and a half and then it came home,” he says, suggestively glancing behind him at the piece of equipment in question, which had been sitting on a table in his office the entire time we were talking.

For the next year and a half, however, Eaves has his eyes fixed squarely on terra firma. “For the next 18 months, Edge Centres is going to be building out its facilities - in Australia as well as in Japan - that we've already acquired the locations for,” he explains. “We can have four modular facilities under construction simultaneously. We can have four civil works under construction simultaneously. Then the units can be fully tested in the factory over the course of a week, and when they get to the sites the solar has already been laid, which means that we can plug the solar panels into the containers and be live within a month.”

This ambitious rollout will see Edge Centres launch four sites in October, another four in March, and four in August of next year. He adds that “We've also secured land in Japan about 40 minutes north of Tokyo, and our first edge data centre, ECJ1, which will become our showcase for the Japanese market in October.” The expansion into Japan, he continues, is about more than just breaking into new markets. “If you want to put solar powered modular data centres all over the world, you not only want to be able to test

EDGE CENTRES

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EDGE CENTRES

“ WITH A SOLAR-POWERED EDGE SITE CONNECTED TO A SATELLITE… THE TWO MOST CRITICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR YOUR BUSINESS ARE NOW ALMOST THE LEAST CONSEQUENTIAL” JON EAVES

FOUNDER & CEO, EDGE CENTRES

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EDGE CENTRES

them in different climates, but also different environments - and Japan is obviously very seismic,” Eaves explains. The units that Edge Centres has got going into Japan are specially modified with bases that allow for seismic disruption up to a 7.0 on the Earthquake Magnitude Scale. Eaves says they’re also looking at the Philippines and Vietnam for future projects, but admits that ongoing pandemic travel restrictions “are slowing things down on that front.”

Expansion throughout APAC and beyond is likely on the cards for Edge Centres in the near future though as the modular data centre industry - and the edge itself - continues to evolve. “Traditionally, when you build a data centre, there are two things that are absolute necessities. The first is power from local utilities and the second is a fibre connection to other facilities around you,” says Eaves. “Now, if you have a solar powered, off-grid edge data centre like us, you can remove the first dependency on utility power, and then by partnering with a satellite company, you can remove the need for fibre interconnection to a network. Suddenly, the two most critical requirements for your business are now almost the least consequential.”

Given the successful trials by satellite internet companies like Starlink and OneWeb over the past year, Eaves paints a picture of a world where the growth of the edge is no longer long, slow creep of fibre networks expand from central metro areas, but rather an “internet for anyone and everyone,” where “if you look at not just rural Australia but locations all over the world - isolated communities in Africa or Southeast Asia, for example - suddenly you can put down a data centre - an internet pod - that can serve a community with content and capability just about anywhere.”

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REIMAGINING THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS EVENTS Mel Shah

Kai Hattendorf

VICE PRESIDENT ASIA, DMG EVENTS

CEO, UFI (THE GLOBAL ASSOCIATION OF THE EXHIBITION INDUSTRY)

Having worked in leadership roles in the international

Starting out as a journalist working for international

trade fair and conference industry for more than

broadcasters including Euronews and BBC,

two decades, Shah has vast experience building and

Hattendorf has worked in the exhibition industry for

operating business units for the likes of Montgomery

15 years including in senior management positions

Exhibitions, Fiera Milano, Messe Frankfurt India and

at Messe Frankfurt’s global headquarters. Based

Informa with experience spanning the energy, digital

in Paris, Hattendorf has been the CEO of UFI, the

manufacturing and F&B sectors in Asia. In particular,

leading global association of the world’s tradeshow

he has a deep understanding of operating successful

organisers and exhibition centre operators, for the last

entrepreneurial ventures in Asia and India. As Vice-

six years where he is responsible for UFI activities and

President of dmg events’ operations in Asia, Shah is

events globally, as well as the operation of its offices

responsible for growing the company’s portfolio of

and presences in Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Dubai

events across Asia as well as creating new launches.

and Bogota.

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October 2021

LEADERSHIP

While confidence in the return of physical events remains high, the long-term future looks hybrid with digital transformation and sustainability driving business travel change WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

Inge Huijbrechts

Robin Mack

GLOBAL SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT SUSTAINABILITY, SECURITY AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, RADISSON HOTEL GROUP

EXECUTIVE GENERAL MANAGER COMMERCIAL & BUSINESS EVENTS AUSTRALIA, TOURISM AUSTRALIA With almost 30 years of experience within the

With an MBA from INSEAD and nearly 15 years focused

travel and tourism industry, Mack has worked

on corporate responsibility, Inge was head of corporate

across travel retailers, wholesalers and airlines

social responsibility for Toyota Europe before moving

including for BA and Quantas before focusing

into hospitality where she headed up responsible

on destination marketing. Joining Tourism

business at the Carlton Rezidor Hotel Group. Having

Australia in 2012, Mack now leads Business

spent the last decade at Radisson Hotel Group focused

Events Australia building awareness of Australia

on sustainability and security, together with her team,

as a business events destination by delivering

Hujibrechts lays out the strategy for Responsible

integrated marketing and communications and

Business from build to operations and keeps the

industry partnerships as well as leading the

100,000+ employees worldwide engaged in everyday.

Commercial division. businesschief.asia

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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

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L

ast month, one of the largest privately owned businesses on the planet, Mars, announced it was planning to cut corporate travel by 50%, booking 145,000 fewer flights each year. Marking one of the biggest moves yet by a corporation to shift its post-pandemic approach to business trips, the confectionery giant told its staff ‘fly for purpose, not presence’.

For a multinational like Mars, whose business travel costs were huge and whose green goals include committing US$1bn to becoming ‘Sustainable in a Generation’, the pandemic has proven that business on a global scale can still be done without splashing the cash or poisoning the planet (thanks Zoom). And that when travel restrictions are eventually eased, and physical global events return, businesses may be more selective about the type of travel they sign off, in a bid to cut costs and boost sustainability efforts.

The truth is, the last 18 months has revealed the business value of virtual eventing with video conferencing platforms like Zoom being leveraged throughout the pandemic

“ There is a stronger appetite for digital or hybrid events in Asia, with respondents more than twice as likely to have participated in such events than those from other regions” KAI HATTENDORF

CEO, UFI (THE GLOBAL ASSOCIATION OF THE EXHIBITION INDUSTRY)

to stage millions of meetings and events, many of which have gone off without either a hitch (or carbon footprint) saving execs money, time and even the planet.

So, what does that mean for the future of physical events? Has the pandemic’s digital transformation leap put a nail in the physical conference coffin?

Not according to various recent studies which have confirmed that Zoom fatigue really is a thing and that people are yearning for a return to in-person events.

In fact, if anything, the all-consuming use of digital technologies during the pandemic for meetings and conferences “has proven and reiterated the value of meeting face to face”, Kai Hattendorf, CEO of UFI, The Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, tells Business Chief. “Just as there was a big rush to digital-only in 2020, there is now a big rush to physical-only – and we are seeing this in Europe, the US and China.”

And recent data from UFI, Explori and SISO’s Global Recovery Insights research backs this up with 86% of both visitors and exhibitors at digital trade shows declaring the face-to-face format superior to digitalonly events.

Strong appetite for physical events And the appetite for a return to physical events is stronger in APAC. According to UFI data, “exhibitions in Asia-Pacific are likely to see stronger growth in participation from both visitors and exhibitors, compared to the rest of the world”, says Hattendorf.

Australia is certainly looking promising with Tourism Australia global research revealing a “real appetite for the resumption of business events”, Robin Mack, Tourism Australia’s Executive GM Commercial & Business Events, tells Business Chief. Some 79% of association decision-makers and 69% businesschief.asia

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of incentive decision-makers indicate they are likely to visit Australia for an event in the next two years, rising to 82% in the next three years. And the leads that Tourism Australia is seeing from key international markets supports this, says Mack.

“While hybrid events will continue to have their place in the short-to-medium term, especially with the association sector, overall, I believe in-person interaction will always be powerful and unlikely to be replaced completely by virtual events,” adds Mack. “In fact, more than ever, incentives will likely play an important role for businesses, bringing colleagues together after a tumultuous period due to the pandemic, to

create a unified team and ultimately helping businesses get back on track.”

Based in Singapore, Mel Shah, VicePresident of dmg events, a leading organiser of global events with presence across APAC, is also seeing a strong appetite for a return to live in-person events. “Personal connectivity and relationships are critical focus areas for all our clients and there is therefore a large pent-up appetite for a return to MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) and business travel.”

This is especially true of Asia, says Shah, where “relationships are of paramount importance” and so the in-person approach is needed. “To succeed in Asia, you need to be

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here, you need to build deep relationships and you need to constantly network to expand and grow your brand equity and business opportunities. This will mean that as soon as the first lanes open, you will see businesses go for the first mover advantage post-Covid which bodes well for executive travel.”

And movement in the physical events and conferences space is already happening in APAC in 2021 with several markets having opened up in June (think China and Hong Kong) and “a whole array of major shows running successfully across China,” says Hattendorf.

Hong Kong, which tops the charts in The Economist’s Global Normalcy Index (a measure of getting back to pre-pandemic life) recently held its annual seven-day Hong Kong Book Fair, pulling in 85% of pre-pandemic levels (830,000 visitors); while Singapore, which has achieved high vaccination coverage, has put plans in place

“ Relationships are of paramount importance in Asia, and these need the in-person approach. To succeed in Asia, you need to be here, you need to build deep relationships and you need to constantly network to expand and grow your brand equity and business opportunities” MEL SHAH

VICE PRESIDENT ASIA, DMG EVENTS

DID YOU KNOW…?

With the COVID-19 pandemic having sparked new challenges for the global business events sector, the Singapore Tourism Board, in partnership with the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) and UFI (Global Association of the Exhibition Industry), have unveiled a white paper ‘Reimaging Business Events’ that outlines how the sector can reimagine its offerings and better future-proof itself through innovation, including the benefits and challenges of leveraging technology.

APAC leading on digital transformation: APAC is leading the way in upping the digital ante across exhibitions and events with 67% of companies in APAC adding digital services/products around existing exhibitions during the pandemic, compared to the 58% global average, according to UFI’s Global Barometer.

• 107% Australia • 100% South Korea • 82% Thailand • 76% Malaysia • 55% Singapore • 54% Japan • 43% China • 40% Hong Kong • 33% India

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HOW SUSTAINABLE CAN PHYSICAL EVENTS BE? With sustainability arguably the number-one priority for organisations, businesses and governments as we emerge from the pandemic, it’s inevitable companies will be looking to streamline business travel, opt for carbon offsetting and choose events with sustainable practices in place.

“Green certifications and credentials are highly sought-after when booking or planning executive travel or picking MICE venues,” explains Singapore-based Mel Shah, Vice-President, dmg events, and as such “all organisers need to look at their carbon footprint and measurable plans to manage climate mitigation”.

So, what exactly are venues and organisers doing to meet corporate sustainable demand?

According to a Status of Sustainability report released in July (UFI, Explori), while sustainability remains a strong priority for exhibitions and their participants, a lot still needs to be done. “Across all segments, there is a feeling that the rate of transition towards sustainability is around halfway between ‘only starting the transition’ and ‘very advanced’, and in general, exhibition participants rate the efforts of the industry as ‘average’, in this regard,” says Kai Hattendorf, CEO, UFI. But some companies are ahead of the game. Radisson Hotel Group is the only hotel company with 100% carbon neutral meetings and events worldwide at no cost to the client.

“It means we neutralise the footprint of all our meeting and event spaces worldwide,” says Inge Hujibrechts, Global Senior Vice President Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications at the Radisson Hotel Group.

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“First, we aim to reduce the meeting location’s footprint to a maximum and then, we offset the remaining footprint. For instance, in the Radisson Blu Hotel Basel, they've made significant investments in environmental technology such as solar panels for water heating, efficient cooling & heating, building controls, etc.

“The meeting footprint is therefore lower, but we still offset it with recognised quality projects that have both an environmental and a social impact. We are transparent because we provide the report to the meeting organiser, outlining exactly how much CO2 we have offset for their meeting. If you want to reach carbon neutrality, it's all about energy consumption reduction, green energy, and offsetting.”

And at global exhibitions and events firm, dmg events, “we are working hard internally and with our partners to achieve a carbon-neutral status on all of our events with a number of mitigation and offset plans”, explains Shah, adding that carbon offsetting is a further practice dmg events is invested in and is “working with energy industry colleagues to produce carbon offsetted events”.

Watch this sustainable space.

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HKCEC Harbour Studio Introduction and Live Demo

for progressively larger capacity limits for physical events and this month welcomes 600 international exhibitors to the ITB Asia show. And Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB) estimates that small groups of business travellers (20-40 senior execs) will be able to re-enter the country following the roll-out of vaccinations

by Q4 2021.

That said, most companies in all regions expect international exhibitions to reopen in the first half of 2022. According to Hattendorf, we are at a stage where “exhibitors in Asia-Pacific are now much more optimistic about their budgets, and the number of events they are planning to participate in has recovered to prepandemic levels”.

In fact, UFI’s Global Barometer forecasts a return to 50% of exhibition industry revenues in APAC for 2021 (compared to 2019), slightly

86% Percentage of both visitors and exhibitors at digital trade shows that declare that the face-to-face format is superior compared to a digital-only event, according to Global Recovery Insights research from UFI in collaboration with Explori.

64% Percentage of visitors who believe that travelling to an exhibition where they can do multiple things under one roof and avoid separate flights to other locations helps to reduce their carbon footprint, according to a newly released UFI report on sustainability in the exhibition industry.

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ahead of the global average and a “general consensus that in major parts of the world, the industry can reach pre-pandemic levels again by 2024”, adds Hattendorf.

Safety first To do so, however, requires industry adaption, not just in the pandemic’s immediate aftermath to ensure safety of delegates, but also long-term with sustainability and digital transforming both how we travel and meet.

“I think health and safety, sustainability and flexibility will continue to be on the agenda and asked for both by our corporate clients and by travellers,” explains Inge Huijbrechts, Global Senior VP Sustainability, Security and Corporate Communications at Radisson Hotel Group, which recently 42

October 2021

collaborated with SGS to put in place Radisson Hotels Safety Protocols.

As such, industry organisers and worldclass venues are investing to set new standards to lure business travellers back.

Both MEET Taiwan and the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy Indonesia have introduced initiatives to reassure companies of the health and safety of visiting delegates; while AsiaWorld-Expo Hong Kong has installed an advanced ozone disinfection system to give venue users greater peace of mind; and Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) has put in place a host of preventative measures from reduced capacity to wider aisles.

“The key priority for the business community will be to know that any event will be managed in a secure and safe way, ensuring that all

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“ I think health and safety, sustainability and flexibility will continue to be on the agenda and asked for both by our corporate clients and by travellers” INGE HUIJBRECHTS

GLOBAL SENIOR VP SUSTAINABILITY, SECURITY AND CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AT RADISSON HOTEL GROUP

safety protocols are adopted,” explains Shah, pointing out that dmg events has its own ‘All Secure’ protocols, which includes mask on events, safely distanced and managed stand spaces, regular cleaning and disinfection protocols as well as density management.

Communication too will be key in fuelling business travel confidence with the ‘new normal’ seeing a “greater focus on quality of buyer connectivity whilst adhering to what are now normal safe management measures”, adds Shah. “We are seeing a need and want from the industries we serve to be provided with interesting relevant insights at regular intervals in the run-up to attending one of our events. Organisers will be judged on content leadership and delivery, the quality of relevant connections and safe efficient event delivery.”

New demands for a new normal To lure business travellers from their safe digital-only event spaces, it won’t just be a question of Covid-19 safety protocols, however. With cost-cutting and sustainability high on the business agenda, companies may need bigger and better justifications for both travel miles and event costs and may choose only those where they get more bang for their buck.

While Shah believes that execs will still want what they have always wanted from events, which is connectivity, exclusive insights and relationship-building environments, they will “be very focused on the seamless experience factor combined with ROI centricity”.

Hattendorf concurs, explaining how future business events “will be less about the businesschief.asia

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experience, and more about the outcome”, meaning events will benefit from clear focus on deliverables. “For tradeshows, for instance, there will be a focus on the trade function, and of deals being closed. For events that focus on connecting people and thoughts, this will be the key asset participants will look for.”

And with the pandemic having accelerated developments in events and conferences that were seen pre-2020, Hattendorf predicts we will see increasing regionalisation from one global show into a portfolio of regional shows under the same brand worldwide, more digital products and services to support the attendees at the physical event, and a lot of investments into sustainability and low carbon to carbonneutral events productions.

“A new emphasis will be put on connecting the physical trade shows and business events with year-long offers to support the business success of the communities that a trade show is serving,” says Hattendorf, adding that while a lot of this will be digital, it will also be through focused local and regional events throughout the year.

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Digital rising With the pandemic having turned the industry from physical-only to digital-only overnight, everyone from organisers to venues have had to up their digital ante to deliver virtually and compete in what is predicted to be a hybrid future.

And APAC leads the way according to UFI’s Global Barometer with 67% of venues/ organisers having added digital services/ products to their existing exhibition offerings during the pandemic compared to the 58% global average, with Australia, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore having been especially prolific on the digital front.

Having welcomed the rise of digital technologies, Singapore-based Shah believes that in an increasingly digital world, “our sector needs to learn to complement and enhance attendee access to connectivity and insight by combining the physical and digital”.

Shah adds: “As we prepare to run more in-person events, digital gives us excellent pre-event connectivity to prepare businesses to do business at the event and after. We can see a big acceleration in the deployment and utilisation of deep tech technologies like AI, Automation and Machine learning for our sector. Industry players who will be at the forefront of embracing this pivot will make themselves future relevant and therefore successful.

Beyond that we see operators investing greater monies in team capability building and the addition of diverse digital skill sets in the operating models.”

Venues are already investing in integrated hybrid studio capabilities to cater to what is likely to be a hybrid events industry future with 75% of organisers/venues predicting a definite or probable push towards hybrid events and more digital elements at events in the future.

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SPOTLIGHT ON… AUSTRALIA According to Australia Tourism research, association and incentive decision-makers’ main concerns when considering overseas events post-pandemic include a safe and secure destination, the rollout of an effective vaccine, a destination that has handled the pandemic well, travel cost association with a destination, flights with no stop-overs, excellent business events facilities and the strength of the industry in relation to associations.

Enter Australia. Research shows that Australia is seen as a highly desirable business events destination due to its world-class beauty and natural environments; range of quality accommodation options; excellent business events facilities; clean cities and good road infrastructure; range of local attractions for optional activities; and appealing climate.

“Combine this with our warm and welcoming people, unique experiences, wide and open spaces, and Australia is a business events destination that will deliver beyond expectations,” says Robin Mack, Executive General Manager Commercial & Business Events Australia, Tourism Australia While Australia hasn’t yet opened up to international business travellers, face-to-face domestic events did resume earlier this year, with the Victorian Tourism Conference securing 900 delegates in April, OzWater’21 hosting 2,500+ delegates at the Adelaide Convention Centre in May, and a record in-person attendance at Tourism Australia’s annual Destination Australia conference in Sydney, which “really highlighted the desire to get back to meeting face-to-face”, says Mack. That said, recent lockdowns in Australia have had an impact with industry feedback suggesting domestic events have been postponed until year-end.

“Internationally, our latest research, the Business Events Consumer Demand Project, indicates that 45% of association makers in our key markets have been running events over the last 9-10 months, which includes face-to-face, online and hybrid, while association decision makers state that they expect online/hybrid events will continue,” says Mack.

In fact, Australia, more than any other country, is well-prepared for a digital events future with 87% of events companies having developed a digital transformation strategy for individual exhibitions and products (compared to 40% global average) and 67% developing a digital transformation strategy for the whole company, compared to 22% global average.

According to Mack, “the Australian business events industry has always been innovative and proactive in embracing new technologies” and says it has been “truly inspiring” to see the resilience within the Australian business events industry during these challenging times. “We’ve seen many adapt their business models, creating innovative solutions that will help futureproof their businesses and deliver lasting benefits for business events in the future.”

Mack points to the International Convention Centre Sydney which launched its Media Studio, a permanent studio space offering client broadcast recording services, live streaming and digital event solutions; and to Australian production company, Harry the hirer, which created Smart Badges, a device worn by delegates that alerts them when they are too close to other device wearers and can alert organisers in real time how many people are in a room. businesschief.asia

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“ While hybrid events will continue to have their place in the shortto-medium term, especially with the association sector, overall, I believe in-person interaction will always be powerful and unlikely to be replaced completely by virtual events” ROBIN MACK

EXECUTIVE GENERAL MANAGER COMMERCIAL & BUSINESS EVENTS AUSTRALIA, TOURISM AUSTRALIA

During the pandemic, the International Convention Centre Sydney launched its Media Studio, a permanent space offering client broadcast recording services, live streaming and digital event solutions. In a HK$600m refurbishment, AsiaWorldExpo Hong Kong equipped its venue with comprehensive hardware upgrades, including enhanced technology and connectivity to be the first in Hong Kong’s MICE industry to offer

(RIGHT) MONICA LEE-MULLER, MD OF HONG KONG CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE (MANAGEMENT) LIMITED (HML)

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Wi-Fi 6 and a movable hybrid meeting booth Mobile Studio. While HKCEC, which has been hosting well-attended conferences since January, has created Harbour Studio, a onestop solution for hybrid events.

While acknowledging that “hybrid events cannot and will not fully replace face-to-face interactions” as physical events “build trusted relationships”, Monica Lee-Muller, MD of Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (Management) Limited (HML), says they are continually striving to provide customers with new solutions including the new online event space. “Harbour Studio is conveniently located as Port Café of the HKCEC, with stunning harbour views” enabling organisers to “host online live broadcasts, interviews, webinars and product launches with the perfect view and no hassle”, says Lee-Muller.

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Seoul Tourism Organisation has launched Virtual Seoul, a platform to host online meetings that in-person attendees can also join in during hybrid events; and Radisson Hotel Group has partnered with Zoom to create a hybrid offering that combines the best of its in-person and virtual solutions and as part of its Hybrid Solutions.

“I think business meetings and events will happen in clusters organised in a hybrid form with groups meeting in multiple locations and the groups connecting digitally,” predicts Inge.

Highlighting the benefits of hybrid, she adds: “A 300-person event, organised in several national clusters, had a 73% carbon reduction and a 72% reduction in time of all participants. These are the benefits of hybrid meetings built on key success factors like state-of-the-art digital and studio technology that companies like Radisson Hotel Group make available. This is the current way

in which Meetings and Events are being organised, with the added benefit that more delegates can be reached.”

Hattendorf believes Asia-Pacific will be an interesting region to watch as recent research suggests APAC audiences are most open to digital innovation.

“There is a stronger appetite for digital or hybrid events in Asia, with respondents more than twice as likely to have participated in such events than those from other regions.

Visitors from Asia are significantly more likely to convert from attending a new event digitally to attending in person in the future – 64% compared to 48% from the rest of the world.”

Shah believes hybrid to be a great opportunity for dmg events and is embracing it. “We are able to reach for our customers a truly global audience and the hybrid model also helps us tick the seamless experience box. We live in the age of ‘connectivity now’ – hybrid helps us do that.”

In the future, Hattendorf believes we will see the co-mingling of online and onsite, where online provides the pre-show, postshow, omni-channel year-long engagement to the tentpole onsite events and could account for up to 15% of total revenues.

“The business events sector, which supported nearly 26 million jobs and contributed US$1.5 trillion to global GDP in 2017, can no longer operate in the exact same way as it did before,” says Hattendorf.

“For a sector heavily dependent on physical interaction, the onset of the pandemic was a wake-up call for reinvention. Innovation will be key as business events gradually resume around the world. Industry players need to adopt a growth mindset, rethink their business offerings, redesign delegate experiences with safety at the core, and reassess how they engage with their teams.” businesschief.asia

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DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

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DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

A Fresh Approach to Indirect Procurement & Procurement Excellence WRITTEN BY: RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY: GLEN WHITE

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DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

The digital transformation of Dole Sunshine Company’s indirect procurement promises a more sustainable, visible and profitable value chain

“ Sustainable procurement is a priority at this moment” NAISSA VON PEIN

DIRECTOR, GLOBAL CATEGORY INDIRECT AND PROCUREMENT EXCELLENCE, DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

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A

new era is dawning at Dole Sunshine Company, a world-leading food and beverage company on a bold mission, representing the global interests and combined efforts of Dole Asia Holdings, Dole Food & Beverage Group and Dole Fresh Produce. The company’s extraordinary history of quality and innovation stretches back to 1899, when James Dole, a newly minted Harvard graduate with a fascination for agriculture, began growing pineapples in Hawaii. In 2012 Dole Asia Holdings was established, as Itochu acquired the Dole global packaged foods and Asian fresh produce business.

Flash forward more than 120 years and Dole remains a byword for pineapples, bananas, and packaged fruit products, and retains a high reputation for freshness and quality. From the perspective of a company as old as Dole, the world is changing rapidly, but Dole is up to the challenge to catch up by focusing on developing formal standard procurement and sourcing processes, while driving digitalisation. In June 2020, Naissa von Pein joined the company to spearhead a programme dedicated to those objectives.

The Global Director for Indirect Categories and Procurement Excellence is leading a fundamental overhaul of indirect sourcing practices, while building Dole’s procurement centre of excellence, tasks which she says are “quite different in their scope of work, but complementary due to the nature of indirects being very fragmented and locally managed. Fragmentation of information being the greatest challenge to a strategic procurement approach.”

“We are going through a period of evolution at Dole, which is a company that in the past has been traditional with a decentralised structure and limited visibility

DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

Naissa von Pein, Director, Global Category Indirect and Procurement Excellence businesschief.asia

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DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

Dole Sunshine: A Fresh Approach to Indirect Procurement & Procurement Excellence

due to the lack of systems,” she adds.

“We’re now working towards centralisation and process standardisation, while driving automation through procurement tools and focusing on a more strategic procurement approach for relevant categories. Our procurement teams are receiving the support they need for strategic transformation initiatives, aiming to keep supply lines flowing smoothly while delivering the necessary cost savings.”

Dole is still in the early stages of its digital transformation, von Pein admits, and much of the focus of her first year at the company has been spent crystallising the fundamentals of indirect category management’s best practices, while using e-sourcing strategies to digitalise and accelerate strategic sourcing processes. But great early strides have been made through the implementation and strengthening of Ivalua’s platform, Dole’s primary digital investment and its central procurement tool.

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“ We’re now working towards [...] digital automation to create the efficiencies which we as a procurement team need” NAISSA VON PEIN

DIRECTOR, GLOBAL CATEGORY INDIRECT AND PROCUREMENT EXCELLENCE, DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

“Implementing Ivalua’s software has enabled us to prioritise bottom-line cost savings through procurement-led spend management and competitive sourcing initiatives. We’ve also been able to further enable automation and standardisation for supplier qualification, as well as contract management,” von Pein says. “My current

DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

focus from a procurement excellence standpoint relates to process streamlining, automation, and elevating procurement’s profile and visibility within the company. We are reviewing procurement processes to identify ways of eliminating time-consuming tasks through the use of automated systems and analysis, as well as identifying weak links in the existing supply chain, strengthening us as a function and freeing up time to focus on longterm initiatives. We must ensure that the team is using Ivalua to the best of its capabilities, while drawing the digital roadmap for further enhancements to achieve our automation and efficiency goals.”

The Ivalua system was implemented before her appointment, initially at three production sites in Asia, and has been key in achieving procurement’s short-term objectives. But von Pein has a more ambitious vision. “I want to ensure that our team is using the tool to its full capability. It comes back to change management, and as with every new tool implementation, if this is not properly led by the management, and if we do not emphasise the benefits to the people and teams that are using it, then ultimately we will not achieve the results that we are expecting. I have seen this happen in the past, but we have already been seeing great results this year.”

US$2.6bn Revenue

25,000 Number of employees

Dole unified its commitments to a more sustainable and equitable supply chain with the launch of the Dole Promise initiative in 2020

DID YOU KNOW...

2012

Year founded

THE DOLE PROMISE

“We launched Dole Promise last year with the key words being: people, planet and prosperity. One of our main goals is to deliver shared value for all stakeholders within our value chain,” Naissa von Pein, says. “As a leader in our procurement excellence programme, I’m also in charge of building our sustainable procurement process. We have engaged BSR as a partner, a very well-known sustainability consultant, to support us in this journey. The success of Dole’s business depends on many thousands of people. Farmers, communities and suppliers must all see the value of working with Dole, and shareholders must see ongoing corporate value in our business.”

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DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

With the fundamentals improving rapidly, von Pein is turning her focus to procurement excellence, Dole’s overarching objective for the next two to four years. “One of the key pillars of building our centre of excellence surrounds defining our category structure, based on the spend and risk profiles within our supply chain.

We’re taking a proactive step on supply risk management, and building mutually beneficial long-term partnerships with suppliers,” she says.

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One of the biggest developments in the past year stems from a new strategic approach to indirect categories, reassessing the structure and efficacy of local, regional and global suppliers. Beginning with local suppliers, where procurement teams were already in place, von Pein says the initial challenge was in bringing indirect spend back under the control of procurement.

“Through continuous engagement and proving the benefit of procurement’s involvement with the other stakeholders,

DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

we managed to take ownership of that indirect spend,” she says. “The different categories were previously managed locally across various functions, with a limited strategic approach, but by bringing it under our control, we now have a much better understanding of the opportunities, with a mature approach on strategic sourcing and spend management.”

“On the regional levels we managed to consolidate spend in categories such as logistics, MRO, PPE, office supplies, professional services and others. On a global level, the focus is primarily on logistics, financial services, legal services, and IT. Of course, we haven’t had the time to address all of them within the last year, but just by having this new visibility and building a strategy, we have a clear roadmap.”

As with any other business in the past 18 months, the COVID-19 pandemic presented its own unique set of challenges that threatened to derail these roadmaps and development plans. “It was a surprise factor and we all struggled,” von Pein admits. But it did act as a catalyst for implementing a “supply chain risk resilience and business continuity framework”. Von Pein’s goal is to identify possible changes in supply chains and create the ability to implement

NAISSA VON PEIN

DIRECTOR, GLOBAL CATEGORY INDIRECT AND PROCUREMENT EXCELLENCE, DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

TITLE: D IRECTOR, GLOBAL CATEGORY INDIRECT AND PROCUREMENT EXCELLENCE INDUSTRY: FOOD & BEVERAGES LOCATION: SINGAPORE Naissa is a German-Brazilian national and Singapore Permanent Resident with a strong background in Procurement and Project Management. Since moving to Singapore in 2010, she has worked for four MNCs in the area of Supply Chain, Procurement, Reporting and Performance, as well as Project Management, with global and regional responsibilities for Americas and Asia Pacific. Before starting with Dole as Director for Indirect Categories and Procurement Excellence in July 2020, von Pein was with Lafargeholcim for four years as Head of Projects and Development, within the regional procurement department.

EXECUTIVE BIO

“ One of the key pillars of building our centre of excellence surrounds defining our category structure”

NAISSA VON PEIN

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DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

treatment plans and re-engineer procurement processes to mitigate risk. Suppliers are now rated on a number of factors based on their geopolitical, supply, demand, and environmental impact, among others.

"Based on that outcome, we work closely with the suppliers on a business continuity plan building necessary partnerships to ensure that our supply chain cannot be disrupted by any further surprises,” von Pein explains. The system has already paid dividends through monitoring and managing 56

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“ I fully believe that by becoming automated and digital, we get the visibility that our teams need to make the right strategic decisions” NAISSA VON PEIN

DIRECTOR, GLOBAL CATEGORY INDIRECT AND PROCUREMENT EXCELLENCE, DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

DOLE SUNSHINE COMPANY

ensure that we develop the right process to onboard our suppliers and get proper visibility about the sustainable risks that we have in our supply chain. That way we will be able to mitigate and act on them as we go along.

“Digitalisation again plays an important role, as we access thousands of suppliers in a transparent and efficient manner. I fully believe that by becoming automated and digital, we get the visibility that our teams

DOLE - The Growing Distance

supply chain events, with attention paid to potential risks (such as recent peaks in commodity markets, for example packaging) leading to general improvements in supply chain performance.

In the 18 months to come, von Pein hopes to further exploit the many efficiencies of digitalisation, and how it can impact Dole’s sustainability drive, a pledge under the Dole Promise banner.

“Sustainable procurement is a priority at this moment,” she says. “We want to

need to make the right strategic decisions.

Leading back to indirect procurement, I think the biggest challenge is poor quality of information, as I have little visibility today on how much and where we are buying, and for what cost. It's still a lot of manual work but, two years down the line, we will be in a much better position to increasingly benefit from the elusive opportunities of procurement-led, business performanceimprovement projects.”

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SPECIAL REPORT: THE STATE OF REGTECH IN APAC Scott Patterson, Enterprise Ireland’s APAC Fintech and Financial Services Lead, discusses key findings from The State of Regtech in APAC report WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

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he COVID-19 pandemic has forced many financial services organisations to fast-track their digital transformation. This allows them to provide better digital banking services and to move away from legacy systems to cloud-based regtech platforms. However, progress comes with a price. Rising costs of compliance and increased risk of cyber attack have put regulation, risk and compliance in the spotlight.

A new report from Enterprise Ireland – the world’s most active fintech investor – entitled The State of Regtech in APAC takes an insightful look into regtech in the region and a deep dive into 10 key APC markets.

Enterprise Ireland works with more than 200 international fintech portfolio companies and 40 regtech companies, and has offices across the APAC region, meaning it is well placed to offer this analysis.

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Scott Patterson, Enterprise Ireland’s APAC Fintech and Financial Services Lead, based in Melbourne, Australia, says the report assesses these key markets to help people understand the regulatory landscapes, market conditions, government initiatives, ecosystems and critical players in each market.

The report considers Australia, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam: identifying the specific opportunities and roadblocks facing regtech players in each country.

“Regtech is an information technology which is used to enhance regulatory processes,” Patterson tells Business Chief.

“Regtech supports an organisation to undertake regulatory monitoring, reporting and compliance. Regtech’s primary purpose is to automate and in turn standardise regulatory processes whilst driving down

CORPORATE FINANCE

Scott Patterson

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CORPORATE FINANCE

Complex questions, simply answered!

Global governance, local benefit.

Unify your customers & analytics.

We are Aware.

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CONTACT US

theawaregroup.com.au info@theawaregroup.com.au

CORPORATE FINANCE

“ Asian businesses are pushing hard to deploy technologies such as cloud, APIs, mobile apps, resiliency, and analytics to reap the rewards of digital transformation” SCOTT PATTERSON

ENTERPRISE IRELAND’S APAC FINTECH AND FINANCIAL SERVICES LEAD

cost and increasing quality. This is important, particularly given that the regulatory change is rapid and the expectations of regulators is becoming increasingly stringent.”

Businesses are having to pay more attention to regtech due to increasing and ever-changing expectations from regulators, and also the concern around new and emerging risk and criminal threats.

“Businesses also recognise the potential for these new financial technologies to help them to increase productivity, achieve cost efficiencies, and provide higher customer value,” says Patterson. “As such Asian

businesses are pushing hard to deploy technologies such as cloud, APIs, mobile apps, resiliency, and analytics to reap the rewards of digital transformation.”

Patterson adds that COVID-19 had resulted in largely positive consequences for the APAC regtech sector. This is despite severe disruptions in supply chains, manufacturing, and migrant movement which hindered economic output. Covid19 compelled financial services sector to see the value of digitalisation. Despite the pandemic-induced economic and social challenges, the fintech industry seems to be faring well and helping the financial industry and economies around the world get back on their feet.

However, the shift towards digitalisation also means that companies are exposed to cyber threats and financial crime. businesschief.asia

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Report Extract Governments and institutions across APAC recognise the benefits of digitalising their economies. Not only can financial technologies support potential growth and poverty reduction by strengthening financial development, inclusion, and efficiency, but they can also make for a more secure and efficient financial system and transform the way governments operate.

Policymakers have greater access to timely and accurate data. With better information, governments can design and implement better policies, such as enhancing the efficiency of government spending and improving public service delivery.

Governments can also enhance tax collection

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and, as a result, revenues by introducing e-filing, e-payments, and e-customs initiatives, making it easier to collect data on financial transactions.

Businesses also recognise the potential for these new financial technologies to help them to increase productivity, achieve cost efficiencies, and provide higher customer value. As such Asian businesses are pushing hard to deploy technologies such as cloud, APIs, mobile apps, resiliency, and analytics to reap the rewards of digital transformation.

These initiatives are laying the groundwork for organisations to innovate their business models and to derive new revenue streams through digital products and services.

CORPORATE FINANCE

“ The global regtech market is forecasted to grow from US$6.3 billion in 2020 to US$16.0 billion by 2025, with APAC expected to have the highest growth rate” SCOTT PATTERSON

ENTERPRISE IRELAND’S APAC FINTECH AND FINANCIAL SERVICES LEAD

If you think regtech isn’t vital to your financial services business, think again. Banks in Australia were the second most fined in the world in 2020 with Westpac forced to pay a civil penalty of $1.3 billion – the largest ever in the country. On the flipside, regtechs like Fenergo – a global leader in Client Lifecycle Management – reduces onboarding times by 82%, 34% saving in audit cost and 30% ROI on technology.

Regtech required across mature and emerging markets Of course, the Asia Pacific region is rich and varied when it comes to individual companies and national economies, but one of the benefits of regtech, according to Patterson, is that it can be adapted – which is often necessary when the risks, complexity and challenge is markedly different between organisations.

“The Asia Pacific region is very diverse in regtech needs, since mature and emerging economies are at varying levels of development,” says Patterson. “On one side are Australia, Japan and the Four Asian Tigers comprising Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.

“On the other, there are developing economies, such as Laos, Myanmar, and

The Irish Advantage

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Cambodia. In the middle are the emergent and rapidly growing economies, like Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

“This bifurcation of developed and emerging economies gives rise to very different financial and regulatory environments. In developed economies, the regtech uptake is driven by a sophisticated financial ecosystem and a complex regulatory environment and is due to the need for governance and accountability, emergence of new market participants and security concerns arising from disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology.

“In developing economies, regtech uptake is driven by the sector’s promise in helping to create financial inclusion, and is reliant on business cases and under-resourced regulators in these markets. Market interest for regtech solutions in these economies is not as strong as their developed counterparts because of regulatory inertia and a marked difference in fundamental behaviours and attitudes towards regtech.

“Developing economies will mature over time – while technology ecosystems in developed and developing economies will continue to evolve at an increasingly varying pace, given differing regulatory drivers for regtech adoption.”

Regtech opportunity in APAC The rate of adoption has also been directly related to the availability of mobile internet coverage across the region, and it is transforming Southeast Asia.

Just over a decade ago, four in five Southeast Asians had no internet connectivity and limited access to the internet. Today, there are 360 million internet users in the region, and 90% of them connect to the internet primarily through their mobile 64

October 2021

“THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION IS VERY DIVERSE IN REGTECH NEEDS, SINCE MATURE AND EMERGING ECONOMIES ARE AT VARYING LEVELS OF DEVELOPMENT” SCOTT PATTERSON

ENTERPRISE IRELAND’S APAC FINTECH AND FINANCIAL SERVICES LEAD

phones. This has spurred an 'internet economy' which continues to grow at an unprecedented pace.

However, APAC as a whole still lags behind Europe and the United States when it comes to regtech, and Patterson believes it is vital that the region ‘catches up’, particularly based on current growth.

“The global regtech market is forecasted to grow from US$6.3 billion in 2020 to US$16.0 billion by 2025, a rate of over 20% per year, with APAC expected to have the highest growth rate over this period,” he says.

CORPORATE FINANCE

“Companies in APAC also deal with rapidly changing risk and compliance challenges as the whole region deals with constant growth and change. Regulator expectations are also changing rapidly – as seen with Australian Banks. It is also estimated that hackers are 80% more likely to target Asia than anywhere in the world, with the region 1.7 times slower to respond.”

So what are the biggest challenges?

Patterson says long sales cycles challenge regtech adoption in developed APAC countries while regulatory inertia and lack

of proper regulatory processes can hinder regtech adoption in developing APAC. However, the potential rewards are also significant, particularly with the rise of digital banks, P2P lending, digital assets and remote onboarding. Then there is the projected cost of Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance – across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore combined, this is estimated at more than US$6 billion. The opportunity for regtechs to fill the need for specialised solutions is clear.

Download The State of Regtech in APAC report HERE. businesschief.asia

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OPER8 GLOBAL

FILLING IN THE GAPS WRITTEN BY: HARRY MENEAR

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PRODUCED BY: LEWIS VAUGHAN

OPER8 GLOBAL

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Mike Andrea, CEO of Oper8 Global, talks data centre management, IoT, security, and edge, delivered as-a-service through collaborative win-win partnerships

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he global data centre and IT infrastructure landscape has changed radically over the past 10 years, and Oper8 Global has changed with it. Oper8 Global is the result of shifting customer demand in the face of an evolving data centre market, and since its foundation in 2012, has developed a unique value proposition, range of capabilities, and attitude towards its partner ecosystem that are driving its rapid global expansion.

“Oper8 Global's core go-to-market model centres on helping organisations operate their IT assets,” explains Mike Andrea, co-founder and CEO of Oper8 Global. “We don't mind if those assets are fully online in the public cloud, in a hybrid cloud model, a private cloud model, or fully on-prem; it's about helping the customer right-size their needs, rather than have them be dictated to by whatever trend is hottest in the market at that moment.”

I sat down with Andrea to explore the genesis of Oper8 Global and dig down into the unique value proposition and core competencies propelling the Brisbanefounded data centre services firm towards a truly globalised platform with cutting edge offerings. “We're looking at 200% growth in revenue over the next 12 months. We're looking at hiring substantially over that time, and we see ourselves bringing some great new products into the market as well,” adds businesschief.asia

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OPER8 GLOBAL

Oper8 Global: Filling in the Gaps

Andrea. In order to trace that stellar growth trajectory, it’s important to take a better look at the company’s roots, and the series of events that led to its inception.

Unpacking the Pedigree In 2004, Andrea and his business partner Chris Goldstone founded Strategic Directions, a business management consulting firm with a focus on IT. Then, around 2010, Andrea recalls that the demands of Strategic Directions’ customers changed. “Strategic Directions would help with our customers' IT strategy, vendor management model, telecommunications strategy, as well as what was becoming at that time an industry-wide shift towards cloud and various as-a-service models,” he recalls. Within the space of a single week, Andrea continues, he was approached by two completely independent customers asking for Strategic Directions to manage their IT infrastructure. “We really weren't 70

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set up to be an IT management firm, so originally we told those customers 'no' and that IT management wasn't something we were interested in doing, and said we'd help them find someone who could do that,” says Andrea. “Those customers - again, independently of one another - told us that 'no, you don't understand; if you can't do it then we'll find someone else who can do both'."

Initially, Andrea and Goldstone tried to incorporate an element of IT managementas-a-service into Strategic Directions’ capabilities. However, Andrea explains, “we found that it really began to confuse our market and existing customers about what Strategic Directions was doing.” As a result, Goldstone and Andrea made the decision in 2012 to spin out the management-asa-service arm of Strategic Directions into Oper8, an independent firm focused on operational management of IT. “You've also got to keep in mind that Strategic Directions

OPER8 GLOBAL

MIKE ANDREA TITLE: CEO INDUSTRY: DATA CENTRE/ IT MANAGEMENT LOCATION: AUSTRALIA

EXECUTIVE BIO

already had a pretty good pedigree when it came to data centre management, project management, and IT operational strategy,” says Andrea, who adds that “We brought a lot of those capabilities across to Oper8, and the business ended up focusing on data centre management, security, IoT, and the edge.”

Today, those initial competencies developed within Strategic Directions form the backbone of Oper8 Global’s offerings. However, expertise in data centre management, security, IoT, and edge infrastructure aren’t the only thing carried over into Oper8’s operating model. Andrea explains that the company’s consultancy heritage also plays a key role in Oper8 Global’s unique approach to partnerships and service mixing. As a result, “Oper8 Global takes a very direct and meaningful approach to working with our partners,” he explains, adding that “We don't hide from our customers that we're actively working with our key partners to facilitate the right

Over 34 years’ experience in the ICT industry, covering strategy, solution design, architecture, and management across commercial, government and multinational sectors. Holds a Diploma of Applied Science – Computing, is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), and is a Certified CEO (CCEO #350). An 11 year member of the Board of Directors, AFCOM Data Centre Institute, USA, and is the only board member appointed from outside North America.

Co-author of data centre industry white papers with the DCI Board, and is a regular speaker at Data Centre World and similar global conferences.

OPER8 GLOBAL

solution for them. Part of that process is that we act as the coordinator to help the customer get the right blend of services from each of our key partners to make the overall outcome much more valuable than if they were to just pick and choose different pieces on an ad hoc basis.”

Think of it like eating tapas as opposed to a steak and a pile of sides; there’s an emphasis on egalitarianism, collaboration, and facilitation within Oper8 Global’s ecosystem that feels refreshingly customer-focused.

“We don't get precious about who's leading any one discussion with a customer,” says Andrea. “True partnership is win-win, and we don't mind who leads those partnerships.”

And it sounds like Oper8’s customers and partners appreciate the approach.

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“When we find a partner that wants to really work with us towards a win-win outcome for our customers, it's fantastic” MIKE ANDREA

CEO, OPER8 GLOBAL

OPER8 GLOBAL

An Inverted Approach to Two Markets Oper8 was born out of Australia, which is where the firm still does a significant portion of its business. However, in addition to growing into new markets throughout APAC, Oper8 really went global in 2019, when the company expanded into the UK in order to better target EMEA. Andrea explains that “The APAC market right now is very focused on cybersecurity and helping organisations pick the right mix of operational platforms such as hardware security modules.”

That cybersecurity focus, he notes, is the driving force behind Oper8 Global’s new wave of products, including PayG8, NetG8, DataM8, and SafeG8 that it’s currently bringing to market.

The EMEA market, on the other hand, is a very different beast, where Andrea is seeing “a huge focus in Europe in modular and micro data centres and high performance computing” (HPC). It’s an interesting inversion between the two

regions, with APAC focusing “firmly on the security and cybersecurity market” (although Andrea notes that data centre and micro modular facilities are more of a secondary consideration, as opposed to ignored entirely), and EMEA “very much focused on data centre projects with security as a supporting element with respect to how to help our customers right-size and facilitate their product mix.”

However, even though Oper8’s two main markets have their priorities reversed, Andrea stresses that “it's the blended coordination between data centres and security that's really the driving factor for our operations in both of those markets for us at this stage.”

Filling in the Gaps Oper8 Global also maintains a heavy focus on R&D, and the products it designs aim to support the seamless cooperation of its partners’ products and services. “The approach we take to R&D very much centres on filling gaps. We don't have to be the best businesschief.asia

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PAYG8: KEEPING IT SIMPLE AND SECURE Oper8 Global’s core competencies, data centres, IoT, and edge, are all underpinned by a wealth of security expertise. This dedication to keeping customers safer with simplified, turnkey security solutions is reflected in Oper8 Global’s turnkey HSM solution PayG8, which it developed and delivers in collaboration with Thales and Equinix.

Oper8 Global delivers the Thales payShield Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) through the payG8 Service across the Equinix global data centre environment.

“The heart of this product is picking the right partners that let us go to market with the right blend of capabilities and services. Our PayG8 service incorporates the capabilities of three companies, Oper8 Global, Thales, and Equinix, but we also have a monitoring capability in there that's fairly unique. We're using RF Code's technology to do real-time asset tracking and rack monitoring within the Pay8G service model,” explains Andrea. “So, we're taking advantage of an existing key partner's technology as part of our service mix to create PayG8, which is really focused around payment hardware security modules as-a-service.

The heart of what we do is blending different complementary technologies and services from within our four key competencies in order to complement a business model that makes sense for a customer.”

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at a whole thing, just at filling in the gaps for a customer,” says Andrea.

That ethos was the driving force behind the creation of Oper8’s SafeG8 solution, a rack-mounted safe aimed at improving the protections surrounding physical encryption keys and smart cards required to operate and manage hardware security modules. “We looked around the market and couldn't see anything that fits our needs when it comes to this kind of solution, so we're developing it ourselves,” Andrea explains.

He continues: “It's a similar story with DataM8. We've seen an issue with cloud

OPER8 GLOBAL

“We're looking at 200% growth in revenue over the next 12 months.

We're looking at hiring substantially over the time, and we see ourselves bringing some great new products into the market” MIKE ANDREA

CEO, OPER8 GLOBAL

backup, and we're working very closely with Dell and Equinix in terms of how we can bring that product to market as a cloud-adjacent backup strategy that allows organisations to be more cyber secure in terms of how they can recover after a disruption.” DataM8, like the rest of Oper8’s product line, has been designed from the ground up to be delivered as a service. Andrea explains that the R&D team has taken great pains to adhere to this mandate, as an as-a-service model “allows an organisation to stay within the monthly subscription based model they're already using, but augment their backup

and security without having to switch to a new, high-capex commercial model.”

The Future is Collaborative, Innovative, and Delivered As-A-Service Reflecting on the past, as well as Oper8’s plans for the future, Andrea stresses the fact that “A lot of what we do couldn't be done without our key partners. When we find a partner who wants to really work with us towards a win-win outcome for our customers, it's fantastic, and we've been really lucky to build several of those relationships with key partners like Equinix, Thales, RF Code, enLogic, and Chatsworth. Those organisations work businesschief.asia

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OPER8 GLOBAL

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OPER8 GLOBAL

“The heart of what we do is blending different complementary technologies and services from within our four key competencies in order to complement a business model that makes sense for a customer” MIKE ANDREA

CEO, OPER8 GLOBAL

alongside Oper8, they communicate clearly and listen to what we need with respect to our product design and deployment in a very global sense, which means that we can replicate the same model, the same product set, and the same experience for our customers wherever they are.”

The future of Oper8’s business model, Andrea continues, is firmly rooted in HPC and security. Over the coming year, he explains that Oper8 will continue to focus on the rollouts of its PayG8, NetG8, DataM8, and SafeG8 solutions, continuing to work with its key partners to design, build, and deploy these as-a-service solutions.

“We've got new partners that we're starting discussions with right now surrounding new products that help us branch into new areas with respect to the healthcare marketspace,” he adds. “We see ourselves bringing some great new products into the market as well - particularly with regard to DataM8 and solving some of the technical challenges that arise with cloud to offcloud backup and retrieval, as well as backup and restoration.”

Lastly, Andrea explains that Oper8 Global is also looking at a number of acquisitions in order to further advance the company’s growth trajectory between now and the end of 2022. He adds that the process “is very much aligned to picking organisations that can enhance our capabilities across our four key areas of focus, and any acquisitions that we're looking at are going to be complementary to existing areas of the business. We've got a few things earmarked already and we very much see strategic acquisitions as part of our growth strategy over the next 12 to 18 months.”

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EVENT PREVIEW

The Ultimate FINTECH & InsurTech

LIVE EVENT FinTech & InsurTech Live, the industry’s ultimate event, launches this month alongside our celebration of the Top 100 Leaders in the FinTech and InsurTech industry WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

T

his October, BizClik Media Group launches a new platform to connect our digital communities, combining the strengths of in-person and virtual discussion, networking and access to the industry’s leading voices.

FinTech & InsurTech Live, a brand-new event, takes place 12-14 October 2021, giving you the opportunity to network with C-level executives, gain insight from industry pioneers and walk away with actionable insights to accelerate your career. Taking place and streaming live from Tobacco Dock in central London, it is a unique opportunity to reconnect with the fintech and insurtech community after such a prolonged period of disruption.

This event is the next step in placing our digital community at the heart of the

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EVENT PREVIEW

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EVENT PREVIEW

“ Our aim is to provide professionals with the tools, techniques and innovations they need to be at the forefront in our everevolving industries” JAMES CALLEN

MANAGING DIRECTOR, BMG CONNECT

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fintech and insurtech industries. Organised

by BizClik Media Group, FinTech & InsurTech Live is shaped and influenced by the thousands of professionals who interact with our magazines, websites, live streams, podcasts and exclusive industry reports every day.

“With over 120 speakers confirmed, our agenda for October is shaping up to be spectacular, with three days of insightful content from some of the best in industry,” says James Callen, Managing Director, at BMG Connect. “Our aim is to provide professionals with the tools, techniques and innovations they need to be at the forefront in our ever-evolving industries.

“We are partnering with online platform Brella to deliver the event however you choose to participate,” Callen adds. “Whether attendees decide to attend virtually or in person, they will still be able to interact with industry pioneers and participate in discussions on topics that are affecting their

business, allowing them to walk away with an actionable framework to implement into their strategy.

“FinTech & InsurTech Live is ultimately about delivering value and insights to elevate your career and further your organisation’s objectives. Whether that’s navigating global disruption, achieving vital ESG commitments, or strengthening the partner ecosystem that makes your value chain unique, we look forward to welcoming you later this month.”

World Leading Speaker Line-up FinTech & InsurTech Live will bring together global industry leaders to discuss the challenges, opportunities and issues facing fintech and insurtech across a variety of formats, including keynote addresses, panels, and fireside chats. Confirmed speakers for FinTech & InsurTech Live include: • Tevi Legge, VP and Head of Digital Products at ATB Financial • Colin Payne, VP and NextGen FS Global Lead at Capgemini • Luke Manning, Head of Sustainability at the London Stock Exchange Group • Elona Ruka-Wright, CRO at Finastra • Johnathan Holman, Head of Digital: Corporate & Commercial Banking at Santander • Alistair Fraser-Hawkins, CEO, UK Corporate, at Marsh McLennan • Diana Dinis, Product Director of Daily Banking at Mambu • Parul Kaul-Green, Board Member of UK InsurTech board, Tech Nation, at AXA • Scott Abrahams, Senior VP of Business Development & FinTech at Mastercard • Bryan Carroll, CEO at TNEX • Nino Ulsamer, Co-founder and CTO at StashAway

Join us at LIVE In a COVID-disrupted era, we understand that travel is not always possible. As such, BizClik Media Group has decided that FinTech & InsurTech LIVE will offer the best of both worlds through hybrid accessibility.

In Person For attendees who wish to join the event in person, the venue is working to governmentendorsed AEV All Secure Framework, alongside mia’s AIM Secure and ‘Good to Go’ accreditation, to ensure a COVIDsecure environment to facilitate all of your networking needs.

Virtually Our physical Tobacco Dock venue is both historic and stunning, but it has no bearing on the information that you and your peers can gain from the event. Absorb it all, interact with other attendees, and enjoy the conference experience on our virtual platform, powered

by Brella, featuring live feeds from all of the stages, as well as virtual networking areas.

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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

Top 100 Leaders in FinTech To be announced at the FinTech & InsurTech LIVE Event

October 12th - 14th

A BizClik Media Group Brand

GET YOUR TICKETS TO LIVE

Creating Digital Communities

EVENT PREVIEW

“ The Top 100 Leaders are individuals championing everything that we love about technology and embracing best practice that’s good for business”

Top 100 Leaders in FinTech and InsurTech The definitive list of leading executives and influencers will be announced at the event and shared across social media channels, our websites, and presented in a special supplement that honours all of those named in our annual list.

“The Top 100 Women, which we shared to coincide with International Women’s Day 2021, recognised the incredible and influential women driving our industry,” says Scott Birch, Editorial Director, BizClik Media Group. “The success of that initiative encouraged us to recognise the Top 100 Leaders – individuals championing everything that we love about fintech and insurtech and embracing a best practice that’s good for business.”

Tickets are still available for FinTech & InsurTech Live, just click on the button below.

SCOTT BIRCH

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, BIZCLIK MEDIA GROUP

BUY TICKETS NOW

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TOP 10

Technology Leaders in

ASIA-PACIFIC From Singapore to Sri Lanka, and from healthcare to banking, we select the top 10 tech leaders transforming businesses across Asia-Pacific 86

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TOP 10

I

nspired by the Top 100 Leaders in Technology published by sister title Technology Magazine, we highlight the top 10 tech leaders from across Asia-Pacific. From Australia to Singapore, India to China, these top

10 tech execs are using their skills in strategy and tech-pertise to digitally transform a wide array of businesses, from healthcare and energy to telecommunications and banking. Get ready to be impressed!

WRITTEN BY: KATE BIRCH

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TOP 10

10

Paul Scanlan

Chief Technology Officer, Huawei Carrier Business, Huawei Technologies

Hong Kong

With more than three decades in the telecommunications and IT sector, and an expert in the business of telecoms, managing everything from concept to operations, Scanlan is well-placed to steer the technology strategy of what is the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker. And as CTO of Huawei’s Carrier Business, that’s exactly what he’s been doing for the last five years. Having previously worked as a consultant, Scanlan joined Huawei 13 years ago, initially as a consultant, before becoming CTO. His working life has spanned APAC, Africa, North America and Europe.

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09

Haifeng Wang Chief Technology Officer, Baidu

Beijing, China

With a PhD in computer science and a fellow of the Association for Computational Linguistics, published academic Wang is considered to be one of the most important scientists in AI research.

And as head of Baidu’s AI division for the last four years, he’s also at the forefront of one of the most exciting tech innovations in the industry. Wang is responsible for leading-edge research and product development in ML, big data, speech technology and AR. He’s also accrued numerous accolades including the National Scientific Innovation and Advancement Award.

TOP 10

William Wei

Chief Technology Officer, Foxconn

Taiwan

08

A 20-year veteran in the software industry, Chinese native Wei started out as a software engineer, first at NeXT and then Apple where he spent 13 years before founding several tech startups in China with successful track records and exits. With a more recent focus on fintech, security, blockchain and mobility, the UMass computer engineering graduate has since served as CTO at a top 10 Chinese investment firm, CEO of a leading Security Token Offering STO platform, and now as CTO of Apple iPhone maker Foxconn in Taiwan. Here, he’s responsible for tech strategy in EV, robotics and digital health and is leading the charge on making Foxconn the Android of electric vehicles.

Shane Brunker Chief Technology Officer, Trimble

Australia

07

A self-dubbed ‘technology strategist’ and data scientist with a background in geospatial and remote sensing science, Brunker began his high-tech career working on the spatial and land information side of Government before joining NM Group to ensure they were at the forefront of technical and commercial developments. As CTO at Trimble for the past four years, Brunker works with big data, machine learning and SaaS to improve the way that energy networks are understood, planned and managed and brings new technical solutions to energy networks. businesschief.asia

89

Enabling educators.

Empowering students.

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

EXPLORE THE 3D EXPERIENCE

TOP 10

Scott Collary Chief Operating Officer, Westpac

06

Gerard Florian

Group Executive – Technology, ANZ Bank

Australia

Since entering IT in the early 80s, Florian has worked his way into leadership roles covering business development and technology strategy. Following 15 years at Dimension Data, serving as CTO and Chief Strategy Officer, Florian was instrumental in establishing a portfolio of cloud-enabled managed services operating on a global platform. As Group Executive Technology at ANZ for nearly five years, Florian is responsible for tech strategy and operations including developing new technologies to support improved customer outcomes and business revenues. He is a member of the ANZ International Technology and Digital Business Advisory panel.

Australia

05

With a unique depth and breadth of expertise across technology, operations, risk mitigation and commercial functions, Collary has three decades of leadership experience in financials leading to global roles transforming technology. Working for some of the world’s leading financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citi, Fifth Third Bank and ANZ, Collary has worked as a CIO both in the US and Australia and has a proven track record for delivering large-scale transformation programs at major international banks improving operating and technology performance. As COO of Westpac, Collary drives the technology transformation agenda.

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91

TOP 10

04

Madu Ratnayake EVP and CIO, Virtusa Corporation

Sri Lanka

Described as a visionary and recognised as one of India’s best 50 CIOs, Ratnayake has spent 25 years at Virtusa where he’s worked his way through the digital exec ranks to CIO and EVP, building the firm’s award-winning enterprise digital platform and practices. With deep experience in envisioning digital strategy, business transformation and building global high-performing teams to deliver growth in financial services firms, Ratnayake has played various advisory roles for the Government of Sri Lanka on its digital economy. He also represents the IT industry on the boards of leading universities.

92

October 2021

03

Vinod Kumar

Senior Technology Architect, Infosys

India

With more than 11 years experience at Infosys, over 22 years design and solutions knowledge, a PGDCA in computer applications from Delhi University, and vast knowledge of digital enterprises - Kumar is well positioned to increase the technology strategy at Infosys - a global leader in digital services and consulting. His many achievements to date include; developing a small Java based MVC framework and a tool to generate CRUD code for the framework.

TOP 10

William Woo

Group Chief Information Officer, Singtel

Singapore

Starting out as a programmer in the 1980s in Singapore’s Civil Service Computerisation Programme, Woo was instrumental in helping to digitise his country including building the nation’s first integrated bus and rail ticketing system and working on the critical deployment of the very first whole-of-Government Standard Operating Environment.

Following two decades at EDS in senior management tech roles Asiawide, Woo joined Singtel where he’s spent the last decade developing life-changing digital experiences for customers. As both Group CIO and CDO, Woo not only leads Singtel’s IT strategy implementing the systems and processes that power the telco giant’s operations, but is responsible for the acceleration of Singtel’s digital transformation. Woo has a degree in Applied Science in Computing and an Executive MBA from the National University of Singapore.

02 “I have always been fascinated by technology and the way it enhances our lives and enables us to become more productive”

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Fireside chat with Lidia Fonseca, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Pfizer

96

October 2021

TOP 10

“ Scientists bring the art of the possible… my job is to bring the art of the possible in digital”

Lidia Fonseca

Chief Digital & Technology Officer, Pfizer

Hong Kong

Dubbed a healthcare transformer, Mexicanborn Berkeley graduate Fonseca has been instrumental in rolling out the Covid-19 vaccine to market in less than a year by drawing on digital technologies and AI. A leader in digital innovation in healthcare for over a decade, serving as CIO at Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp before being poached by Pfizer as its first-ever CDO, Fonseca is responsible for the enterprise-wide digital strategy.

She’s spearheaded several transformational initiatives to support Pfizer’s purpose of delivering Breakthroughs that Change Patients’ Lives, has led the effort to create Pfizer’s Advanced Analytics Platform and Pfizer Digital Companion, and is driving initiatives to re-imagine clinical trials through robotics/ automation. Listed in ALPDA’s 2020 list of the 50 Most Powerful Latinas and awarded the 2017 Forbes CIO Innovation Award, Fonseca was a founding member of Synaptic Health Alliance, a group of healthcare companies, which uses blockchain to improve provider data quality.

businesschief.asia

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