Business Chief Europe Edition – June 2018

INSIDE Raiffeisen Bank’s DIGITAL JOURNEY June 2018 • EUROPE EDITION

Deep diving into demand driven planning with Shell

TELSTRA Australia’s biggest telco targets Europe

BLUE-SKY THINKING The technology drive giving lift-off to KLM’s digital transformation

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KLM ROYAL DUTCH Airlines has always been an innovator and in this month’s lead feature for Europe’s edition of Business Chief, we uncover the prestigious airline’s plans for tackling the industry’s biggest challenge: digital transformation.

Through interviews with two of its technology leaders, Liesbeth Oudkerk and Wim Vollenberg, readers will learn how KLM’s work in its ‘Digital Studio’ incubator is creating solutions that put the needs of both customers and employees at the very forefront of its strategy.

“Our main purpose is to help our employees to do what they do best.

Digitising is of course not a goal in itself but it helps our employees to deliver the best service to our customers,” explains Vollenberg.

Also standing out in our June issue is an exclusive interview with Tom Homer, who is leading the European charge for Australia’s biggest telco,

Telstra. Dan Brightmore sat down with Homer in London to go over his plans for the continent and how Telstra’s business is sprouting in a variety of directions.

On top of our insights into the key leadership topics of technology, people management and sustainability, our latest City Focus turns the spotlight onto Munich while June’s Top 10 lists Europe’s biggest investment companies.

Finally, our exclusive digital reports boast interviews with, on top of KLM, easyJet, Shell, Digita Oy, Groningen Seaports, Server Farm, Essex County Council, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Raiffeisen Bank International and Talash Hotels Group – all involving in-depth discussions with top executives and industry experts.

We hope you enjoy this latest issue and, if you have any feedback, you can find us across social media: @Business_Chief

http://europe.businesschief.com www.bizclikmedia.com

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KLM’s DIGITAL FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

08 44

TECHNOLOGY

CRITICAL EVENT MANAGEMENT ACROSS A CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Telstra Targeting Euro vision PEOPLE

56 SONY

ELECTRONICS and the rise of women in STEM

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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

HOW MORE CAN BE DONE TO MAKE THE MOST OF VALUE CHAINS

CITY FOCUS

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90

TOP 10 PROFIT ANALYSIS

SAVINGS

COMPANIES

CAPITAL

RETURN

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C O M PA N Y PROFILES

108 EasyJet

SUPPLYCHAIN

SHELL

SUPPLYCHAIN

122

Digita Oy

CONSTRUCTION

138 148

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June 2018

Groningen Seaports CONSTRUCTION

Essex County Council TECHNOLOGY

200

164 Server Farm

216

CONSTRUCTION

180 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer TECHNOLOGY

Raiffeisen Bank International TECHNOLOGY

230

Talash Hotels Group Food and Drink

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KLM’s DIGITAL FUTURE The story of technology innovation at one of Europe’s most prestigious airlines Written by Ben Mouncer Produced by Richard Durrant

Liesbeth Oudkerk and Wim Vollenberg, leaders in digital transformation at KLM, give fascinating insight into how the prestigious Dutch airline is building for the future through its ‘Digital Studio’

I

n 2019, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will reach a hugely significant milestone in its aviation journey.

Already boasting a stature that comes with being the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name, on 7 October next year KLM will celebrate its 100th birthday.

Over the course of close to a century, it has always been a trailblazer. In 1929, it operated the longest-distance scheduled service and in 1934, it was running transatlantic flights. In 1989, it

introduced the most advanced Boeing 747 of its time and by the turn of the millennium, it had picked up major awards for a host of groundbreaking initiatives. As its 100-year landmark approaches, KLM is once again adapting to take on the industry’s biggest challenge: the onset of digital.

The realities of the current era of digital transformation will result in even the most established airlines hitting turbulence. Ever since Pieter Elbers took over the company’s reins

VIDEO: KLM Digital Studio - The Digital Transformation

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June 2018

TECHNOLOGY

32k The number of staff working at KLM

“The strategic agreement with Capgemini will allow us to further transform the customer experience at McDonald’s with much greater speed, scalability and disruptive innovation.”

Jim Sappington, Executive Vice President of Operations, Digital & Technology for McDonald’s corporation

Digital Transformation.

Although the impact of digitization is not new, the digital economy is entering a new age that presents unprecedented challenges for all CEOs. Digitization can extend the reach of organizations, improve management decisions, and speed the development of new products and services. At the same time, the excessively rapid adoption of technologies can disrupt traditional business models. Organizations need to carefully tread the path towards digital transformation with a concrete strategy all levels of an organization.

Bringing digital and transformation together With extensive experience in understanding the digital economy, Capgemini is strategically placed to help clients deliver better products, services and business processes through digitization, from beginning till end, through a collaborative, relationship-based approach. Our commitment is to deliver significant improvements in value and performance. So we did for KLM, we engaged very closely with KLM on their digital journey.

Capgemini helped Transavia taking off with Netsuite OneWorld, in order to align Transavia in the Netherlands and France, their processes and various systems. The NetSuite implementation includes general accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets and revenue recognition.

KLM and their digital journey Capgemini is a trusted partner of Airfrance KLM for more than two decades and delivered many successful projects. In the digital changing world, the customer requirements and expectations are changing very rapidly, there is more emphasis on real time data, on operational data

www.capgemini.com

and on finding the meaningful information about customer behavior and experience.

To become a customer-centric organization, KLM has started focusing on customer journeys, customer experience, giving more accurate information to their customer at each touch points like before flight, at airport, at security, check-in, in-flight and post flight. KLM also realized that they have to empower their employees by giving the right information and tooling so they can provide the right information to the end customers.

Capgemini has engaged very closely with KLM on the digital transformation and started supporting KLM on various project under the umbrella of digital transformation. To improve the employee centricity, Capgemini is engaged in the HR transformation at KLM using SAP Successfactors.

With this initiative KLM empowers its employee with the right tooling. Capgemini is also engaged in employee promoter score, employee service hub, employee seamless check-in and many more.

Also, Capgemini is supporting KLM in improving the employee tooling by automating the manual way of working for the employees in engineering and maintenance, KLM catering services, KLM ground operations and other departments.

Capgemini has successfully delivered the salesforce implementation for the Airfrance KLM b2b organization across 105 countries, within time, budget and quality.

We believe that digital transformation is first and foremost a business transformation. People, not technology, are the most important piece in the digital transformation puzzle. And this is a value both KLM and Capgemini share. Capgemini employees are very passionate about working for and within the KLM organization and we strive continuing this partnership for many years.

“ KLM has a two decade-long relationship with Capgemini already. Today in our KLM Digital Studio we work with Capgemini together on several innovative topics. For example, the My Roster product, in which we develop a new way of presenting rosters to our ground employees. Another example is using digital platform technologies like Salesforce to support our sales worldwide and also our staff in the daily steering of our operations at Schiphol Airport. Capgemini is fully supporting the KLM HR transformation using SAP Successfactor. Overall, we are very satisfied with Capgemini expertise within Digital Transformation space” – Wim Vollenberg Project Management Officer for Digital Transformation

K L M R O YA L D U T C H A I R L I N E S

in 2014, however, KLM has been certain of its mission – to create a forward-thinking, resilient and efficient business fit for the technological age.

“It is very important to them and they feel that we are accomplished in that area,” says Liesbeth Oudkerk, Project Officer for Digital Transformation. “If you look at the work we are doing, it is achieving more and more. They have seen that we can make the change to digital.”

Liesbeth Oudkerk

PROJECT OFFICER FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Liesbeth Oudkerk joined KLM in 1987 and has been involved in Schedule & Fleet Planning (Network), Business Development (Ground Operations), Operations Development (Operations Control), VP Capacity & Schedule Planning (Network), Network Planning & Freighter Management (Cargo), Information Management Passenger Operations and now KLM Digital Transformation 16

June 2018

Oudkerk and Wim Vollenberg, Program Management Officer for Digital Transformation, are speaking directly from KLM’s ‘Digital Studio’, housed at the airline’s Amsterdam Airport Schiphol East base. Opened in 2016, the studio was born out of KLM’s desire to maintain its culture of innovation and is an important function of its digital transformation.

Currently with room for nearly 200 workers but with ambitious expansion

TECHNOLOGY

Wim Vollenberg

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICER FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Wim Vollenberg joined KLM in 1990 and has worked across the business in Cargo Handling, Aircraft Loading (Ground Services), Network Planning, Cabin Crew Planning (Inflight Services), Pricing & Revenue Management and Information Management (for Digital in AFKL Commercial and later in Passenger Operations) prior to joining KLM Digital Transformation

plans in the pipeline, the ‘Digital Studio’ is a creative space where employees from every area of the business are encouraged to foster ideas on how digital can transform day-to-day operations. With firm eyes on the future, Oudkerk and Vollenberg have led the studio’s work on developing solutions that embrace disruptive technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

“It’s certainly been more successful than even I thought it would be,”

explains Oudkerk. “It started off really simply; we didn’t have enough space for our digital team and so I said ‘okay, let’s find a new space and then we can start working’. We wanted to involve people and we wanted to develop that space with them.

“It’s really taken off and given a lot of people a few different vibes, as it’s a place where they can work on their future. At the moment I’m building a plan with the main points of attention for the next year, and

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to innovate in the ‘Digital Studio’ is one of the core themes.”

In order to tackle the familiar challenge of implementing change at a company that employs nearly 32,000 people across a wide range of specialisms, KLM has adopted the agile way of working and the scrum framework to rapidly grow its ‘Digital Studio’ project.

The ‘Scrum Studio’, from which the ‘Digital Studio’ took its lead, is an environment designed by Scrum. org, led by CEO Dave West, to contain high-performing teams that exist either as physically separate organisations to the main business or as protected parts of that business, creating a cluster where individuals involved can fast-track empirically-based innovation without distractions.

“It’s very difficult to change large

legacy companies from the inside,” outlines Vollenberg. “Scrum.org came up with the ‘Scrum Studio’ concept which is that you start not within but more on the side of the large company. It tries to act as independently as possible – of course, you’ll never be completely independent because you need salaries, you need IT, but you try to do that.

“That’s why we changed our working title into ‘Digital Studio’. We are trying to make progress to be faster, quicker and more innovative but not completely independent from KLM, because we also try to influence the bigger KLM with the things that we’re working on.

“We work on a ‘digital transformation’ theme as an innovative studio. There are teams at KLM that work in digital in other areas like passenger operations, engineering and maintenance, cargo,

“At the moment I’m building a plan with the main points of attention for the next year, and to innovate in the ‘Digital Studio’ is one of the core themes” – Liesbeth Oudkerk Project Officer for Digital Transformation

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June 2018

吀䌀匀 吀刀䄀嘀䔀䰀Ⰰ 吀刀䄀一匀倀伀刀吀䄀吀䤀伀一 ☀ 䠀伀匀倀䤀吀䄀䰀䤀吀夀

吀䠀䔀 䔀一䜀䤀一䔀 吀栀愀琀 倀漀眀攀爀猀 夀漀甀爀 䔀瘀攀爀礀 䴀漀瘀攀

琀挀猀⸀挀漀洀 最氀漀戀愀氀⸀琀琀栀䀀琀挀猀⸀挀漀洀 䀀 吀䌀匀

吀攀挀栀渀漀氀漀最礀 瀀愀爀琀渀攀爀 琀漀 ㌀㔀⬀ 最氀漀戀愀氀 愀椀爀氀椀渀攀猀 愀渀搀 ㈀ 漀昀 琀栀攀 ㌀ 愀椀爀氀椀渀攀 愀氀氀椀愀渀挀攀猀 ㈀㔀⬀ 礀攀愀爀猀 漀昀 攀砀瀀攀爀椀攀渀挀攀 椀渀 搀攀氀椀瘀攀爀椀渀最 挀甀琀琀椀渀最ⴀ攀搀最攀 猀漀氀甀琀椀漀渀猀 琀漀 洀攀攀琀 戀甀猀椀渀攀猀猀 挀栀愀氀氀攀渀最攀猀 倀椀漀渀攀攀爀椀渀最 椀渀渀漀瘀愀琀椀漀渀猀 愀爀漀甀渀搀 䄀爀琀椀ǻ挀椀愀氀 䤀渀琀攀氀氀椀最攀渀挀攀Ⰰ 挀漀渀瘀攀爀猀愀琀椀漀渀愀氀 猀礀猀琀攀洀猀Ⰰ 愀渀愀氀礀琀椀挀猀Ⰰ 䤀漀吀 愀渀搀 猀漀挀椀愀氀 洀攀搀椀愀 䴀甀氀琀椀ⴀ洀椀氀氀椀漀渀 搀漀氀氀愀爀 椀渀瘀攀猀琀洀攀渀琀猀 椀渀 愀渀 䄀椀爀氀椀渀攀 䤀渀渀漀瘀愀琀椀漀渀 䰀愀戀⸀

“ We’ve worked for many, many years with TCS in the B2C area, but now also in the B2E. Experts from TCS are working on site at our KLM ‘Digital Studio’ and are mainly working on the digitisation of the passenger operations.

They are deeply involved in that and are a much-valued, long-standing partner for KLM” – Wim Vollenberg Program Management Officer for Digital Transformation

K L M R O YA L D U T C H A I R L I N E S

HR and finance, so the ‘Digital Studio’ is not the only place where we work on digitisation for crew and employees, but the difference is we focus our work on new technology. As we put it, we try to work on the ‘day after tomorrow’.”

Even though most of the studio’s current projects remain at the experimental stage, the fast-paced nature of development encouraged by the digital transformation team has seen a handful of its innovations already morphed into practice.

One such example is the evolution of a virtual reality (VR) product initially put forward by an aircraft mechanic who held a personal interest in the

The KLM ‘Digital Studio’ is a creative space where all employees are encouraged to share ideas 22

June 2018

technology. Stationed in KLM’s engineering and maintenance division, Chris Koomen joined the ‘Digital Studio’ and has helped with the integration of VR solutions on a far broader basis, including to transform the training for aircraft crew.

“People who are having catering training, for example, now don’t have to go into an aircraft; they can stay in the VR lab,” says Oudkerk. “This is the perfect example for the ‘Digital Studio’; speaking to someone who had an idea and then facilitating them to further this skill, further their idea. I think that this is one of the models of our company. Our CEO wants to work

TECHNOLOGY

with our people and make products for them, together with them. And he Koomen was a mechanic starting out too, so we’re happy with that.

“Another example is that we were experimenting with and have now implemented a chat-bot for our social media in the commercial part of KLM and we are now trying to experiment with that technology in other areas of the business, from employees to HR.

“ We were experimenting with and have now implemented a chat-bot for our social media in the commercial part of KLM and we are now trying to experiment with that technology in other areas of the busines” – Liesbeth Oudkerk Project Officer for Digital

Technology in action at KLM

“We are working with experiments on blockchain in our engineering and maintenance department too, and we are looking at augmented reality for the maintenance of aircrafts and engines, an idea that was also generated by a mechanic. In fact, two of our iOS Developers were aircraft mechanics as well in the past.”

Powering KLM’s strides into the technology age is its overarching priority to put the individual’s needs first, whether that be a customer or one of its workers. Renowned for its first-class customer service and stellar employer reputation, one of its defined objectives is to become the ‘most

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K L M R O YA L D U T C H A I R L I N E S

Transforming for the future with KLM Pioneers or more information, F CLICK HERE

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June 2018

Digital Studio CASE STUDY “We had a gate agent who had an idea to develop a pet travel app. Customers who travel with a pet, like a dog or a cat, are always curious how it’s going with their animal. The idea was to develop an app so that customer would be able to follow the pet during the journey.

Somebody at the ‘Digital Studio’ picked up the idea and now we are working on the development.

There will be an app with our customers who travel with their pets and, for example, employees can take pictures while the pet is having a changeover at the airport and then share it with the customer, a way of saying ‘hey, look your dog is doing great’.

By that, customers and employees will be very happy. That’s a way where our employees get enthusiastic about our ‘Digital Studio’ as a place where they can extend their ideas”.

– Wim Vollenberg Program Management Officer for Digital Transformation

europe.businesschief.com

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K L M R O YA L D U T C H A I R L I N E S

10BN Annual revenue for KLM (€)

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TECHNOLOGY

“ Our main purpose is to help our employees to do what they do best. Digitising is of course not a goal in itself but it helps our employees to deliver the best service to our customers” – Wim Vollenberg Program Management Officer for Digital Transformation

customer-centric, innovative and cost efficient European network carrier’.

“If you take good care of your employees they will take good care of our customers and I think that’s fully aligned with our approach,” outlines Vollenberg. “Our main purpose is to help our employees to do what they do best. Digitising is of course not a goal in itself but it helps our employees to deliver the best service to our customers.”

The core objective for the ‘Digital Studio’ looking ahead is to see its influence continue to permeate KLM’s mighty operation through its role in the digital transformation.

Every four weeks, it hosts a demo to show interested observers the very latest technology developments being worked on and guest speakers are arranged to deliver talks to

staff about the transforming digital world. Communicating its efforts internally and externally is also a vital tool, not only to attract new talent but to showcase KLM’s digitisation to the market.

“We are an aviation pioneer and a pioneer nowadays is pioneering technology,” concludes Oudkerk. “20 years ago, it was about pioneering with different things, but now it’s about that. It’s a really dynamic market now and will be for a long time.

The thing with more and more local carriers coming in is we really have to innovate and make breakthroughs.

“We consider ourselves to be pioneers and we really want to be a technology pioneer too.”

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LEADERSHIP

TELSTRA TARGETING EURO VISION Business Chief met with Tom Homer, Telstra’s inspiring MD for EMEA, to learn how the telco is targeting European expansion while continuing its own transformation into a tech-co offering a range of complementary software products and services Writ ten by DAN BRIGHTMORE

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A

ustralian telecommunications business Telstra is the market leader down under offering a complete portfolio of integrated cloud, data and network services.

Operating nationally for over half a century, and with a UK presence for more than 25 years, foremost in its strategy is the desire to deliver a great customer experience while driving value from the core and investing in new growth businesses close to the core. Telstra boasts 38,000 employees striving to drive value and create simplicity while aiming to be a world-class technology company that empowers people to connect. It is engaged in a shift from the traditional telco model as it endeavours to become a best-in-class tech-co.

“Customer experience is how we differentiate,” maintains Telstra’s Managing Director, EMEA, Tom Homer.

“It’s at the heart of all the important decisions we make. We use NPS (Net Promoter Score) as a way of measuring customer advocacy. That’s an industry standard methodology we’ve been implementing around the world and it’s telling us our 32

June 2018

Tom Homer and Dan Brightmore at Telstra’s London office

customers think we’re getting it right.”

To achieve this customer confidence, Telstra is delivering services supported by over 2,000 staff, mostly based in Australia but expanding globally as its international growth ambition is driven by investing in new businesses close to its core. “That’s been accelerating over the past decade,” explains Homer. “We used to be in a joint venture with PCCW (who were part of the old Hong Kong Telecom) but exited in 2011 to grow an international telecoms business while simultaneously developing

“We use NPS (Net Promoter Score) as a way of measuring customer advocacy. That’s an industry standard methodology we’ve been implementing around the world and it’s telling us our customers think we’re getting it right” Tom Homer, EMEA MD, Telstra

our services offering. We’re seeing double digit percentage growth in both of these businesses year on year.

Meanwhile in Europe, we’re a B2B business serving large enterprises and other carriers focused at the top end of town with corporate and multinational customers and channel partners in cloud, networks, security and increasingly, professional services.”

We’re speaking with Homer at Telstra’s offices at the Blue Fin Building on London’s Southbank where 200 of its staff are based. He explains Telstra 33

Since joining Telstra in 2011 Tom Homer has spearheaded the company’s expansion into new European territories

LEADERSHIP has been engaged in enhancing its network reach by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in network cable systems, points of presence and data centres around the world.

“Networks are still at the core of what we do, but increasingly we’re investing in applications and services over the top of that,” he adds. “We’ve launched a global managed security offering which is an open-source solution making it easier to deploy for multiple customers using the tech we gained when we acquired a software company called Cognivo a couple of years ago. Cognivo software was originally developed for police forces around the world for analysing unstructured data.”

Telstra has also been working with global sports rights company Perform who look after the Women’s Tennis Association tour. Together, they have deployed a Telstra network solution to connect up 50 annual global tennis events over the next seven years.

A key factor in driving the company’s client growth has been the launch of the Telstra Programmable Network: a digital platform for enterprise network services. “We’re approaching 300 customers already, it’s real,” affirms Homer. “There’s a lot of hype in the

world of Software-Defined Networking but this is working and happening now.

A lot of products get launched but we’ve found success with a new service launched 18 months ago which is now tried and tested. You could describe it as a cloud for networks enabling organisations and customers that use it to dial up bandwidth on demand at the network level,” he explains.

“It means we can give our customers access to cloud platforms through that network at their own locations. It helps them optimise their IT by utilising Telstra’s on-demand service at the core of our network capability.” It’s a capability that has inspired increased demand for Telstra’s professional services. “We invested in our first services acquisition last year when we bought Company85,” Homer explains. “It’s a UK business with a team of 100 that specialise in helping organisations achieve more with their IT investments. Company85 helped to run the IT department and deliver the IT strategy at London City Airport – everything from the creation and identification of an operating model, helping them get to that point and then executing that strategy.

Company85 also have a significant 35

LEADERSHIP security consulting capability.”

Highlighting Telstra’s need to partner successfully to meet its goal of becoming a tech-co, Homer lists links with the likes of Dell, VMWare and Microsoft.

“We also partner with Cisco to deliver collaboration services to customers,” he adds. “A good example of that is Springer, a European publishing company who own brands like Macmillan with a significant presence in the education media space. We’re in the middle of deploying a solution for them to connect up all of their offices for 10-12,000 seats of Cisco cloud collaboration, allowing them to operate seamlessly around the world across 20 countries using voice and video presence.”

Allied to those main partnerships, Telstra is increasingly partnering with organisations that are part of its Telstra Ventures programme. “We have our

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June 2018

VIDEO: Technology

has the power to do wonders.

With the power of Telstra’s network and it’s ability to curate unique solutions from a breath of products and services, imagine where Telstra could help take your business.

own branded venture capital fund,” reveals Homer. “Telstra Ventures typically invests in second and third round high growth software businesses, which in many cases are cloud based. We’ve invested in 50 so far and have seen a few exits so this is a real venture capital business. We recently backed a software defined network business, Velocloud, which was subsequently sold to VMWare.”

Telstra also invests in companies delivering digital transformation services. Among these, DocuSign (an electronic document management business) first came onto the company’s radar because of a problem on-boarding new members of staff when employment contracts weren’t being turned around quickly enough.

“It was taking 28 days with new starters but DocuSign speeded up that process by 90% and took more than $30 out of each transaction,” remembers Homer. “This delivers innovation for our customers.” Telstra also works with Whispir, a multimedia messaging platform originally designed to help with natural disasters in Australia where droughts, floods, fires and other extreme weather events are commonplace. “In that

scenario it’s a way of communicating with stakeholders, customers and employees in one go across text, voice and social media,” says Homer.

While Homer admits brand awareness remains a challenge – he jokes that his company sometimes gets confused with Tesla – Homer is confident in Telstra’s expertise to explore new frontiers for business.

“We’ve got a significant global footprint with a real sweet spot in Asia,” he confirms. “A lot of customers come to us for that because they need an Asian specialist. We have a joint venture in China as a majority owner where we’re now the largest foreignowned IVPVN provider in the country, so lots of very big organisations are coming to us because of our capability in a region where most large multinationals are growing faster than anywhere else in the world.”

Homer is proud that Telstra brings a challenger mentality to the market, delivering a range of software and networks to help organisations in areas requiring regulatory compliance to deal with GDPR (through Company85) and MiFID. “We’ve also been building a foreign exchange platform for a big global bank,” he adds. The company’s 37

LEADERSHIP

“As organisations in Europe look to digitally transform their businesses they are increasingly seeking integrated solutions for their network, security and cloud infrastructure, as well as advice on implementation and management�

Tom Homer, EMEA MD, Telstra

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June 2018

WHY TELSTRA? Access to more than 2,000 Points of Presence (PoPs) in more than 200 countries and territories One of the largest subsea cable networks in Asia Pacific, providing access to 400,000km of cable, and the most intra-Asia active capacity Highest product scores in High Capacity and Low Latency networks in the Gartner Critical Capabilities for Network Services (Asia Pacific 2015 – 2017 reports) Four world-class teleports that cover two-thirds of the globe – reaching over 40 satellites globally Networks connected to nearly 60 data centres, the largest integrated data centre footprint in Asia-Pacific

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LEADERSHIP global success has strong roots in Asia where it has been operating for over 50 years and has just launched a new offer to provide assured availability on the busiest subsea cable route in Asia – the hot triangle between Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

“It’s an industry first capability which has led to Gartner rating us top of the league for our high capacity, low latency services in Asia for the last four years running, where ours is a market leading proposition,” says Homer.

Homer predicts the unprecedented era of change for telcos will continue and believes strategically, you need to identify what type of company you are and what you want to become.

“Increasingly if you are making the decision to become a tech-co and a services co as well as empowering people to connect by being a network business, you have to invest in partnerships to sell software and services. Our teams are having to become more software savvy because the world of just providing data centres or cables or infrastructure, that world has changed and will continue transforming. Partnering with local organisations is key because we don’t have the scale to serve every 40

June 2018

“Our new office in the La Défense area of Paris will be a hub for our European business… crucial for our expansion across the continent” Tom Homer, EMEA MD, Telstra

customer so our channel programme is vital to build our partner base.”

It’s Telstra’s goal to become more European and grow its footprint across the continent by adding further points of presence (in Copenhagen, Düsseldorf and Paris) to make the Telstra Programmable Network available to more customers while

Inside Telstra’s new Paris office

providing access to virtual private networks via Telstra’s IPVPN solution.

“Our new office in the La Défense area of Paris will be a hub for our European business… crucial for our expansion across the continent,” says Homer. “We already have entities in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden as well as an indirect channel partnership with IPSILAN, a French technology services consultancy, to distribute Telstra’s Cisco-based unified communications solutions.”

He concludes: “As organisations

in Europe look to digitally transform their businesses they are increasingly seeking integrated solutions for their network, security and cloud infrastructure, as well as advice on implementation and management. Our vision is to deliver an advanced network together with value-adding technology services such as consulting, security and collaboration solutions, so businesses in Europe can realise the full potential of cloud computing and meet the rapidly growing demand for data and applications.”

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From start to the finish, it was a pleasure working with the BizClik team. The feedback we have received from different audience groups on the article was phenomenal.

It has attracted a lot of interest and attention to our company, our growth plans and has definitely created additional value to what we are trying to achieve.”

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CRITICAL EVENT MANAGEMENT across a changing landscape In a fast-changing world, businesses and governments alike must become more proactive in dealing with a variety of threats.

Javier Colado, SVP of International Sales at Everbridge, tells us more

TECHNOLOGY

Writ ten by OLIVIA MINNOCK

TECHNOLOGY IN AN AGE where theft isn’t just of physical goods but of data, and criminals don’t just break into buildings but into digital ecosystems, security threats are becoming much harder and more complex to manage. Throw natural disasters and terror attacks into the mix, and 21st century security is about managing the unpredictable at an ever-increasing pace. Critical event management company Everbridge helps governments and business not only react to, but also prepare for and anticipate such threats.

We caught up with Javier

Colado, SVP of International Sales at Everbridge, to find out how the business takes care of companies and incidents of every shape and size, and where it plans to go next. Colado has worked with several global businesses like McAfee and SAP and as such is well-placed to head up Everbridge’s journey in an increasingly connected world. “I chose to come to Everbridge for two reasons: firstly, it’s unique in the market as our solutions help keep people safe and can even save lives; secondly, there is huge potential for us to grow out of the USA,” he explains.

“ WE ENABLE CORPORATIONS AND COMMUNITIES TO QUICKLY AND CONTEXTUALLY REACH ANYONE ON ANY DEVICE, ANYWHERE AT ANY TIME” JAVIER COLADO SVP International Sales, Everbridge

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June 2018

In a nutshell, critical event management involves helping organisations deal with events as they happen, from active shooter incidents to internet outages. “Businesses today typically manage critical events in silos that use disparate data sources and unintegrated tools, making it difficult to achieve a common operational view of threats and of the status of response,” Colado explains. “A Critical Event Management (CEM) platform like ours helps unify this process by offering a combination of real-time monitoring, situational awareness and integrated

response and collaboration solutions from a single, enterprise-wide view.”

This platform helps businesses to not only keep employees safe, but also monitor potential threats so they can grow proactively across less familiar locations such as emerging markets.

Everbridge was founded in the wake of 9/11. It became clear that a tech-based solution was needed to enable communication during critical incidents. “We saw government agencies struggle to communicate with citizens and businesses,” says Colado. “The technology wasn’t what it was today, but the event demonstrated that emergency responders needed a technology platform to help them protect the public during a major emergency.”

Everbridge wanted to move away from the existing method of emergency response which largely consisted of a one-way ‘blast’ message. Instead, the Everbridge platform allows tailored communication specific to a situation for the specific recipient, through any means, to any location. “We also incorporate business rules, workflows and logic to enable contextual and effective communications and allow users to verify and confirm delivery 47

TECHNOLOGY and receipt,” Colado adds.

Since 2002 when Everbridge was founded, it has been necessary to adapt this offering to not only help government organisations get crucial messages out there, but also “global businesses, large healthcare organisations, leading universities, transportation hubs, IT operations teams and much more”. This has led to the service expanding to both operational and emergency-oriented applications. In short, there are many less dramatic incidents that can also pose threats to a business’

operations and profits, and it became a priority to deal with these as well.

Coldao adds: “Beyond our core mass notification services, we have developed an industry-leading set of applications to improve organisational responses for all these diverse types of events to help keep people safe and businesses running faster.”

Such issues range from IT outages, power outages, facility issues and scheduling challenges to supply-chain interruptions. In 2017, Everbridge’s platform dealt with over 2bn messages across 200 countries and territories.

“ WHERE TRADITIONAL EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION AND PHYSICAL SECURITY SOLUTIONS FOCUS ON AN INDIVIDUAL’S STATIC HOME OR WORK ADDRESS, SAFETY CONNECTION UTILISES MULTIPLE METHODS TO DYNAMICALLY LOCATE, NOTIFY AND INSTRUCT INDIVIDUALS” JAVIER COLADO SVP International Sales, Everbridge

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June 2018

As well as helping organisations send secure messages to their staff at work or home, there is a lot more to the service. “We also enable multimodal delivery to dynamic – actual and predicted – locations,” says Coldao. “This is particularly critical when reaching mobile, travelling and remote workers. Overall, we enable corporations and communities to quickly and contextually reach anyone on any device, anywhere at any time.

“Our CEM platform also helps organisations develop a common operating picture of their risk events,

with the ability to assess threats impacting assets or systems, locate responders, resolvers and stakeholders, automate incident response workflows and analyse all results to improve future response efforts.” Applications such as Safety Connection, IT Alerting and Visual Command Centre all serve to keep employees safe during incidents as well as improving efficiency and maintaining, where possible, ‘business as usual’.

For example, last year Everbridge worked with London-based financial

The Everbridge Critical Event Management (CEM) suite demo

49

TECHNOLOGY services giant, Willis Towers Watson, which manages over 140,000 staff in 140 countries. “They used the Everbridge platform while monitoring the approach of Hurricane Irma toward America in 2017.” This software helped the company decide to close 12 offices in Florida and inform 700 workers of the emergency decision. Coldao adds: “The company was then able to verify the safety of all colleagues as the storm hit, and advised when they could return to the office. Various messages were also sent to colleagues due to be travelling in the region.”

The security and safety market has of course developed due to technology transformation. “The historic market for corporate security and safety solutions has been focused on establishing perimeters (e.g. locks, alarms and guards) to keep threats to employees outside of the physical premises,” says Colado. “However, it’s been necessary to shift away from this given the nature of today’s increasingly mobile workforce.”

Everbridge recently conducted a survey of the key safety and security issues facing businesses today. It found that organisations were largely concerned by the risk of workplace 50

June 2018

violence. Only 79% felt they were even somewhat prepared for an active shooter event, and businesses stated that the biggest challenge faced was communicating with people in an impacted building. 37% of businesses said they maintained an accurate record of where employees are expected to be during working hours, and only 25% dynamically locate employees when a threat occurs in order to tailor their alerts.

Therefore, in emergencies like shooting situations, terror attacks and natural disasters, it’s clear that a CEM platform like Everbridge’s could provide a much-needed solution in an oft-overlooked area.

Indeed, with the labour force becoming increasingly made up of mobile – and indeed temporary or freelance – workers, corporations are finding it even harder to deal with threats, from keeping up-to-date with exact locations to checking in on people’s personal safety.

Everbridge’s software not only helps companies during these events but can also help them find out where it is safe for their staff to operate when contemplating expansion. Everbridge Safety Connection focusses on

79%

keeping mobile staff informed. “Where traditional emergency notification and physical security solutions focus on an individual’s static home or work address, Safety Connection utilises multiple methods to dynamically locate, notify and instruct individuals,” Colado explains. “When

THE NUMBER OF BUSINESSES THAT FELT THEY WERE EVEN SOMEWHAT PREPARED FOR A CRITICAL EVENT

deployed, security professionals can aggregate near real-time location data from multiple sources, including building access control systems and travel management systems to send notifications to individuals and employees who might be in dangerous situations.”

51

TECHNOLOGY

“ OUR IPO WAS A SIGNIFICANT MOMENT WITHIN THE COMPANY’S HISTORY AS IT NOT ONLY DEMONSTRATED THE EMERGENCE OF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AS A MAJOR MARKET BUT ALSO OUR LEADERSHIP POSITION WITHIN IT” JAVIER COLADO SVP International Sales,

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June 2018

So far, Everbridge’s offering has garnered interest from well-known clients such as airports, investment banks and the UK’s NHS (in fact, around one third of FTSE 100 companies use Everbridge) as well as faith from investors. In 2016, the company made its debut on the stock exchange and since then its stock price has increased by over 200%.

Everbridge’s $100mn revenue in 2017 marked 36% year-on-year growth.

“Our IPO was a significant moment within the company’s history,” says Colado, “as it not only demonstrated the emergence of emergency communications as a major market but also our leadership position within it.”

Everbridge is set to continue on this path of rapid growth with its recent acquisition of United Messaging Systems, a leading European provider of critical communications. Will this be a step toward dominating the European market? “Given the importance of mobile delivery internationally, UMS’ unique ability to message the mobile phones of anyone connected to a carrier’s cell towers significantly enhances Everbridge’s ability to protect people worldwide,” says Colado, adding that UMS has

over 1,000 customers in Northern Europe and reaches over 500mn people with public notifications, using its Population Alerting System (PAS) to provide two-way SMS broadcasting.

“Together we will provide the broadest delivery capability for critical communications worldwide… UMS accelerates our international growth and creates the most comprehensive CEM platform for business, state and local government, and now entire countries. UMS provides Everbridge with a passionate and customerfocused team of experts, differentiated technology, and a shared mission to keep people safe and businesses running during a critical event.”

Overall, this European expansion will only add to Everbridge’s capability to deal with any event the world throws at it, and to help its clients do the same. While expanding out of the US and into Europe and the wider world will come with its challenges, such as GDPR compliance and generally making sure customers’ data is looked after and only used when truly necessary, it is also an opportunity to utilise the latest technology to keep people safe and keep the business world running like clockwork.

53

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PEOPLE

SONY ELECTRONICS and the rise of women in STEM

Business Chief speaks to the tech giant’s Head of Corporate Communications Cheryl Goodman on her career in technology and how other ambitious females can rise in the industry Wr i t t e n by TO M WA D LOW 57

PEOPLE

T

he world of technology is still largely dominated by men.

Almost all statistics (and there are many) point towards low female participation in STEM industries, from educational uptake all the way through to representation at boardroom level.

Take UNESCO Institute for Statistic’s 2017 Women in Science factsheet – globally, it says just 28.8% of the scientific research and development workforce are female, although figures are higher in Central Asia (47.2%), Latin America (44.7%) and Central and Eastern Europe (39.6%).

Further, United Nations research reveals that women who start out

in business roles in tech-intensive industries leave for other industries at high rates – 53% of women compared to 31% of men. This in turn leads to an extremely low presence in the boardroom, with IT industries struggling to hit 15% in terms of female representation at the highest leadership levels.

A bleak picture perhaps, but many of the world’s top technology companies are actively seeking to address the divide and drive women in STEM numbers significantly north.

One such industry heavyweight is Sony. In 2016, the percentage of management positions held by

Sony played an active role in San Diego Women’s Week, held in March

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June 2018

Sony headquarters becomes the hub for best practices and methods for women to live their fullest mission, wherever they are, whether that’s in Sony Electronics or down the street in a competitor’s company” CHERYL GOODMAN Head of Corporate Communications for Sony Electronics

women across the tech firm’s global operations stood at 24%, almost double the proportion seen in the 2011 financial year (12.7%). In the US, this figure rises to nearer 36%.

Cheryl Goodman, Head of Corporate Communications for Sony Electronics, is among this 36%. Stationed at the company’s base in San Diego, she is tasked with the formidable challenge of driving a greater understanding of key developments in an everchanging world of innovation.

“Is it a headache? Yes,” she tells Business Chief. “I think there are a lot 59

of nuances. When you walk into that television aisle I’m sure you look at the TVs and you see new HD, 4K, and all these acronyms and you probably think to yourself, ‘why do I care?’

“So, we have to drive that ‘why you care’, and we have to drive understanding. I figure if I can explain to my mom what all these acronyms mean, and why she should care, then we’re at a good spot. So, we try to drive understanding down to the very base level. It all equals quality.”

28.8%

of scientific research and development personnel are female 60

June 2018

Goodman is certainly wellqualified and prepared to negotiate the communications conundrum of such rapid advances in technology.

Having majored in political science and television media at San Diego State University, she has worked through the rise of web and increase in the number of ways we consume media.

Starting out at San Diego’s KGTV News, she moved to MP3.com and Lindows before a long stint in PR and marketing at Qualcomm. It was

36%

of the management positions held by women at Sony (USA)

PEOPLE here that Goodman ramped up her involvement in championing the wider ‘women in STEM’ agenda, chiefly through membership and local leadership of Athena, a professional development organisation helping women develop careers in STEM industries.

Goodman served as Executive Director for the San Diego branch between January 2016 and August 2017, during which time she doubled the number of technology and life science partnerships and helped break numerous fundraising records.

“Then I moved to Sony,” she says, “and nine months later, two grey hairs

later, I can tell you it is a phenomenal place. It had to be if I was to consider leaving my mission at Athena.”

A big part her decision was the approach to diversity of Sony Electronics President and COO Mike Fasulo. “My boss believes it is tried, true, and proven that diversity is a positive impact for the bottom line,” Goodman adds. “I had just not seen that before. For him it is a business imperative, and that’s why I’m here today to illustrate and support that.”

These beliefs are backed up by action. For three consecutive years Sony Electronics has been named among the best places to work in the

Sony is committed to the nationwide Women Unlimited Mentoring Programme

61

PEOPLE Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index, scoring a maximum 100 each time.

“It’s a big acknowledgement,” Goodman says. “This is a very wellrespected organisation, and in the past 11 years we have had at least a very high 90s ranking. So, while it is the trend for many technology companies to pull together some type of gender agenda to check the box, Sony Electronics has been walking the walk and talking the talk for over a decade.

“Our president even wears the pin on his lapel every single day, and he brings it up at every meeting. It’s part of his DNA and it trickles down to the leadership and business as a whole.”

This is no better demonstrated than by Sony’s commitment to the nationwide Women Unlimited Mentoring Program. Designed to build talent management strategies through mentorship, Sony is supporting the participation of more than 70 women from its San Diego base.

Goodman is joined by Julie Wenzel, Senior Manager of Community Relations, who is taking part in a lead programme aimed at middle management and above.

She describes her experience 62

June 2018

While it is the trend for many technology companies to pull together some type of gender agenda to check the box, Sony Electronics has been walking the walk and talking the talk for over a decade” CHERYL GOODMAN Head of Corporate Communications for Sony Electronics

to date: “It really provides a great opportunity to not only experience a couple of different mentors from outside organisations at an executive level, but an opportunity to look at your career path, identify areas where you’d like to grow and put together a strategy for getting there. “It’s been a very positive experience and is a great chance to meet women from various industries and understand challenges and opportunities

regardless of where you work.”

Further still, Sony has become something of a hub in San Diego and Southern California, be it through participation with Athena, sponsoring the YWCA TWIN Awards or holding events for the North County Chamber of Commerce Women’s Week. For the latter, Naomi Tutu, daughter of cleric and human rights activist Desmond Tutu, recently addressed an audience at Sony Electronics.

“Sony headquarters becomes the hub for best practices and

methods for women to live their fullest mission, wherever they are, whether that’s in Sony Electronics or down the street in a competitor’s company,” Goodman explains. “We like to hold the conversation, we like to curate the conversation.”

Goodman is also keen to stress how Sony’s own products can be moulded by and contribute to that conversation. She cites Koov, an allin-one coding, robotics and design kit that combines digital coding with physical building to teach the next 63

PEOPLE generation of problem solvers and innovators. Launched in February, it is targeted at children as young as eight years old. “We don’t target necessarily girls or boys,” Goodman adds. “We are targeting coding as a skill, something the nation needs.”

Indeed, 4.4mn computer and IT jobs will exist in the USA alone by 2024, according to the country’s Bureau of Labor and Statistics. An added complication, revealed by a World Economic Forum report, is that 65% of children entering primary school today will work in jobs that do not yet exist.

However, while uncertainty

remains as to the future makeup of the workforce, Goodman is full of advice for women seeking to develop careers in STEM today.

“Number one is that your contribution level is more important than the colour of your skin or your gender,” she insists. “Bottom line is the value that you add to the organisation.

When we hire we are looking for people to solve the problem with the skills that they have, regardless of what they look like or what gender they are. So, it is about quality, it is about skill, and it is about contribution.

“If you experience any pushback in

KOOV: The coding and robotics kit for the next generation of young innovators

64

June 2018

We’ve got a long way to go, but I’ll say, again, the key theme is that this is an industry issue.

This is a business issue.

Gender equality impacts the bottom line. It impacts our return on investment, and we will continue to support this moving forward as long as I can imagine” CHERYL GOODMAN Head of Corporate Communications for Sony Electronics

your career, I would challenge you to find mentors. Find successful women in your realm to partner with and help navigate your path. I would also recommend joining an organisation, whether it’s an organisation for your industry at large, or a women’s organisation in your local chapter.”

Goodman’s final piece of advice is to find a mentor in a top leadership position, which in many cases, she says, will be male. “Find someone in leadership that you trust to ask what the key issues for the organisation at large are, and make sure that your contributions are in line with these needs.”

And what of Sony Electronics?

How can it improve on three years of perfect scoring from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index?

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Goodman says, “but I’ll say, again, the key theme is that this is an industry issue. This is a business issue. Gender equality impacts the bottom line. It impacts our return on investment, and we will continue to support this moving forward as long as I can imagine.

“Is it complete? Is our work done?

No.” 65

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HOW MORE CAN BE DONE TO MAKE THE MOST OF VALUE CHAINS Business Chief looks at how some of the traditional theories about value chains align with modern business realities Written by STUART HODGE

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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y THE CONCEPT OF a value chain was first introduced to the public consciousness by American business strategist and economic theorist Michael Porter more than 30 years ago in his best-selling book Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance.

Porter was talking about these ideas as early as the late 1970s, so the concept has existed for a long time, but the way that companies create and exploit maximum value has changed immeasurably in the intervening

three or four decades. This is largely given the huge societal changes and the exponential acceleration and increased prevalence of technology in our daily lives.

Veteran Harvard academic Porter showed he hasn’t missed a beat either when he appeared at the World Business Forum in New York City last year. Porter spoke about how smarter, connected products are changing the market landscape by increasing ability to monitor, control and optimise systems.

This still ties in with his original

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“ You must understand your customers or consumers and what they see as value.

It’s then about making sure that each of the different supply points, or nodes of our supply chain, understand which part of that value they need to deliver” LOYD SNOWDEN L Business Transformation Specialist, Oliver Wight EAME

value chain concept, which is comprised of both primary and supporting business activities and how they can affect the margin.

Generally speaking, the ideas and ideals of the generic value chain model still hold true, but as well as the world around us, what has also changed is the way that companies do business and the way that different suppliers engage with one another.

There is less of an emphasis now on interpersonal relationships and it’s more about leveraging technology to extract maximum value at the various points in the supply chain.

Lloyd Snowden is a business transformation specialist for UK-based consultancy Oliver Wight EAME, and he feels that value chains are becoming even more important to businesses as they become more savvy and aware.

“You must understand your customers or consumers and what they see as value. It’s then about making sure that each of the different supply points, or nodes of our supply chain, understand which part of that value they need to deliver,” explains Snowden. “You then take, with this understanding of the value to be delivered, and push it right the way back through your supply chain, so that each node of the supply chain then delivers that same value back to the customer.

“The value chain is something that is starting to grow a lot more, because I think more and more companies today are also embracing strategic planning. Those kind of integrated, strategic plans didn’t exist in the same way 10 years ago. Because 71

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y people are starting to understand those strategic directions and when possible the strategies of their customers, the ability to understand the anticipated value, I believe, has grown. Therefore, there’s a greater interest in people and companies talking about the value chain today than there has been in the past.”

So, businesses are more aware of where value can be extracted and how supply chains can be turned into value chains, but how is it done? Obviously, the plethora of technological aids available to companies makes it easier to pinpoint where value can be created or extracted, but given that businesses in the same supply chain are sometimes competing for the same customer base, how can you engender the necessary level of trust for a value chain to function as it should?

According to Snowden, it comes back to the ideals of being transparent and exhibiting best business practice wherever possible and, once again, knowing your customers. “Excellent delivery in a mature business is enabled through transparency,” Snowden says. “Ensuring visibility of performance and improvement 72

June 2018

activity, along with a good, accurate, clear and relevant communication.

One set of numbers, accurate data, sharing information and slinging strategy between supply points, or nodes, that would possibly, traditionally, be at arms-length from each other. What you need to try and to do is get this to be a much more open relationship, to enable that value to be understood and delivered.

“I guess it all depends where you sit in the supply chain, to some extent. But say we’re a company in the middle of the supply chain, with the customers and the consumers at one end and our suppliers at the other – we’re the manufacturing warehouse, or logistics element. I would need a clear understanding of who my key customers are, their key requirements, and what they value from those requirements.

“You need to have some real, open, collaborative dialogue with them. Not just vendor, managed inventory level of collaboration, but where we might be sharing strategies, where we have real trust between our organisations.

Could I align my strategies of business to that customer direction? That would be delivering better value.

“ W hen companies are much better at performing, they change their focus from the management of the short term and firefighting to ‘eyes up and look out’, so they’re able to better understand the marketplace” LOYD SNOWDEN L Business Transformation Specialist, Oliver Wight EAME

73

“If I then look back through the supply chain to the key suppliers that I have, can I get the relationship between me and my key suppliers to the point where they want their strategy to align with mine? If we’ve got all of that kind of strategic alignment and those different thought processes going on, then the ability for people to deliver value is going to be much higher than if it was independent businesses with their own strategies trying to supply things for you.”

Teamwork makes the dream work – or as legendary luxury hotelier and entrepreneur Horst H. Schulze once stated: “In life and business, relationships are important – but they are empty unless they are established and based upon trust.” When it comes to the creation of value chains, that has never been truer. It requires all parties to be honest and transparent and operate fairly and ethically, with the benefits of the customer at the forefront of their thinking.

Obviously creating value impacts positively on margins and that can only be a good thing, but it requires the buy-in of all stakeholders. Snowden reckons it’s right for companies to be wary of trust potentially backfiring but he also says it’s an area where businesses often lack maturity. “If companies don’t actually understand the market place and they’re firefighting, then there’s no time for them to lift their head up and say, ‘what are we doing wrong? And what can we do to put it right?

And how do we align that to what we’ve got in the marketplace?’ That is very often part of the problem.

When companies are much better at performing, 74

June 2018

“ In life and business, relationships are important – but they are empty unless they are established and based upon trust” ORST H. SCHULZE H Luxury hotelier and entrepreneur

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y they change their focus from the management of the short term and firefighting to ‘eyes up and look out’, so they’re able to better understand the marketplace. Why? Because they’re in control, have stopped firefighting and therefore can spend more time understanding their markets, customers, consumers and competition.”

Snowden goes on to explain that this is phase one of business maturity on the Oliver Wight Maturity Model. Essentially what that means is having a managed environment.

Phase two is a led

environment, where a company is moving more towards percentile perfection. Snowden estimates that around nine out of 10 businesses find themselves mired somewhere

between phase one and phase two, and estimates that more than half of those are still in phase one.

If that’s the case, there is more to be done with regards to maximising the opportunities to create value and build a value chain. Whether increasing numbers can successfully achieve this remains to be seen.

For a final thought, we’ll

go back to the original critical thinker, Porter. Speaking at an event at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, in the Netherlands a couple of years ago, he said: “Creating shared value means addressing societal needs and challenges through business itself, with a business model – and making a profit. In fact, some of the greatest opportunities for business are meeting the unmet needs of society.” Therein lies the challenge in the months and years to come.

75

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We take a look at how this charming Bavarian capital is also promoting strong, diverse business as a European base for several multinational giants

NICH Edited by OLIVIA MINNOCK

CITY FOCUS

Munich, the facts › MUNICH, BAVARIA’S CAPITAL, was once best known for its raucous Oktoberfest celebrations, its neo-classic architecture and its glockenspiel, but there is much more to modern Munich than beer halls and frivolity. The city is the centre of one of Germany’s 11 metropolitan regions, with a total resident population of more than 6mn. It is the third-largest city in Germany and the 12th largest of the European Union.

Of its 1.47mn residents as of 2017, 80

June 2018

Munich was home to more than 300,000 foreign nationals, many of them with roots to Turkey and various Balkan nations. Munich’s mayor represents the Social Democratic Party that has retained power since 1948, except for a brief span of six years. The progressive political climates of Munich and Nuremberg, Bavaria’s second-largest city, run counter to the prevailing conservative orientation of the bulk of this unique German state.

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CITY FOCUS

Strong, diverse industry › MUNICH IS A financial centre and home to several important global companies, including BMW, Siemens AG, Man AG, insurance giants Allianz and Munich Re, and electronics firm Rohde and Schwarz.

The city is also an influential financial centre, and home to numerous other firms that manufacture products from jet engines to semiconductors, lighting fixtures 82

June 2018

to injection moulding machines, cameras to medical instruments.

Microsoft and McDonald’s also have European headquarters in Munich.

Publishing, broadcasting and the film industry thrive in Munich. One of Germany’s largest newspapers is based in the city, along with both the number one public broadcasting network and the German branch headquarters of Random House,

‘Modern high-rise buildings, including BMW Headquarters, the Hypo Haus and Munchner Tor, are clustered near the Olympic Stadium on the northern fringe of Munich, contributing to the city’s unique skyline’

the world’s top publishing company.

The city’s financial base is also bolstered by numerous educational institutions and award-winning research laboratories. Biotechnology, software and service industries are the fields to watch in the future, according to forecasters.

Beer, with no less than six major breweries, and tourism, along with scientific education and research, and

a growing focus on the arts, are all players in Munich’s strong economy.

The city has been recognised numerous times in the past decade for its low unemployment rate, high hourly wage standard for blue-collar jobs, the strong purchasing power enjoyed by residents, and its forwardthinking and business-friendly policies.

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CITY FOCUS

Big Business in Munich › TWO NOTABLE GLOBAL companies headquartered in Munich are financial services giant Allianz and car manufacturer BMW.

Allianz FOUNDED IN 1890, Allianz has been the biggest insurance company in the world since 2014 and currently has around $2.31trn assets under management. To date, Allianz employs around 160,000 staff to serve over 88mn customers across 70 countries.

Allianz splits is business clearly between insurance and asset management and is a global leader in both. Currently, the business is headed up by CEO Oliver Bäte.

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‘The city has been recognised numerous times in the past decade for its low unemployment rate, high hourly wage standard for blue-collar jobs and the strong purchasing power enjoyed by residents’

BMW IT’S EASY TO forget that this well-known acronym used to stand for Bayerische Motoren Werke, or ‘Bavarian Motor Works’, as BMW has been around since 1917 when it originated as a manufacturer of airplane engines. The company is now better known for its iconic cars and motorcycles, of which it has produced 2.46mn BMW, MINI and RollsRoyce cars and over 164,000 motorcycles. With 30 production locations in 14 countries, the company boasts just under 130,000 staff worldwide.

85

CITY FOCUS

A world-class city › WITH A FOCUS on sustained growth and sustainable principles, Munich’s leaders possess a business acumen that looks to technology as well as green enterprise.

There is every reason to believe that the mix of culture, creativity, tourism and tradition that has produced the Munich of today will continue to shape its path into the future.

A well-connected metropolis › THE CITY’S INTERNATIONAL airport today is the second-largest in Germany and the seventh-busiest in Europe. More than 34mn passengers pass through Franz Josef Strauss International each year. It is also a major hub for transfers within Europe.

Rail travel to and from Munich is modern and efficient; the city’s three main stations serve high speed 86

June 2018

trains that connect Munich to all parts of the European continent as well as to the city’s excellent public transportation system. The Munich U-Bahn offers extensive service within the city and connects to the suburbs via the S-Bahn (suburban rail) as well as to tram and bus routes.

The area population of 2.6mn is well served by public transportation, with

‘With a focus on sustained growth and sustainable principles, Munich’s leaders possess a business acumen that looks to technology as well as green enterprise’

the average wait time at a stop only 10 minutes. Interestingly, the average one-way commute time is almost one hour and the average distance travelled in a single direction is 9.2km.

Because of the city’s prosperity and growth, automobile traffic in and around Munich is extremely heavy, exacerbated during rush hours and holidays. A high percentage of

residents own vehicles, and the city layout, as well as continuing construction in the city core, contribute to the problem.

Cycling is an alternative mode of transportation, and there are a growing number of bicycle lanes.

Bike-for-hire enterprises are a new phenomenon in the city, however their combination with pedestrians and vehicles can cause issues.

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‘IoT net blockch that on configu creden perform actions

Could Blockchain Transform Manufacturing?

How will blockchain impact the manufacturing sector? Kate O’Flaherty compares the reality with the hype.

It is the distributed ledger system that enables cryptocurrencies, but blockchain technology offers new use cases across multiple vertical industries.

Within the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain’s applications go beyond security and authentication to asset tracking and the exchange of smart contracts, which give devices a way of handshaking and exchanging information according to mutually agreed rules.

Indeed, the claimed potential of the technology to boost efficiency in supply chains, for example, has resulted in a number of projects and pilot programmes that focus on the IoT. The Trusted IoT Alliance – a consortium of companies that includes Bosch, Cisco, Gemalto, and Skuchain – was formed in September 2017 to focus on how blockchain and the IoT can intersect for business advantage.

Recentl AI and blockchain technologies Recently, have been combined by Fetch.AI to create autonomous ledgers that can act as smart agents on behalf of a person, organisation, or technology. iom-uk.internetofbusiness.com

Yet more than most new technologies, blockchain is surrounded by hype on the one hand and criticism on the other. For every claim that blockchain forms the basis of a new data commons, there is another saying that it is slow and inappropriate for 90 percent of the tasks that it is being proposed fo And for every claim that it forms a new, for. more secure bedrock for tracking goods and services, there are voices suggesting that it is a flawed technology.

Is the hype real?

Innovative ventures certainly abound – using blockchain to track and authenticate contracts, for example, and both physical and digital assets – while even some blockchain experts express reservations about the technology and suggest that it urgently needs to evolve.

So, taking all of this into account, what will the real impacts be on the manufacturing sector?

The There are multiple uses for blockchain in manufacturing. According to Shaan Mulchandani, global security strategy and blockchain leader at Aricent, blockchain-based processes and smart contracts can facilitate automated security and compliance checks as part of the p manufacturing/building process.

tworks can leverage hain solutions to ensure nly devices with valid urations – or trusted ntials – are accepted and m a limited set of s.’

He says: “IoT networks can leverage blockchain solutions to ensure that only devices with valid configurations – or trusted credentials – are accepted and perform a limited set of actions.”

In the future, futu manufacturing will increasingly see the IoT and blockchain intersect, powering robots that are able to teach themselves, says Van Ostaeyen. He cites the example of Sewbot, a robot that makes clothes without human intervention, which could take advantage of blockchain in the futu to become fully integrated into the future supply chain.

In addition, Van Ostaeyen claims that manufacturing will “become 100 percent transparent through blockchain”. In the future, he predicts: “There will be no tampering, and no fakes or counterfeit goods.”

Th claim seems unlikely. However, it is clear That that manufacturing is itself slowly transforming from a slow, monolithic process into a smarter, more automated, more localised one, in which smaller facilities that cater to local needs replace offshore outsourcing, which is based on the lowest labour cost. Read full article.

Radisson Park Inn London, UK 5-6 June 2018 Taking place in London from 5-6 June; the Internet of Manufacturing UK conference and expo is your opportunity to network with and learn from those driving IoT adoption for Manufacturers as well as your peers already benefiting from this innovation.

The summit will examine in detail how Manufacturers can enhance their IoT strategy focusing on ROI, blockchain, additive manufacturing, connectivity, AI/analytics and security. All attendees will leave with tailored roadmaps to the adoption of these next generation technologies to reduce costs, imp improve efficiency and increase ROI.

RSVP Your VIP Pass

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TOP 10 PROFIT

SAVINGS

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Written by H A R R Y M E N E A R

TOP 10

GROWTH ANALYSIS

COMPANIES RETURN

A look at the 10 largest investment companies in Europe, ranked by revenue. All our figures are courtesy of the Forbes Global 2000 list of the ‘World’s Biggest Public Companies’ 91

TOP 10

10. Industrivärden AB REVENUE: $1.96bn WEB: www.industrivarden.se

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, Industrivärden AB is an investment holding company which specialises in long-term investment and active ownership of its holdings. In 2017, the company reported a net revenue of $1.96bn, which represents an increase in sales of over 130% year on year. Industrivärden’s investment focus is on listed Nordic companies with growth potential. The active role the company takes in its holdings is intended to provoke continuous growth.

Also, with only 23 employees, it is by far the smallest company on our list.

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09. Eurazeo SA REVENUE: $3.35bn WEB: www.eurazeo.com

Eurazeo SA is a Parisian holding company with investments and management ties to private equities, listed companies, real estate and assets of third party corporations. Eurazeo reported a net revenue of $3.35bn at the end of 2017, which represents a decrease in sales of almost $1bn year on year, continuing a three-year trend. However, Audra Newberry writes in Simply Wall Street that “although earnings growth was negative against the prior year, over time, Eurazeo’s profits have been increasing on average”.

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08. Investec Plc REVENUE: $4.84bn WEB: www.investec.com

P H O T O C R E D I T: E D W A R D X / C C B Y- S A 4 . 0

The United Kingdom plays host to the highest number of investment companies in the European top 10. Based in London, Investec Plc reported a net revenue of $4.84bn in 2017, which represents a more than $200,000 decrease in sales year on year, continuing a five-year trend from the high point of $5.84bn in 2013. Investec specialises in providing diversified financial products and services to niche clients, according to Forbes, operating through three divisions: Asset Management, Wealth & Investment, and Specialist Banking.

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07. W端stenrot & W端rttembergische AG REVENUE: $7.12bn WEB: www.ww-ag.com

Based in Stuttgart, Germany, W端stenrot & W端rttembergische AG (W&W) is the youngest investment company on the top 10, having been founded in 1999. W&W functions as an independent financial services group, providing investment banking services as well as insurance to customers primarily in its home territory of Germany. The company reported a net revenue of $7.12bn in 2017, which represented a $500mn decrease in sales year on year.

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TOP 10

06. Investor AB REVENUE: $7.27bn WEB: www.investorab.com

Swedish investment company, Investor AB, is based in Stockholm and reported a net revenue of $7.27bn in 2017. The company divides its investments into two categories: Core Investments and Financial Investments. Core investments are comprised of holdings in which Investor has a controlling interest or listed ownership. The financial segment includes EQT funds, Investor Growth Capital, partner-owned investments as well as some smaller holdings, according to Forbes.

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05. HAL Trust NV REVENUE: $8.89bn WEB: www.halholding.com

Headquartered in Willemstad, the Netherlands, HAL Trust NV engages in the holding of trusts and investments for its shareholders through subdivisions including optical retail, real estate and its liquid portfolio. In 2017, HAL Trust reported a net revenue of $8.89bn, which represents a $100,000 increase over the previous year. The company also experiences a profit growth of over $250mn in comparison to the previous financial year, its largest growth in a decade.

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TOP 10

04. Wendel SA REVENUE: $9.16bn WEB: www.wendelgroup.com

Founded in 1704, Parisian investment company Wendel SA is by far the oldest company in the top 10. The firm specialises in long-term investment in industrial, media and service companies, according to Forbes, with smaller-scale holdings in the energy, real estate, biotechnology, media and advertising sectors. Wendel reported a net revenue of $9.16bn in 2017, which represents the continuation of a four-year trend of revenue growth, from $7.24bn in 2014. For the past two years, the company has experienced a net loss, even though sales have increased. On average, Wendel’s asset portfolio has decreased over the past decade.

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03. St James’s Place REVENUE: $15.32bn WEB: www.sjp.co.uk

London-based company St. James’s Place Plc focuses on financial and wealth management services provided to individuals, trustees, and businesses, with a specialisation on bespoke services catered to a client’s needs. The company reported a net revenue of $15.32bn in 2017. While this represents a growth in revenue of over $10bn and the highest sales figure in the company’s history, annual profits dropped by more than 50%, down to $151.4mn, a six-year low.

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02. Old Mutual Plc REVENUE: $22.09bn WEB: www.oldmutualplc.com

Old Mutual Plc is a long-term investment, savings and protection company based in London. The company offers investment products and services domestically, as well as across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The company also provides insurance worldwide, through Nedbank and its subsidiary branches. Old Mutual reported a net revenue of $22.09bn in 2017, representing a growth in sales of more than $4bn year on year.

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01. EXOR SpA REVENUE: $152.56bn WEB: www.exor.com

With its headquarters in Turin, Italy, EXOR SpA is Europe’s largest investment organisation. The company owns and operates the Fiat Group, the Fiat Industrial Group, C&W Group, Alpitour Group and Juventus Football Club. This diversified portfolio, ranging from automotive manufacturing and sales to sports entertainment means that, with over 300,000 employees, EXOR is the largest job creator on the top 10. With $152.56bn in reported net revenue for 2017, Forbes ranks EXOR 19th in terms of sales globally. Currently, the company’s asset portfolio is at a 10-year high point, with over $192.99bn in holdings worldwide.

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PICTURE: OKOROKOVANATALYA

Written by Catherine Sturman Produced by Glen White

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EASYJET

Recently recognised as the best low-budget carrier in the United Kingdom, easyJet’s supply chain team seeks to ensure its aircraft continue to soar above the competition

R

ecently recognised as the

best value airline in the United Kingdom, European travel giant easyJet has witnessed exponential growth. With tourism figures continuing to rise on a global scale, the low-cost airline has announced its aim to expand its holiday business and implement a sought-after loyalty scheme, bringing increased returns to shareholders and retaining its position as an airline of choice.

However, whilst the business has flourished, it remains under increased pressure. Travellers remain driven by deals which are cost-effective and can guarantee exceptional service besides. The maintenance of its aircraft is area often overlooked, yet is the most vital element of all.

Responsible for supplying the material needed for easyJet’s fleet, Elentinus Margeirsson, Head

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June 2018

S U P P LY C H A I N

europe.businesschief.com

111

Just in time to say goodbye.

Keeping you in the air. The best time to develop services for tomorrow’s technology is today. That’s why we’re doing that now — along with integrating new models, materials and technologies in our portfolio as quickly as possible. Our goal is to keep your aircraft off the ground, tomorrow as well as today. So let the future arrive: our services will be waiting. Talk to us.

Lufthansa Technik AG, marketing.sales@lht.dlh.de Call us: +49-40-5070-5553

lufthansa-technik.com

It starts as an idea.

We make sure it doesn’t stop there.

Unique service – in the air and on the ground. That’s how we’ve been looking after the 737 and the A320 as an airline, providing component support since the very first aircraft were delivered. It’s also why we can offer you a smooth entry into service for every model of the A320neo and the 737 MAX – along with a highly cost-efficient one-stop-shop solution. You benefit from major in-house capabilities, global logistics and fast provision of spare parts. In other words: we keep you in the air.

Lufthansa Technik AG, marketing.sales@lht.dlh.de Call us: +49-40-5070-5553

lufthansa-technik.com

EASYJET

of Supply Chain Engineering & Technical Contracts, explains how the division works to ensure safety, drive quality results and align with core business values.

“Our material classification can be broken down into three categories, Consumable Expendable (C&E), Consumable Repairable (CR) or Rotables. The first category is pretty self-explanatory. The second class is material that we try to re-use dependent if a repair is possible and

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economical. And the last category is our assets. Those we repair/ overhaul and use until either it is not possible or economical to repair.

“If the material is high usage and/or critical to our operation, we will keep it on site and the list of materials we keep on site will depend on the volume of aircrafts going through there and the type of maintenance performed,” he says.

Witnessing rapid growth year on year, easyJet’s supply chain

S U P P LY C H A I N

team has grown considerably.

Noting that the division previously outsourced a number of supply chain activities, it has invested in bringing in the right talent to harness the required knowledge to deliver exceptional service.

Fleet maintenance Situated at over 30 line stations, aircraft maintenance is routinely completed overnight. However, to ensure all work is completed in a timely

manner, the team works to supply all required material to the correct station or utilise stock already on site.

As the airline is set to open a number of new stations this summer, a defined list of materials will also support the need to ship items to a particular station. However, this list will continue to grow with the number of aircraft, as well as the number of departures per station.

The company’s recent acquisition of Air Berlin, for example, led

europe.businesschief.com

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to a number of challenges.

“We had to set up an operation of 25 aircraft within six months, so time was of the essence. We took the ex-Air Berlin aircraft over, and we required maintenance to be done to ensure that they were in line with our current aircraft specification and make them fit into our maintenance programme,” observes Margeirsson.

“They were at different standards than our own aircrafts. We required some modifications to be done and the material and components needed for that modification were supported by the supply chain team.

“Each year, there's the challenge that you will add on x amount of aircrafts which then will result in more maintenance events per year. This means more consumption of your inventory. Also, as aircrafts age, the inspections required to maintain those aircrafts increases which results in more consumption of material.”

Optimisation Utilising KPIs at service level, the airline’s supply chain performance

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is measured each month, which evaluates the turnaround time of components from repair back to serviceable state, to stock level at certain stations and how many times material shortage is involved in operational disruption.

The airline uses AMOS to support its maintenance operations.

“Our KPI’s are critical for us in order to see if we are improving on our delivery to the airlines operation. AMOS keeps track of all the work completed and work to be completed on the aircraft as per our maintenance program, which is approved by the authorities.

“This industry is one of the more heavily regulated industries,” acknowledges Margeirsson.

“We have strict guidelines on how we maintain our aircrafts and we are regularly audited by the Civil Aviation Authorities to ensure that we are in constantly in compliance with the regulation. We have to have traceability of all items bought and used. If there is a recall we need to know exactly on which aircraft the item was used.

S U P P LY C H A I N

“Each year, there’s the challenge that you will add on x amount of aircrafts which then will require

more maintenance.

This means more consumption of your inventory”

Elentinus Margeirisson, Head of Supply Chain Engineering & Technical Contracts

europe.businesschief.com

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EASYJET

“We had to set up an operation of

25 aircraft within six months.

We took the ex-Air Berlin aircraft over on lease, and we required maintenance to be done to make them fit into our

maintenance programme�

Elentinus Margeirisson, Head of Supply Chain Engineering & Technical Contracts 118

June 2018

S U P P LY C H A I N

“In the last five months, we have been exploring the option of acquiring an inventory optimisation software to help us with making better adjustments on what we need to support our operations. This is currently a request for proposal (RFP), but is something that we are hoping to achieve this year.”

With the largest hubs at Gatwick, Malpensa, Berlin and Luton, the airline also looks at the consumption of each station, the type of aircraft operating out of a particular station, the number and frequency of aircrafts, and how many flights depart at each station.

“This is combined with the maintenance work planned, which depends on the capability of the MRO contracted. We will come up with a list of items that we want to keep there to support the maintenance event and the aircraft operation.

The challenges are always when you have these ad hoc findings which you don't have any historical consumption information can always be a pain,” Margeirsson says.

Despite its challenges, its

maintenance operations continue to expand across Europe; from Ljubljana, Malpensa and Malta.

Long-term, whilst its main inventory hub remains in the UK, the company will face a number of risks, which it seeks to address through a number of partnerships.

“We are working with Cranfield University, for example, to look at our system setup to see if there is an opportunity to add another inventory hub within central Europe which could help us improve our service level, decrease the shipping time and shipping costs. The work is also meant to explore the implications that Brexit could have on our supply chain.”

Strength in numbers Throughout its expansion, easyJet’s recent long-term agreement with independent specialist AJW Group will also seek to enhance the efficiency of its existing fleet by providing the airline’s component maintenance, as well as the provision, storage and distribution of spare parts and material.

europe.businesschief.com

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EASYJET

“Our contract is structured in such a way that it anticipates that we will add aircrafts to the fleet. Once they are in operation the contract kicks in,” says Margeirsson.

“Our contract with AJW covers purchasing, repair management and logistics. They handle our purchasing activities for material required for the aircraft we currently have in operation. Also they do the repair management of our rotables, which means once the component comes off the aircraft it is sent to AJW who then prepare the required documents and route the component for repair.

“Within our contract we have items that are included in our rates with AJW,” he continues. “There are occasions where we don't have that included so we will cover those costs, on a time and material basis. The same goes in terms of logistics.”

Whilst it is clear that easyJet demands a lot from its suppliers, it continues to place pressure on itself to drive results. Partnering with Lufthansa to support its maintenance and logistics services further,

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June 2018

the German company supports easyJet’s inventory in Berlin.

“With the addition of Air Berlin operation we are foreseeing that Berlin will be one of our biggest hub, therefore we have been working with Lufthansa Technik Logistics Services to have the require material on site in Berlin. We send our own inventory out there, they will receive it into the

PICTURE: BRASILNUT1

S U P P LY C H A I N

system, keep track of it, and provide us with information on consumptions and movement,� Margeirsson adds.

Additionally, easyJet partners with numerous other suppliers for its material and maintenance activities.

Remaining lean and efficient across its operations, the company is predicting a 30% rise in profits across 2018 and has witnessed an

increase in shares over the last six months. EasyJet will continue to lead the way in the airline industry, drive high-quality services from the top, down, increasingly attract corporate and leisure travellers and remain ahead of the competition.

europe.businesschief.com

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REVOLUTIONISING THE SUPPLY CHAIN THROUGH DEMAND-DRIVEN PLANNING Written by C AT H ER I N E S T U R M A N Produced by R I C H A R D D U R R A N T

Shell Lubricants has ripped up the rulebook in supply chain management, fully disrupting the industry

G

lobal supply chains are facing increased customer and portfolio complexity.

Heightening consumer demands are leading companies to look at ways to transform existing processes to drive efficiencies, lower costs, provide quality customer service, all whilst lowering working capital and inventory.

No business is more invested than Shell Lubricants. The global leader (in terms of market share and branded product) in finished lubricants for the last 11 years, continues to house most of its downstream business on a single instance of SAP, enabling the company to standardise its work practices on a global scale.

However, growing complexities and ambitious business plans have led to amplified pressures across its supply chain operations. “I think the challenge for supply

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S U P P LY C H A I N

chains, especially global supply chains that are heavily networked, is really what to do with this complexity,” explains Global Planning Excellence Manager, Nick Lynch.

“In 2013/4 Terra Technology, who are now part of E2open, published an annual cross-industry survey which showed that whilst the number of products sold increases, the total amount sold remains pretty flat in most industries. Therefore, as the volume sold per product goes down we can expect SKU level forecasting to get harder the more spread out a portfolio is. This is a trend we certainly recognise. The future is not likely to be simpler than our business of today.

“In practical terms this means that with our traditional forecast driven MRP planning tools, we purchase raw materials, manufacture products and put inventory into the warehouses based on our forecast that predicts that we’ll sell it. In reality, the forecast is sometimes correct; often it is not even with best-in-class forecast performance,” he says.

“Products that don’t sell to forecast tie up precious working capital and may

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DELIVERING SUPPLY CHAINS THAT WORK

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smartchainllp.com info@smartchainllp.com

S U P P LY C H A I N

become excess or obsolete inventory.

Lubricants fills over 2mn bottles a day, With more than 10,000 saleable SKU’s and undertakes 30mn deliveries a year it is easy to understand the pressure to direct customers and distributors. that this may put on operations. Those Lynch’s role to drive Shell Lubricants’ products will have consumed capacity long-term strategy and subsequent and materials that could otherwise roadmap for its global supply have been used for other products that chain planning, spanning business we do need at that moment. These processes, systems and organisation may be products design, is therefore that weren’t in one that cannot be the forecast underestimated. which become “We’re also a firefight and supporting the marine expediting chase. business, as well as This bullwhip or 10,000 ocean-going customers are served every noise isn’t limited vessels that carry day at 43,000 Shell-branded just to our internal Shell lubricants at fuel retail stations supply chain. It any time. So, just is clearly visible in terms of scaling in our extended that, they’re just supply through to our suppliers. huge numbers,” he adds.

“A strategy based around simply being “better” at forecasting was simply DEMAND-DRIVEN PLANNING not going to be viable in the long term.

In 2015, Lynch sought to look at Working harder with our traditional the advantages of demand-driven MRP processes and tools would not planning, which would seek to be enough. We had taken almost sidestep such pressures routinely all the low hanging fruits already.” seen within traditional forecast With 40 lube oil blending, base oil and driven methods and enhance Shell grease manufacturing plants, Shell Lubricants’ supply chain capabilities.

30mn

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“WE USE INVENTORY BUFFERS TO BREAK THE BULLWHIP EFFECT IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN, AND SPECIFICALLY IN DEMANDDRIVEN PLANNING, WE DO NOT USE THE FORECAST TO DRIVE OUR TRANSACTIONS” – Nick Lynch, Global Planning Excellence Manager

By implementing strategic inventory buffers, typically in areas where inventory is already held, demand-driven planning works to decouple the supply chain, breaking down traditional MRP processes which create a bullwhip effect.

“You see this happening where you have a slight change in demand on one end of the supply chain, and by the time that has been filtered through all of the different replenishment calculations that go all the way along the supply chain, the variation that people at the end of the supply chain

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feel is significant,” explains Lynch.

“We use inventory buffers to therefore break this effect in the supply chain, and specifically in demand-driven planning, we do not use the forecast to drive our transactions. Instead, we set up a buffer, where we wait until we have actual demand, and then make a decision based on this demand.”

Deciding to take a very different approach to that of Shell’s implementation of SAP in the mid2000s, Lynch adds that he wanted to see how the business would benefit in the face of ongoing cost pressures

DEMANDDRIVEN INNOVATION: EPIC RESULTS Orchestr8 is the world’s best supply chain planning platform with 15 years of demand driven implementation success. Designed by planners for planners. The global leaders choice.

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SHELL regularly seen in the oil and gas industry.

However, in today’s supply chain climate, big changes programmes like this require very solid and credible business cases. Lynch required leadership and financial backing, and strenuously looked at ways to harness available data and support the required results.

“We had to be absolutely clear on the business case and ran simulations around how demand-driven planning would work in a lubricant supply chain. There are very few industries doing this. Nobody’s tackled it globally yet, so I think Shell Lubricants is the first global supply chain to adopt this methodology in its entirety,” he says.

“We’re talking about 30-plus key manufacturing plants around the world and several hundred stocking points, distribution centres, regional distribution centres, warehouses etc. These supply both local and networked markets, so accurate data was absolutely crucial.

It’s a multi-year project of significant change management scale, which required significant commitment to drive this transformation.”

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NICK LYNCH

GLOBAL PLANNING EXCELLENCE MANAGER

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DEVELOPING EXPERTISE In order to gain further support to implement demand-driven planning, Lynch liaised with Shell Lubricants’ regional planning managers in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific (APAC) to discuss the business’s ongoing supply chain roadmap.

“There was enough interest at that first meeting to warrant their support for doing the first of the detailed simulations, which was completed in the North American business,” he says.

By partnering with consulting firm, SmartChain LLP, the business then

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worked to simulate 12 months of real business data to look at how things ran during this period of time. With this data, Shell was able to simulate what would happen with a demand-driven methodology, with exceptional results.

Noting that SmartChain LLP has been vital in transforming Shell’s supply chain capabilities, the firm has also been instrumental in delivering essential expertise across its entire design, build and implementation.

“I reached out to SmartChain back in 2014 to take a first look and educate myself on this topic,”

S U P P LY C H A I N

“WE HAD TO BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR ON THE BUSINESS CASE AND RAN SIMULATIONS AROUND HOW DEMANDDRIVEN PLANNING WOULD WORK IN A LUBRICANT SUPPLY CHAIN. THERE ARE VERY FEW INDUSTRIES DOING THIS” acknowledges Lynch. “I introduced demand-driven planning to the Shell business with SmartChain in April 2015, which is essentially when we formally started, and they have been, effectively, our consulting partner on this for the duration.

“It’s a small team of very high-calibre, specialised individuals who have implemented demand driven planning before in various businesses, who could give us the benefit of a proven methodology of how to design, build and implement this. This was critical, because the size of the prize at Shell

– Nick Lynch, Global Planning Excellence Manager

could be anything between 20% to 30% reduction in working capital, garnered from what we simulated. With a lubricant business of 5bn litres, this is huge but we must also get it right.

“SmartChain bring a wealth of experience and is actively supporting our global rollout. We’re live in Egypt, Spain, Italy, Turkey and our European Material Scheduling

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centre in Krakow. We’re currently working with Russia, North America, Malaysia and the Philippines.”

TECHNOLOGICAL DRIVE Nonetheless, although the results from the North America simulation looked positive, Lynch explains that both the European and Asia Pacific management teams required the simulation to also be undertaken in these areas for further assurance.

Tests were therefore undertaken at plants in Ghent, Belgium, as well as Shell’s Hong Kong plant and network.

“They are all very different, with very different supply chains in terms of the customers they serve, the geography, the product portfolio, the networking, etc., but all simulations produced very positive results,” Lynch adds.

With such positive test results, senior leaders tasked Lynch to source essential software to further transform the company’s supply chain. “There was no way we could support this with a planner’s favourite tool…MS Excel,” Lynch adds with a smile.

Whilst material requirement planning (MRP) capabilities in traditional

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enterprise resource planning systems such as SAP and Oracle remain forecast-driven, Shell looked at industry software endorsed by the Demand Driven Institute, which could not only remain compliant with Shell’s IT standards, but conform to the demand-driven way of doing planning across its entire business portfolio.

“The Demand Driven Institute is run

by Carol Ptak and Chad Smith, who are the authors of the bible of MRP in its current form. They have introduced demand-driven MRP as a new chapter, where they have codified the structure for how demand-driven planning should be implemented,” explains Lynch.

“The software had to be globally scalable, match the strict Shell IT strategy of how to buy software, and had to be cloud-based.”

Narrowing its options down in late 2016, the company undertook extensive demos and tests, bringing demand-driven planning to fruition in under two years.

Partnering with Orchestr8, Lynch gained leadership support and submitted the group investment proposal required to proceed

S U P P LY C H A I N

with such revolutionary changes, in order to enable Shell IT and the software company to build the required infrastructure.

“With Shell being on a single instance of SAP, it meant that with Orchestr8, Shell IT only had to build the interfaces from our host SAP system into Orchestr8 just the one time.

Every country around the world is on the same system,” reflects Lynch.

“We went live with our pilot in October 2017. So, March to October we completed the design, build and first implementation. That was a terrific effort by all the folks involved.”

UNLEARNING OLD HABITS Introducing such a change from traditional processes; however, it remains clear that demand-driven planning will only remain successful if it is embraced by those at the helm. This is a challenge where Lynch remains confident the business will overcome.

“We’ve put nearly 200 people in planning through certified demand-driven planner training and are taking them through a sensible change journey throughout

FACTS & FIGURES SHELL MAKES SELLS A WIDE VARIETY OF LUBRICANTS FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE, HEAVY-DUTY TRANSPORT, MINING, POWER GENERATION, CONSTRUCTION AND GENERAL MANUFACTURING SECTORS LEADING BRANDS INCLUDE SHELL HELIX, SHELL RIMULA, PENNZOIL, QUAKER STATE AND SHELL TELLUS SHELL LUBRICANTS FILLS OVER 2MN BOTTLES A DAY AND UNDERTAKES 30 MILLION DELIVERIES A YEAR TO DIRECT CUSTOMERS AND DISTRIBUTORS. SHELL HAS 40 LUBE OIL BLENDING PLANTS, FIVE BASE OIL MANUFACTURING PLANTS, AS WELL AS 10 GREASE MANUFACTURING PLANTS PARTNERING WITH CONSULTING FIRM, SMARTCHAIN LLP, ENABLED SHELL TO SIMULATE 12 MONTHS OF REAL DATA TO LOOK AT HOW THINGS RAN DURING THIS PERIOD, AND THEN SIMULATE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN WITH A DEMAND DRIVEN METHODOLOGY

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the implementation,” he says.

“If you can take out the firefighting, and the noise within the business – the expediting, changing schedules, etc. – then the day in the life of the supply chain individual will feel quite different when this is fully implemented.”

Demand-driven planning will be a distinct game changer for Shell Lubricants, and enable the business to better serve its customers, with a higher stock availability and a lower working capital commitment.

“If you think about a change programme, this is changing the planning in 15 time zones around the world, as well as the different depots and planning locations. With the first implementation in October 2017, we will be finishing the bulk of the implementation in 2019 with just a couple spanning over into 2020.

“Shell Lubricants is an enormous supply chain, and I think this will provide a huge competitive advantage for Shell,” concludes Lynch.

“Once one major player has moved over to this, more and more companies will be forced to take a good look at their planning processes and consider whether to move away from 20+ years of forecast driven MRP and the industry that exists around that.

“It’s a significant investment and a bold move, but the returns are very attractive for all.”

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Pioneering the Finnish data centre market Written by Dale Benton Produced by Lewis Vaughan

Digita Oy looks to capture the Finnish data centre market by expanding its service portfolio

I

n the modern world of the data centre industry, the secret to success for a data centre provider has shifted. Traditionally, a data centre provider could rely heavily on the location of its infrastructure and that would be more than enough to attract and retain customers and service providers; but as the industry has continued to boom over the last decade, what a customer demands from a data centre provider has evolved.

“It’s about providing the right, relevant managed services as part of our service portfolio,” says Fredrik Brunberg, Director, Data Centre & Cloud Services at Digita. “We need to add relevant services all of the time to be able to show something going forward to the customer.”

Digita is a major Finnish communications network company, transmitting radio and TV programmes reliably across the country each and every day.

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“The location is crucial, but of course what we are doing is building on that and providing more value and more services around that interconnectivity” – Fredrik Brunberg, Director, Data Centre & Cloud Services at Digita

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Expanding its service portfolio is a crucial component of the business’s strategy, as it also provides comprehensive IoT services and world-class data centre services to a number of media, mobile and broadband operators and new customer segments like service providers and different industries that are digitalising their businesses Television and radio broadcasting is the biggest area of business for Digita and Brunberg explains that data centres is a relatively new business category for the company.

In fact, it was this expansion of Digita’s service portfolio that attracted Brunberg to the company in 2017.

Having previously worked in cloud and data centre services throughout his career, Digita’s vision for capturing the data centre market represented an opportunity that he could not miss.

“When I joined Digita, it already had pretty good facilities and locations, but as a business we want to climb the ladder higher and add more value to the services we provide.

I saw it as a challenge to change our approach in order to grow.”

As Brunberg embarked on this journey he recognised that as the company looked to change from the way it had traditionally operated, he first had to start from scratch and build up a data center team with an IT function.

Naturally, in attempting to build a new growth business to leading network operator company that has been successfully operating for almost 20 years, changing a culture takes time. This is where Brunberg can call upon his experience throughout his career.

“In effect, in the coming years we are almost moving from one company to another,” he says. “Changing the culture is a big goal of ours and so I’m building a new team and a new business unit that will transform Digita into not only an IT services company, but a modern IT services company.”

Brunberg feels that the market is consolidating, with only a limited amount of small service providers or co-location providers in the Finnish data centre market. When compared to the other end of the scale, there are only a small number of large scale

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OPERATIONS SECURED 24/7

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mobile network operators (MNOs) and international co-location providers, and Brunberg identifies a gap in the market where Digita can capitalise.

“As the market consolidates, we want to be part of that space in between those two areas and build something bigger,” he says. “We want to take Digita service to the next level and be recognised not only as a broadcast service provider or just as a data centre service provider, but something more. A cloud service and modern IT service provider.”

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“And we aim to have the same high-quality level of services as Digita now has in its core business,” continues Brunberg.

Digita itself explains on its website that having the best network is not based on bandwidth alone, and while Brunberg recognises that the industry is changing, location is crucial. This is where Digita has an ace up its sleeve.

Across its portfolio, Digita’s Helsinki Pasila region is located in close proximity to the FICIX Helsinki Internet Exchange Point.

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“We want to take Digita service to the next level and be recognised not only as a broadcast service provider or just as a data centre service provider, but something more.

A cloud service and modern IT service provider” – Fredrik Brunberg, Director, Data Centre & Cloud Services at Digita

This provides customers who choose to work with Digita to access to the biggest structural data communication location in Finland.

“Service providers seek locations where there are lots of network service providers present,” Brunberg says. “But it’s not only network services providers that want to be at this premium location, it’s content providers and IT service

providers, social media companies and hyper scale kiosk providers.”

“The location is crucial, but of course what we are doing is building on that and providing more value and more services around that interconnectivity.”

Ultimately, what will define Digita as it continues to grow its portfolio and client base is in fact this client base. Brunberg is all too aware of the importance of attracting those providers and more significantly, retaining them.

As Digita seeks to provide a level of stickiness in order to keep the customers, it can do so with the support of strong strategic partners.

“I’ve always believed that partnering is really key to making things happen,” says Brunberg. “You really have to trust your partners and know that they will be there alongside you, in both the good times and the bad.”

One such partner that has and will continue to play a key role in Digta’s vision is Coromatic AB. As the leading Nordic critical solutions provider, Coromatic promises to safeguard continual power supply

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Fredrik Brunberg Director, Data Centre & Cloud Services

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and data communications.

As Digita looks to redefine its network approach, this support has been key.

“Coromatic has been excellent in retrofitting and refurbishing our facilities and, given the breadth of network providers we have, to do so without disruption or downtime was crucial,” says Brunberg.

“They are incredibly easy to work with, they understand where we want to go as a business and we will continue to expand with them alongside us.”

Only a year into this journey, the message for Digita is clear – to continue to build its service portfolio and value-added services. That’s the first priority for Brunberg and Digita, to be able to cater to all of the different service provider needs.

This will help it capture that market gap and in turn enable the company to become the data centre service provider of choice.

“As the market continues to evolve and network service providers begin to turn towards a more modern, digitised approach we want Digita to be seen as the first company that they think of to connect with,” Brunberg says. “So, as we build bigger facilities and build on top of our existing network infrastructure, it’s imperative that we continue to build and expand our services on top of that.”

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CONNECTING THE

WORLD WITH

GREEN ENERGY Written by CATHERINE STURMAN Produced by LEWIS VAUGHAN

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The data centre industry and subsequent demand for energy is growing apace.

Manager for Energy & Dataport, ROBERT VAN TUINEN, tells us how Groningen Seaports is catering to this demand

ROBERT VAN TUINEN is responsible for the development of the energy, IT and automotive sector within both ports. He has an academic background in business administration and previously worked for a national bank and as a manager for an energy knowledge institute.

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Chemical industry Delfzijl

T

HE ONGOING demand for connectivity has led to an exponential boom within the energy sector, thanks largely to the launch of data centres worldwide. The communications industry is set to absorb up to 20% of the world’s electricity by 2025, as businesses and consumers depend on the increased use of digital data to fuel business growth.

Europe has become a significant player, where competition remains rife in an area of unprecedented potential.

“A major change is that it’s no longer big telecom operators or state-owned telecom companies

who are investing in connectivity, it’s mostly commercially driven. In particular, there are big investments coming from the data centre sector itself,” explains Robert Van Tuinen, Manager for Energy & Dataport at Groningen Seaports.

Consisting of two seaports, the port of Delfzijl and Eemshaven, as well as two inland ports, Farmsumerhaven and Oosterhornhaven, Van Tuinen has led the growth of one of Europe’s largest energy hubs for data and a growing offshore wind sector. The 1,319 hectare site at Eemshaven has been transformed into an area of international significance within the

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Your business case today

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data centre industry, renowned for accessibility and quality. Utilised by international companies, the area is driven by 100% renewable energy.

“In 2012, we said that we were going to invest millions in this new port area. We had this million-euro programme to redevelop land and start conversations with landowners and foreign investors to take a look at Eemshaven. It was still predominantly farmland, but people needed to believe in this,” Van Tuinen recalls.

“A few years back, I thought, ‘we need others to tell our story as well’. We combined the data port development together with partnerships, who we call ‘preferred suppliers’. These were the early movers who believed in the concept.

“Energy suppliers in general weren’t used to structured power purchase agreements based on joint equity or very long terms for instance,” he continues. “This may sound funny, but five or six years ago, this wasn’t something normal for energy companies. Eneco was a good match with the specific

“It’s no longer big telecom operators or state-owned telecom companies who are investing in connectivity, it’s mostly commercially driven. There are big investments coming from the data centre sector” ROBERT VAN TUINEN, Manager for Energy- & Dataport

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demand coming from the industry, one of the first companies to believe in the area and pioneered the way.

“Most energy companies were scared at doing structured deals, so it was a different time. The other thing was asking fibre developers to join. Eurofiber were one of the first companies who said ‘we actually believe this is going to work’ and committed to new investments.”

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GAINING SUPPORT To gain further clout, the company appointed Deloitte to undertake an essential market analysis on the data port area. Finding Eemshaven to have future potential, Groningen Seaports also appointed specialists who worked specifically for technology companies, such as Microsoft, Google and Apple.

“It’s a pretty strong story with a lot of partnerships, but these

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Manager the Nederlands–North for Eneco Group

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companies are also competing against one another with more renewable project coming online in the next few years,” adds Van Tuinen.

“We have a partnership with Eneco, but also with other energy companies, which is why we call them ‘preferred suppliers’. Of course, data centre companies are free in who they want to work with” Additionally, the company’s strong partnership with Royal Haskoning DHV has provided support across its data centre operations.

“We asked Royal Haskoning

DHV to inform companies of our technology mission and why they believe Eemshaven is a good area for their data centres. Royal Haskoning DHV is independent, it believes in the story and has a strong advisory opinion.” Van Tuinen says.

“They look not just at land development but also cooling. They believe Eemshaven is a good area; it has lots of air, good quality, good wind, and is one of the best locations.

The company also bought investors to our port. When they’re busy with conducting business, they use

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“Royal Haskoning DHV is independent, it believes in the story and has a strong advisory opinion” ROBERT VAN TUINEN, Manager for Energy- & Dataport

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Eemshaven as an example port.”

GREEN DATA PORT Harnessing a combination of green energy, the largest onshore wind farm is located in Eemshaven together with multiple substations connecting Danish and Dutch offshore wind farms, besides the 30MW solar farm, iSunport Delfzijl, the largest solar energy park in the country, all of which fall under Groningen Seaports’ umbrella.

“If you look for the major developments worldwide, it clearly makes sense to think about data centres. However, to be honest, we didn’t expect such a demand for land usage,” reflects Van Tuinen. “I don’t think the sector itself could have foreseen how much land it would need for further growth”.

“Google has recently purchased all green electricity generated at Sunport Delfzijl for 10 years as part of a second deal with Eneco on top of the earlier energy deal combined with a local Eneco windfarm. The company recently announced another

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€500mn investment after €950mn spent over the last couple of years.

This is great news for our region, which has shown great support for the data port development. The challenge was that we needed to develop more land close to the port, anticipating all further growth from the data centre sector itself.”

“We did this in partnership with the local government and environmental organisations, who The Vole au vent jack-up vessel

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saw an opportunity to combine green energy and recreate some major values before it was all agricultural.

A data centre provider must feel comfortable with their investment, of course, which has to do with the local support,” adds van Tuinen.

Marc Oman, EU Energy Lead at Google recently commented in a press release: “We are proud that our data centre in Eemshaven has been powered by renewable

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Googles EU data centre community Stories from the Netherlands

energy since day one thanks to our agreements with Dutch suppliers.

After the agreement with Eneco for the delivery of wind energy from WindPark Delfzijl and the agreements with the wind parks Krammer and Bouwdokken, we are pleased that we can now also make use of solar energy.

“Google is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy. Contracts like this also give companies like Eneco the economic certainty to invest in new renewable energy capacity.”

TECHNOLOGICAL BACKBONE In order to strengthen its connectivity capabilities, Groningen Seaports has worked to house a ‘plug and play model’ across its operations, where its need for cooling water and redundant power is set apart from its power purchase agreement based on green energy.

“The ‘plug and play’ model has also helped with the technical part.

Through our partnerships we secured extra international fibre, boosted cooling water facilities, reinvestments,

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and of course the redundant power connections with the grid operator.”

Additionally, by attracting investors from fibre companies, it has attracted essential fibre packages, with low latency routes crossing Amsterdam, Germany, Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia.

“Data centre companies need a certain amount of connectivity via separate routes or a different fibre system. If you want to attract various new economy industries, this is essential,” says Van Tuinen.

“The most important thing is that we succeeded in enabling Google to work with Eneco. It was a new project and provided an opportunity

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for Google to harness green energy.

They have run on green energy from day one and enhanced major green investments in the region.”

GROWING DEMANDS “The Netherlands has proven to be an interesting market for data centres and not just the Google’s of this world,” Van Tuinen says earnestly.

By combining green energy cables across the Northsea with essential fibre packages, the company has managed to reduce costs significantly and created the fastest route between the Netherlands and Denmark with Eemshaven becoming a fibre and data roundabout in North West Europe.

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With greater demand for green energy on a global scale, the company’s largest wind farm is set to grow a further 200MW in the next three years, providing time to further enhance its data centre operations.

“Demand for land in Eemshaven is rising fast, not just from the data centre sector but also with the launch of electric and hybrid cars.

The automotive sector is looking at Eemshaven and are interested in port areas where they can develop their newly-built cars, which is really cool. It is something we are anticipating now, but we weren’t three years ago. This sector is again new economy industry, which fits well with the infrastructure

at our port,” says Van Tuinen.

“Everybody needs to keep pace with a new economy,” he concludes. “The good news is that all political parties in Groningen are very supportive towards data centres, the automotive sector and the new economy. It provides a good combination of economic opportunities together with boosting on and offshore green power.”

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SERVERFARM MAKING THE PHYSICAL AGILE

Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Lewis Vaughan

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With a data centre portfolio of more than a million sq ft, ServerFarm has positioned itself as a leader in the data centre industry

W

ith mobile computing, 5G technology, and the internet of things (IoT) rapidly entering the fray, the data centre market is expected to thrive over the coming years.

In fact, according to a report by Research and Markets, the global colocation data centre market is expected to grow to $54.8bn by 2020.

But in an industry that has been defined by innovation and rapid growth, what’s the next step for the data centre space?

Moving forward, ServerFarm believes that its strategy of moving physical data centre assets into the virtual world is going to elevate the company to new heights.

The benefit of virtualising servers and infrastructure is clear: it breaks the link between the physical and digital and in doing so, it creates the foundation for a more dynamic, flexible and efficient data centre.

Jim Shanahan, VP of Global

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Operations, says that it was this unique take on data centres which first drew him to the firm.

“When I joined ServerFarm I saw an opportunity to change things; to take what in many organisations has been a rather pedestrian approach to the physical assets of the data centre and bring that into the modern world by taking everything physical – space, power and cooling, as well as compute and putting it in a private cloud with a comprehensive online interface to make it as easy as possible for end users,” explains Shanahan.

“This is an industry that is growing but also changing very quickly,” adds VP of Sales Arun Shenoy. “I think we’ve come to the realisation that some of the approaches, especially in the mechanical and electrical side, are not keeping pace with the IT environment from an innovation perspective.

“At ServerFarm we believe that

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Jim Shanahan VP OF GLOBAL OPERATIONS Jim Shanahan is Head of Global Operations and European Business at ServerFarm. He is responsible for activities across the company’s fleet of data centres, where Serverfarm selfperforms its own facility management, smarthands and bare-metal cloud operations. Mr. Shanahan also leads ServerFarm’s expansion as the company moves into a number of firsttier European markets.

Shanahan has previously headed the global DC business of ABB’s software division and served as MD of the international business of Lee Technologies. An Electrical Engineer, Jim started his career with Amdahl Computers and PM Group as a design consultant.

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A member of ServerFarm’s staff working on a server rack

“We remove the pain of managing all of the physical assets in a data centre. As we see it, we are still the only company that has the ability to genuinely take all of the physical assets of the data centre, including the existing assets of an enterprise, and virtualise them for our customers” Arun Shenoy VP of Sales our customers are trying to transform their companies into organisations that care less about the physical aspects that make up a data centre, so that they can focus more on the business applications that enable growth and transformation.

“That is ultimately our role in the data centre space,” he continues.

“We remove the pain of managing all of the physical assets in a data centre. As we see it, we are still the

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only company that has the ability to genuinely take all of the physical assets of the data centre, including the existing assets of an enterprise, and virtualise them for our customers.”

In doing so, the US headquartered firm helps to create data centres that are more instrumented, monitored, reliable and ultimately more efficient, from both an energy and cost-perspective, than a customer could achieve by themselves.

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Arun Shenoy VP OF SALES Arun Shenoy is responsible for developing the success of ServerFarm’s data centre colocation and InCommand Services business globally.

He joins from Schneider Electric where he was Vice President of the IT and Data Centre business in the UK & Ireland. Shenoy has also worked for major companies including Intel, ABB, IBM and Romonet in general management, sales and marketing roles with over 20 years in software, services and technology markets. europe.businesschief.com

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The pair believe that it is this ability to manage everything physical in a digital world which is ServerFarm’s unique selling point.

Originally launched by the international real estate development company, Red Sea Group, ServerFarm also has a distinctive customer-centric ethos ingrained in its DNA. With sister companies focused on hospitality, Shanahan says that the firm understands that customer service is king.

“We apply a customer focus to the data centre space and it has served us very well,” says Shanahan. “Like the real estate or hospitality business, we value customer service above everything else.

“We try to be very flexible in our approach to customers because everybody’s needs are different. We will go the extra mile to try and give those customers whatever they need and it pays off because we have customers that will follow us around the world.”

Nowhere can this customer loyalty be seen better than the firm’s newly-opened data centre in London, in what is its first step into the European market.

The latest acquisition adds to ServerFarm’s growing data centre estate with locations in California, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington and Toronto among others.

In doing so it adds a further 120,000 sq ft to the company’s footprint,

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bringing it to over 1mn sq ft today.

Located five minutes from Heathrow airport, the 8MW London data centre has attracted customers from across the globe as Shanahan believes London is “one of the most sought-after locations” in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“It was a natural choice for us to go to London as part of our push into Europe,” notes Shanahan.

“We’ve been eyeing a number of other opportunities throughout the region so I’d say when it comes to future expansions – watch this space.”

“We’ve managed to get one of our US customers onboard into a multi-megawatt capacity environment for them in around eight or nine weeks – that is something that is quite unheard of in this industry,” continues Shenoy. “I think it really speaks volumes about the way that we plan our environments and how we share our roadmap with our clients and align with their expansion plans.”

In London, ServerFarm took an existing data centre and significantly upgraded it with completely new infrastructure, new technologies and new ways of working. Through the major refurbishment, it has helped drive cost-efficiency and reduce waste.

“The existing tenants now get extra capacity that they otherwise had no use for and they’re able to monetise that,” explains Shanahan. “The data centre gets a new lease of life, it increases capacity and reliability for our customers and geographically, it’s in an area into which customers are keen to expand.

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ServerFarm staff discussing InCommand in CH1 control room

50+ Number of employees at ServerFarm

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ServerFarm STATS The global colocation data centre market is expected to grow to $54.8bn by 2020 according to a report by Research and Markets.

We follow our customer where they need to be and as a result, we can be more dynamic and flexible than other players in the market.”

Driving agility and flexibility, the company’s InCommand solution further defines the company from its competitors, allowing consumers to see the current state of the data centre and gain the insights needed to plan for ‘what-if’ scenarios.

With the technological innovation,

ServerFarm provides customers with a portal that offers unprecedented asset lifecycle management, data, power connectivity and streamlined workflows.

As the data centre industry shifts towards more hybrid solutions, this flexibility is more important than ever before, explains Shanahan.

“InCommand is the eyes and ears of the data centre,” he explains.

“It’s the processes that govern

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“ We’ve been eyeing a number of other opportunities throughout the region so I’d say when it comes to future expansions – watch this space” Jim Shanahan VP of Global Operations

ServerFarm LONDON The London data center is ServerFarm’s first European property adding another 120,000 square feet to its existing data centre portfolio of more than 1 million square feet.

everything and because it’s delivered as a service through our people and our training, it becomes an all-encompassing operating system.

We’ve used that to deliver some of the highest efficiency data centres. Nobody else in the industry is doing anything like this, providing this combination of people, processes and portal in such a compelling way to get such good results.

“The InCommand system is linked to the in-house management systems, building management systems and electrical power management systems, so it knows instantly what’s going on in every data centre in every corner of the world and can pre-diagnose a range of issues,” he adds.

“So, for example, if a chiller unit is running at less than maximum efficiency, it can diagnose this and raise a ticket to carry out a preventive maintenance task on it.”

Yet, perhaps the most impressive aspect of the firm’s solutions is the customer-centricity it provides by giving clients access to ServerFarm’s people, processes and platforms.

“I think what makes our customer experience very dynamic is the fact that, through InCommand, our customer is very closely connected to our operational environment,” observes Shenoy.

“Together with our customers we’re creating a better experience regardless of their physical location.”

“We’re coming to the market with a tool which, if you were using the capacity management feature

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S E R V E R FA R M ServerFarm’s Mike Whitman, DC Operations, and Sam Brown, VP of Engineering/ Construction touring CH1 in Chicago

“ InCommand is the eyes and ears of the data centre” Jim Shanahan VP of Global Operations

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of InCommand, for example, you could identify how much spare capacity you had, and it helps you to maximise the use of all your capacity, so avoids or postpones the need for more capacity,” adds Shanahan.

“We’re maximising customer efficiency which helps us to become trusted partners to our customers.

Then they can see their interest is our interest. We’re helping our customers make the best use of the services, the capacity, the power and cooling that they buy from us and through our portal they also have such great visibility. Therefore, our customers are loyal to us.”

“With the rollout of 5G and regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) underway, the data centre space is changing rapidly,” says Shenoy.

“I think by 2020, ‘things’ on the internet - in terms of the endpoint devices and applications – will outnumber consumers,” Shenoy says.

“There will be more data and traffic generated by things rather than people and that requires infrastructure to be thought about, designed

and delivered very differently.

“5G and new regulatory requirements will also accelerate change. We find ourselves in a market that is changing size and shape quite dramatically. Our customers find that a very challenging environment, and therefore they need companies like ServerFarm who understand how to manage those physical environments.”

Security is now, more than ever, a prevalent issue in the data centre sector, and it is something Shanahan and his team are keen to tackle head-on.

“I think it’s becoming evident to us that in the next number of years the challenges that are out there in terms of individual hackers, nationstate threats, and physical and logical security are suddenly becoming a real issue for people,” he notes.

“I think we’re going to experience a sea of change in how concerned consumers and organisations are about their data and accordingly, we have taken steps to provide what we see as one of the most secure solutions in the industry with routine assessments and penetration testing

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Toronto is a highly secure, concurrently maintainable data Centre constructed to ensure an optimal PUE and flexibility for ongoing customer operations.

by cybersecurity professionals.”

Attracting and hiring talent and expertise is a challenge for any company, especially in IT and the data centre space. But with a strong sense of purpose and a holistic approach to training, ServerFarm has circumvented the challenge and grown a strong and capable team.

“We hire the best-in-class,” notes Shanahan. “The majority of our personnel are equally trained in

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mechanical and electrical, physical and IT and then we also have a team of high-level specialists for each of those areas. This means we have a holistic approach to how we train and retain our people. It actually pays off very well for us in customer service and our personnel’s satisfaction levels.

“I think we’re quite unique in the industry because we have a real purpose,” adds Shenoy.

“We’ve created a fast-moving

CONSTRUCTION

2004 The year that ServerFarm was founded

environment because of our strong growth but we’re also innovating. That combination of a fastgrowing organisation which has a purpose and really focuses on innovation is a tough environment to replicate anywhere else. I think this is in part why we have such a high retention rate.”

It seems this sense of purpose has cemented ServerFarm’s position as an expert data centre organisation. Combined with the firm’s customerfocus, the US company is set to continue on this upward trajectory in the years to come.

TM

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Law enters the new age HOW NEW TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS ARE PROVIDING FRESHFIELDS THE FRICTIONLESS EDGE

Written by TOM WADLOW Produced by JAMES PEPPER

Click to watch our exclusive interview where Jon Grainger introduces the Legal Services Centre

F R E SH F IELDS

A

LOT HAS happened in 275 years. From mass industrialisation of the late 1700s to the invention of electricity, modernisation of warfare and the building of the first ever computer, the way in which lives are lived and jobs are worked has transformed.

Global law firm Freshfields has been a first-hand witness to all of this since its founding in 1743, a claim few businesses still in operation today can make.

Indeed, the company lived through the very creation of the term Luddite – a protest group of textile workers opposed to the introduction of automation and machinery during the Industrial Revolution. The term still carries tremendous relevance, for organisations spanning all industries are continually seeking ways to implement new technologies to optimise their outputs.

CIO Jon Grainger is charged with ensuring that Freshfields leverages maximum benefit from current and future technologies, creating a frictionless end user experience for clients, legal 182

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Video: 275 years of Freshfields history

partners and other employees.

Grainger is a relative newcomer to the industry having joined in February 2017, and it is the coming together of legal practice and technology that enticed him to Freshfields.

“This convergence still has a long way to run,” he says, speaking from the seventh floor of the firm’s brand-new offices in Manchester, UK. “I wouldn’t say we’re at a ubiquitous state with technology and law, nowhere near it, but certainly the relationship between law and technology has changed quite markedly. That’s something that

TECHNOLOGY

Freshfields — setting the scene Freshfields is one of the oldest global law firms with a ‘onefirm’ mindset.

Whether it is supporting businesses on entering new markets, defending corporate reputation or managing multi-jurisdictional regulation, Freshfields has worked for some of the world’s largest organisations through its 275-year history.

Among the company’s recent successful client case studies are Mastercard, Fraport, AB InBev, BT-EE and First Abu Dhabi Bank. In terms of the technological setup, around half of the company’s technology-focussed staff are based in Manchester, with regional tech hubs in London, New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and Frankfurt. These centres service 27 Freshfields offices around the world.

I saw as a very attractive attribute, as a technologist, to follow.”

275 NOT OUT Grainger is the first to admire the immense legacy of Freshfields, citing Charles Babbage, the brain behind the Difference Engine brass computer, a machine so complicated that it couldn’t be built in the pioneer’s lifetime.

“Freshfields was already 50 years old when he was born, just to give you an idea of the span that the company has covered,” Grainger adds. “That’s something to be celebrated and,

speaking from personal experience, the culture here is a culture of pursuit.

We don’t accept the status quo, and we strive for excellence.”

So, what must the industry and Freshfields do to ensure they thrive for another 275 years?

For Grainger, creating a frictionless user experience for clients, fee earners and business service personnel forms the essence of his mission as CIO, fostering an environment where technology can be developed to ensure a sustainable, competitive advantage.

“I think the key point, when you look europe.businesschief.com

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Quote from Freshfields CIO Jon Grainger:

“If you take WM Promus, our Puppet provider, for example. I met those guys and what was instantly apparent was just their passion and drive, and a real belief that they could make a difference.

That is something you can't hide. It's also very very difficult to imitate or to fake. So that is really important because that also becomes infectious to our engineersas well.�

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at the industry we’re in, is there are a lot of technologies that get mentioned again and again,” Grainger continues. “Machine learning and data analytics, for example. I think in themselves those are very important problems to solve, and we have some amazing capability within our teams who are working on those very problems.

“However, I think the other element is for the industry to work out how it delivers these technologies. You can be first to market with a piece of technology – the trick is staying in that position. From a technology perspective, we should borrow approaches taken from the software sector, where we can keep our software fresh and up to date.”

ALL ABOARD THE TOOL CHAIN As technology continues to refresh and update, so too has the way in Freshfields approaches innovation.

Grainger identified the need to unite the imperatives of fast delivery and the ability to keep such technology up to date and relevant once it has been deployed.

Further, Freshfields’ innovation team, comprising lawyers and industry experts with a wealth of experience, should not have to worry about fixed costs associated with running their own innovation platforms. Rather than concentrate on such costs (like scalability and security), the focus should be on the core value proposition and what software development can achieve.

Enter Freshfields’ own software development tool chain, the company’s answer to the ‘buy versus build’ conundrum.

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TECHNOLOGY

Click to watch ‘Freshfields. Ready.’

Grainger says: “Often there are barriers to building your own software – for example is it going to take a long time? Are we going to get what we need? Do we have the right people?

Do we have the right understanding? So, we’ve developed a continuous integration and continuous delivery platform, called a tool chain.”

This is made up of several component parts, one of which being Puppet, an automated testing tool deployed with key partner WM Promus.

“It’s one of those really difficult problems to solve, and Puppet and the automation that we’re putting in has helped tremendously,” Grainger explains. “If you look at the way we’re doing testing, before we had our platform, certain test cycles could take two weeks. We’ve boiled those down through automation and tooling to take an hour. This means we can test five times more often, so we’re getting an assurance on quality that was just unachievable before.”

Another vital element of the Freshfields tool chain is Jira and Confluence, part of the Atlassian solution suite which the company is leveraging with the support of another important partner, Business Data Quality.

Grainger adds: “We use those to great effect, and they enable the ability to report on tasks, to have really rich, co-located group discussions in a very meaningful and accessible way.”

The tool chain is a system that brings together lawyers, technologists and, ultimately, clients. europe.businesschief.com

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Cybersecurity attacks on law firms are on the rise, and in fact, a 2017 PwC study found that more than 60% of law firms had reported a security breach in the past year. In today’s digital environment, secure communication and collaboration are essential to protecting both firm and clients’ confidential data.

BlackBerry has been a longstanding technology partner to the legal industry and is proud to work with all five Magic Circle law firms in the UK.

from anywhere, anytime on their mobile device of choice, whether it’s “bring your own” or corporate-owned, whether they’re in the courtroom or at a client’s office.

With BlackBerry, you can protect sensitive information by controlling who accesses it and how, while enabling productivity and collaboration between internal and external team members. At Freshfields, thousands of devices have been enrolled onto a single platform, allowing increased productivity and cost efficiency.

With BlackBerry UEM, legal firms can empower fee earners and staff to work

When security is your highest priority, BlackBerry is your only choice.

To find out more about BlackBerry’s work in the legal industry, what makes the company an ideal partner of choice and what it has achieved with Freshfields to date, watch the interview with Florian Bienvenu, Senior Vice President for EMEA.

BlackBerry Software achieved Highest Scores in 6 of 6 Use Cases in the Gartner Critical Capabilities for High-Security Mobility Management for the second year in a row.

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David Ford - Legal Sector Lead Mobile: +44 (0) 7795 290457 dford@blackberry.com

In-Orbit with Freshfields BDQ is a process and technology consultancy founded in London, with its roots in product development. We utilise technology and highly experienced consultants to help our customers manage tasks, automate work and collaborate more effectively.

• Consultancy, training and support

• Value-added reseller

• Integration and development

• Specialist recruitment

“Jira and Confluence are very solid, proven elements of the tool chain. We have a lot of familiarity with Atlassian’s products, and BDQ are a key strategic partner” Jon Grainger - Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

bdq.cloud enquiries@bdq.cloud

TECHNOLOGY

Click to watch Grainger introduce Puppet and its place in the Freshfields technology tool chain

Underpinning this is what Grainger terms agile scrum, a new way of working whereby these stakeholders collaborate in small groups, called scrum teams, able to respond quickly to client feedback and demands.

“What’s very interesting about the technology tool chain that we’ve created in Freshfields is the high rate of adoption,” the CIO says. “It is something that our software engineers enjoy, which is actually very important when you’re in a really competitive market for talent as we are here in Manchester. Give a software developer a great tool chain, and give a lawyer

a great user experience, and they can make the difference.”

Again, this comes back to the question of how technology is delivered: “It’s not as difficult to work out what we need to do, but actually nailing how we do it.

I think has been a real source of benefit for everyone,” Grainger adds.

A NEW AGE OF LEGAL SERVICE DELIVERY Another important focal point linking up Freshfields technologists and fee earners is the Legal Services Centre (LSC), a hub of legal experts offering services for the more process-driven elements of client work. europe.businesschief.com

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“Blockchain has the ability not just to disrupt business — it’s clearly going to create new business models”

— Jon Grainger, CIO, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Around 100 staff are spread across three locations – Manchester, where most reside, Germany and Hong Kong – enabling provision of near 24/7 support for partners and their clients.

Common tasks carried out include document reviews, due diligence and non-disclosure agreements, and the centralised provision of such services allows clients greater flexibility, at the same time offering certainty on pricing.

“What’s also very interesting about the LSC is we have our legal services team, and obviously they’re the most important element of the centre, but a lot of the services that they deliver 192

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rely on technology,” Grainger adds.

Artificial intelligence is perhaps the most striking example. LSC’s legal support assistants (LSAs) leverage the AI capabilities of Kira, a machine learning software that automates contract reviews as part of the due diligence process. LSAs can configure certain search algorithms with Kira able to handle large amounts of documents in multiple languages – a system which is significantly faster than ‘eyes-on’ review.

“What we also do at the LSC is use it as just one of the places we bring clients to when they want to understand how Freshfields is responding to new requirements,” Grainger says.

“Very recently we brought together a group of very important clients from global institutions to showcase some technology that we’d created.”

INVESTING IN INNOVATION Though Freshfields’ client roster comprises some of the world’s largest and most well-known organisations, the firm also supports the legal sector’s up and coming tech startups.

For the third consecutive year it will

be sponsoring Legal Geek, the largest law tech community in the world, made up of 2,500 members.

“Our involvement in that space, with really exciting technology startups and lots of moving parts, shows that within Freshfields we have this hunger, this thirst to be involved,” says Grainger.

“We want to make sure we’re relevant and at the centre of the pacesetters.”

Closer to home, Grainger sees tremendous promise in Manchester’s technology talent pool, with graduates and post-graduates from the University of Manchester already making their mark.

“If you think about Manchester, it lays claim to starting the industrial revolution. If you point out that the university invented graphene, and all the implications that we’re only just working out for that, you can see Manchester has this repeated ability to start big ideas off globally. Not to mention, Alan Turing (considered to be the founder of modern computing and artificial intelligence) teaching at the University during his time.”

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Powered by partnership Delivery and ownership of technology products at Freshfields is the result of close collaboration between the firm and an ecosystem of partners.

“Increasingly, the characteristics we’re looking for in our technology partners are people who have a vision to provide their software in a way that the end user wouldn’t even know they were contributing,” Grainger explains.

“We’re working with partners rather than vendors, and I find that when I speak to prospective technology partners, very quickly you determine whether they get our platform story and where we want to go.”

Below are some of the key technology partnerships that are helping Grainger and his team to power operations at Freshfields:

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WM Promus: Provider of Puppet.

“I met those guys and what was instantly apparent was their passion and drive, and a real belief that they could make a difference. That is something you can’t hide. It’s also very difficult to imitate or to fake. That is really important because it is also becomes infectious to our engineers as well.”

Business Data Quality Ltd: Provider of Atlassian products. “For Jira and for Confluence as part of the Atlassian suite, again those are very solid, proven elements of the tool chain. We have a lot of familiarity with that, and it’s a very well-established set of products.”

TECHNOLOGY

BlackBerry: “Our thoughts are now to extend our tool chain approach across all of technology covering devices and ways of working. We have started this in earnest with using BlackBerry UEM which provides us with a ‘single pane of glass’ to manage both Apple iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. The introduction of BlackBerry UEM has allowed us to consolidate four separate mobile device management platforms, into one. Regardless of the operating system or ownership type, UEM is able to provide policies that secure the device and the data held on it. We have used UEM as a platform to launch in-house developed, bespoke mobile applications, that are tailored to the needs of our Lawyer’s and clients.

The device enrolment process became far simpler and more secure with the adoption of QR codes, negating the need for long provisioning codes. Over the past eight months, Freshfields IT has enrolled over 5,000 devices onto the UEM platform.”

SnapLogic: Integration tool provider.

“If you take the SnapLogic product, that’s an interesting selection because we were looking at a number of integration tools. It’s a very competitive space, but again at this stage in our lifecycle, in our maturity model, it was the only product which I think you didn’t need to have a computer science degree to operate.”

Further, Grainger outlined a plan to create a panel of technology providers, a synergistic forum to facilitate even deeper collaboration and knowledge sharing.

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Freshfield’s recently relocated to Salford in Manchester, England

we do. Have I been able to access all of it? Not yet. We moved from London, wholesale, only a year ago, and I’m very pleased to say we are beginning to attract lots of talent. We’re getting a name for ourselves locally.”

LOOKING AHEAD What technology does Grainger believe this next wave of Freshfields technologists will be leveraging in the future?

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that will transform the legal industry, his answer is unanimous.

“Blockchain is, without a doubt, a transformative technology that people are only just getting their heads around,” he says. “There’s a lot of similarities between blockchain and the early discussions around the internet, and what the internet would and wouldn’t be used for. But blockchain has the ability not just to disrupt business – it’s clearly going

TECHNOLOGY

to create new business models.”

In terms of Freshfields, Grainger points towards a shift in approach to technology more widely. Although the CIO admits the journey is still in its nascent stage, the move towards approaching technology as a set of products rather than a series of projects, is very much in motion.

He concludes: “Going back to a year or so ago, we were running things in quite a sequential fashion, sometimes referred to as waterfall, and we were looking at individual projects in a narrow context.

“When you’re looking at things from a product point of view, you’re looking at them over a product lifecycle, so you’re talking years rather than months, and you’re also looking at a much wider group of unified features and technology, so you’re less likely to have overlap.

“So, if you wanted to have a peek into the future: we think using a product lens, rather than a project lens, will give us a whole new perspective. Watch this space…”

Jon Grainger joined Freshfields as Global Head of Service & Transformation in February 2017, before assuming the role of CIO in December last year following a month of servitude as interim CIO. Before this Grainger spent seven years at Capgemini as Vice President & Programme Director, responsible for leading IT transformation programmes, content development strategies, innovation and research as well key operational functions.

Grainger has also spent time with Fujitsu, Deloitte, and Accenture.

Between 2013 and 2015, Grainger attained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Warwick, through Warwick Business School.

He is also a holder of a degree in computer science.

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“If you wanted to have a peek into the future: we think using a product lens, rather than a project lens, will give us a whole new perspective. Watch this space…”

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— Jon Grainger, CIO, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

TECHNOLOGY

Grainger on the buy versus build question “Before thinking about technology partners, it’s really important for you to look at the fundamental question of buy versus build. I think in many companies this decision tree has almost got reversed.

“There has been a universal frustration with internal technology departments perhaps not being able to deliver as quickly as people would like, certainly historically, and so there is a draw towards the buy. So, you buy the product and it doesn’t exactly match your needs, so you need to customise it. That customisation process takes some time – you’ll eventually get there, but any further customisation is going to be a trip back to the vendor. This can sometimes take years.

“My proposition is to look at buy versus build with a slightly different lens. First thing is, you’ve got to have credible delivery. So, looking at our platform, that gives us our credibility. If it’s a source of competitive advantage, then by its nature it shouldn’t be available anywhere else, because otherwise what’s to stop another competitor just buying it off the shelf. If it truly is a differentiator, a source of competitive advantage, then you should look really carefully at building it.

“However, our platform isn’t solely for the individuals and engineers that work in Manchester.

We’ve developed our platform so that we can have other third parties doing the development. We could use a hybrid team, we could use teams split over two locations.” europe.businesschief.com

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ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL REIMAGINING THE COUNTY WITH INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES Written by Laura Mullan Produced by Andrew Lloyd

ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

With a pragmatic, informed approach, Essex County Council is building on the shoulders of its peers to deliver a innovative digital agenda that’s reimagining life in Essex

B

ringing about a technological transformation is a challenging feat, but when it aims to streamline public services, drive prosperity in a region, and improve citizens’ lives, you could argue that the pressure increases tenfold.

Essex County Council, in the East of England, has deftly tackled this challenge head-on, setting a country-wide example of how local authorities can use digitisation to enhance their day-to-day operations.

For Jason Kitcat, Executive Director of Corporate Development, digital ways of working will be key to increased efficiency and productivity at the council.

Ultimately, however it’s the end-user, the county’s

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residents, who matter most.

“Our focus absolutely has to be on the end-user, which in most cases is a citizen of Essex, or a business, or a visitor,” Kitcat says.

“Sometimes this might be indirect because the service you’re creating may be used by employees in the public services, but at the end of the day the citizen always has to be the focus.”

Governing the county of Essex, the council is striving to deliver

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Jason KITCAT

Executive Director, Corporate Development

Jason Kitcat is a champion for digital transformation and passionate about local government and public policy.

He is Executive Director, Corporate Development at Essex County Council. Beforehand he was Head of Policy & Public Affairs at the fintech accounting firm Crunch. He was previously the awardwinning Leader of Brighton & Hove City Council.

He has a long background in building digital services having been Head of Technology for Netmums, general manager at The Open Knowledge Foundation and before that led his own digital agency for a decade.

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Cloud makes it possible to “light up” market disrupting capabilities, such as large-scale data analytics, Internet-of-Things initiatives, machine learning and more. Fundamental capabilities such as modern collaboration, multi-factor authentication and mobile device management become much more rapidly achievable – and these are secure and always up to date.

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ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

“WE TO B THE OF O

JASON KIT CORPORAT

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E’RE TRYING BUILD ON SHOULDERS OTHERS”

TCAT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TE DEVELOPMENT

TECHNOLOGY

lasting change for its communities.

However, it isn’t going to start from scratch; instead, it’s learning from its peers and building on prior projects to offer tried-and-tested solutions.

It is this pragmatic, informed approach which Kitcat believes will be key to the council’s success.

“What makes councils unique is the pride they hold for the area,” Kitcat observes. “We all feel our area is special but that doesn’t mean that our technical requirements are really that unique.

“Rather than using customised components, we’re working hard to use as many standardised ones as possible so that we can draw, and learn, from what our peers are doing. We don’t want to have ‘not invented here syndrome’ and we’re not obsessed with reinventing the wheel.

“We’re trying to build on the shoulders of others,” he says. “We’re going to be humble and curious and we believe that by taking a very straightforward approach, focused on the user needs, we can meet the ambitions of our strategy

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ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL

and serve the citizens of Essex.”

This digital journey isn’t about following fleeting trends or spending excessive amounts of money. For Essex County Council, the usage of the technology and how it will impact its residents is what matters.

At this local authority, digital innovation and in-depth research and planning go hand-in-hand to ensure that each digital tool is utilised to its utmost capability.

“To do this we have a service design function and a technology services function and between them this translates to what you might consider

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our digital agenda,” Kitcat explains.

“The service design function is essentially about learning the users’ needs through research and prototyping to figure out whether a service would benefit from being redesigned or having a digital-first approach. With that in mind, the technology services function is about creating a secure, reliable, and flexible digital infrastructure that enables these new ways of working.”

In the ever-changing tech space, flexibility is needed more than ever.

Therefore, instead of opting for monolithic contracts of five or 10

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“WE’RE GOING TO BE HUMBLE AND CURIOUS AND WE BELIEVE THAT BY TAKING A VERY STRAIGHTFORWARD APPROACH, FOCUSED ON THE USER NEEDS, WE CAN MEET THE AMBITIONS OF OUR STRATEGY AND SERVE THE CITIZENS OF ESSEX” JASON KITCAT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

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years, the council is shifting towards shorter, more flexible deals.

“Five or 10-year contracts are usually too long because change in the sector is so rapid,” says Kitcat.

“This isn’t just in terms of changing demographics and new emerging technologies, we’re also seeing changes in the policy space. When the government makes decisions, it causes significant changes to local government or healthcare, and we need to be able to adapt to that.”

When technologies come and go

in the blink of an eye, Kitcat says that collaboration plays a pivotal role in ensuring that the council keeps pace with disruption.

As such, Essex County Council has joined the region’s unitary, borough, and district councils as well as Essex Fire & Rescue and Essex Police, to form the Essex Online Partnership (EOLP).

This close-knit team works together to share knowledge, resources and services to deliver countywide benefits through joint policies

“THE VISION BEHIND ALL OF THESE INVESTMENTS IS THAT WE WANT OUR CITIZENS TO HAVE A HIGH-QUALITY OF LIFE IN ESSEX, ONE THAT’S ENABLED BY DIGITAL SERVICES THAT ARE FASTER, BETTER AND CHEAPER” JASON KITCAT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

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and procurement frameworks.

“Creating an integrated, seamless experience for our users both offline and online is a core goal,” explains Kitcat. “Aiming for a shared technological infrastructure is really important because we eliminate duplication and hopefully improve outcomes for citizens.

We want to get the job done.

“Geographically, Essex is a really big and complex region and so bringing partners together is very important,” he continues. “Of course, you have extra benefits like gaining efficiencies in procurement but, from

my perspective, the most important thing is to improve that way that we engage with citizens and integrate with other services as much as possible.”

A £81mn ($109.9mn) ‘next generation network’ has also helped to modernise Essex County Council’s communication systems for itself and other organisations.

Through this 10-year project, the council and its provider has built unified communications, video conferencing and fixed telephony to allow for flexible networking.

Working alongside Daisy Group and Updata Communications, the network

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ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL SAYS IT WILL SAVE IT £1.2MN ($1.6MN) PER YEAR IN NETWORK COSTS FROM ITS NEXT GENERATION NETWORK PROJECT 212

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and telephony deal introduced a Public Services Network (PSN) across its 200,000 users, which Essex County Council says will save it £1.2mn ($1.6mn) per year in network costs.

“Essentially, the aim for this project was to deliver cost efficiencies because of the length of the contract,” says Kitcat. “It’s promoting a public-sector collaboration and school connectivity. So, it’s a very multifaceted programme.”

On the topic of telecommunications,

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Kitcat also says that the council has successfully shifted from traditional telephone systems towards voice over IP (VoIP) systems.

It is also championing a more flexible working culture by equipping employees with mobile devices so they can work remotely.

“For most people across the council their only experience of the telephone is through their laptop using Microsoft’s Skype,” says Kitcat. “So far the move to VoIP has

been very positively received.

“Then, for a long time, we’ve also championed mobile and flexible working through the use of laptops or handheld devices.

“We’re in the process of rolling out devices for eligible employees or letting them use their own,” he continues. “I think the topic of mobile working and remote devices is a really interesting conversation to be had because it usually highlights the very different usage and needs

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across a typical council footprint.”

Needing to champion flexibility, security and innovative thinking, Essex County Council has turned its attention to digitisation with notable success.

But how does the local authority meet the demands of a disruptive tech landscape whilst also staying within a council’s ever-tightening budget?

“I think it can be a challenge but at the council we all believe that we can make services more efficient using technology,” says Kitcat.

“Demonstrating that can be quite hard, but the theory is if you make the service more user-friendly, efficient, quick and online, you will manage demand better and reduce spending.

“The citizen won’t see this, but in the background our aim is that we ultimately want to move to a standardised cloud-based approach which should simplify our technology estate,” he adds. “We should have simpler but better systems which will save money. On top of that it will also improve productivity and collaboration because if you’re using cloud-based

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“CREATING INTEGRATED SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE OUR USERS OFFLINE AN IS OUR CORE

JASON KITCAT, EXECUTIVE DIRECT

AN D,

CE FOR BOTH ND ONLINE E GOAL”

TOR, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

TECHNOLOGY

tools with standardised APIs, it’s much simpler to connect with other partners and public-sector counterparts.”

Part of the remit for Essex County Council’s service design team is working to transform its website. As a citizen’s first port of call, it hopes to make the council easier to access so that citizens can do what they need and then get back to daily life.

“The vision behind all of these investments is that we want our citizens to have a high-quality of life in Essex, one that’s enabled by digital services that are faster, better and cheaper,” Kitcat says.

“Essentially, it’s about us being as easily accessed as possible,” Kitcat adds. “People don’t wake up in the morning and want to speak to the council. They wake up and they want to do something, whether that’s getting a job, a school place for their child, access to a service, or even getting a pothole fixed. We want to make those services as easy, seamless and effortless as possible.”

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EMBRACING THE FINANCIAL WORLD’S DIGITAL REVOLUTION Written by Dale Benton Produced by Kiron Chavda

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Through a digital transformation, Raiffeisen Bank International continues to navigate the changing technological landscape of the financial industry

T

echnology continues to define, and redefine, the global financial industry. Over the last decade, more and more financial organisations, banks and insurers have had to undergo significant transformations, embracing the ever-changing effect of technological innovation.

As companies turn towards technology to define their strategy and future, the role of the CIO has never been more important than it is today.

“Technology has become the very engine that drives the financial industry,” says Robert Fritz, Group CIO and Managing Director, Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI). “As a CIO, you have to be an enabler, so that the company can take advantage of the opportunities and potential that IT can bring. Not only that, but there is much more responsibility

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in enabling the company to keep up with and respond to the everchanging customer expectation.”

Servicing about 16.5mn customers across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and being the second largest bank in Austria, RBI has a fairly large footprint, and it is this footprint that Fritz is tasked with significantly enriching through technology.

The journey, Fritz describes, will see RBI move from its traditional centralised approach to a much more synergetic one.

“This journey is centred around adopting synergetic approaches to the business itself,” says Fritz.

“That means looking at our front-end channels and our mobile channels and investigating what the real difference is in customer expectation when it comes to the mobile experience.”

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Robert Fritz, Group CIO and Managing Director of Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI)

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EXPERTS IN MUTUAL SUCCESS Success doesn’t just happen. It’s something we achieve – together.

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Set apart by our core of over 200 specialist consultants in the financial sector, we recruit across a number of key functions including IT, compliance, finance, risk, finance technology, tax and treasury.

“Hays is a leading recruiter for professionals across global financial services, investment management and investment banking sectors.”

Thousands of candidates are placed by us every year, with approximately 6,000 of our professionals currently working on banking projects in German-speaking countries.

Our work doesn’t stop there. A vital part of our service is post-placement, when we strive to maintain an efficient means of communication with the candidate to ensure a smooth transition into their role.

It’s essential that we remain ahead of the curve in the ever-changing world of finance and technology. Colleagues at Hays are given regular training to stay up-todate with all developments in the areas of banking and financial service provision, while trending topics such as digitisation are at the forefront of our strategy.

As part of our overall business in Austria, Hays places specialists in the areas of IT, engineering, life sciences, sales and marketing and retail, as well as finance.

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R A I F F E I S E N B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L

The financial industry is but one of many, if not all global industries that is embracing technology more and more. As RBI develops its end channels and the way it works with customers, Fritz must look at exactly what the customer expects and how they want to engage with the company.

RBI is currently exploring a

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number of technology solutions designed to embrace the digital experience and leverage synergies with the physical world.

“Not only are we looking at implementing mobile channels through which our customers can interact and engage with us, we are already enabling digital account opening services,” says Fritz. “This

TECHNOLOGY

incorporates a number of ways in which customers can verify their identities through these digital channels for e.g. video identification.

“There are many products we are exploring so that we can deliver our services without touching the branch. It’s about taking the customer experience to a new level and offering a digital experience.”

The challenge, then, in seeking ways to implement and offer a digital experience for the customer is ensuring that the solutions and the technologies that RBI implements remain relevant and in line with customer expectation.

With technology there is always a risk – the cost of failure in an industry that is continuously evolving is extremely high. This can breed a culture of implementing technology for the sake of implementing technology, as opposed to implementing what works. Fritz recognises this, noting that there are certain “buzzwords” that currently populate the technology conversation throughout the financial industry.

“We’ve invested a lot into developing the capabilities that a modern financial institution needs and harmonising data across the RBI Group.

That’s a transformation that has been ongoing and will most likely continue in the future” Robert Fritz, Group CIO and Managing Director of Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI)

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Empower your teams to achieve more with Intelligent Communications Download Microsoft Teams today, and discover how the universal hub for teamwork in Office 365 empowers you to collaborate more efficiently and achieve more.

A new culture of work Over the past 5 years, the workplace has changed dramatically. For the first time in history, we have 5 generations working in the workforce. Not only have organizations, and as a result the workforce, become more global and more networked. The new digital habits that come with both digital transformation as well as the new generations are now considered a natural part of teamwork. This makes that today’s teams within the organizations are driven by passion and purpose, with people preferring to work in a more open and transparent environment, both in person and online. And finally, anytime, anywhere has become the new normal. Today, you can’t imagine not being able to work from home or take a quick conference call in a coffee shop before stepping into a customer meeting next door.

With Microsoft Teams, launched worldwide in March 2017, we provided a digital version of an open working environment to support this new way of working. Just one year later, Teams has evolved to become the ultimate hub for teamwork and has grown significantly both in new capabilities and customer usage. Today, more than 200,000 organizations in 181 markets are using Teams.

Teams delivers chat-based collaboration, meetings, calling, and by July 2018, full enterprise voice features.

All this is underpinned by the Microsoft Graph, allowing for rich AI capabilities, providing us with an enormous amount of intelligence that brings efficiency towards the way we collaborate. As part of Office 365, Teams uniquely delivers these capabilities at scale, with enterprise-grade security and compliance standards to meet the needs of every business.

But what does that mean in practice?

Imagine you have planned a call to discuss a project with a group of people. What if before the call, you can have all the information you need about those people at your fingertips. Have you worked with them before, on what projects, what are their strengths, and do they work with people that you should really invite to the call as well?

The whole team also has immediate access to all the information of the project in one spot so that everybody can prepare for the call more efficiently.

During the call, technology can then take down all the barriers across for example different languages, transcripts the call, records actions and assigns them to the right people. You create and collaborate on the Office files, check out the sales status in the latest PowerBI dashboard or review the product launch plan without having to leave Teams …. And after the call, technology posts the recording and enables you to read through the transcript or skip towards the section that is of interest to you, sends out action points and notes….

That’s the tip of the iceberg of what we call Intelligent communications. It will change the way teams work together, and empower them to achieve more… And the best thing is; it’s not a future vision or technology. It’s here and ready to use.

General Motors is one of the 200,000 organisations that have chosen Office 365 to empower employees with creative communication and collaboration services that spark innovation. Fred Killeen, CTO at GM says the following about Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork in Office 365:

“Our mission to transform transportation relies on strong teamwork across every aspect of our business. Microsoft Teams enables our employees to connect across geographical and organizational boundaries through a single place to access all the conversations, files, and content. Teams’ integration with the rest of Office 365 and third-party applications and services makes it easier for our employees to find relevant information and do their best work on their own and as a part of a team.”

Read more about Productivity Register for an on-demand webinar

R A I F F E I S E N B A N K I N T E R N AT I O N A L

“Look over the last 30 or 40 years and the first digitisation of payments.

To me, that was the beginning of IT continuously disrupting and evolving the financial industry.

As an organisation, the trick is to be as agile as you can to follow these developments” Robert Fritz, Group CIO and Managing Director of Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI)

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Fritz’s approach is to identify opportunities in which technology can actually enrich customer experience.

“There is a spectrum of buzzwords out there such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning, to name just a few,” he says.

“Basically, it’s about identifying and applying technologies that fit into the structure of your footprint.”

As a key player in the CEE financial markets, RBI has always positioned itself closely to its customers. The customer and customer expectation have been the key drivers of change across the industry most of the

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times, but for Fritz it is important to remember that the regulators have become and will continue to be an equally significant factor.

“Our transformational journey actually started some years ago when the regulators began implementing strict requirements on the financial industry, particularly from the perspective of transparency and data requirements,” he says. “We’ve invested a lot into developing the capabilities that a modern financial institution needs and harmonising data across the RBI Group. That transformation is ongoing and will

most likely continue in the future.”

Data, of course, is one of the biggest buzzwords in the financial industry, but with the regulatory pressures that come with it, it becomes much more than just that. It becomes an opportunity to learn more about the customer. But as the industry continues to move away from physical branches, Fritz believes it should hold on just a little.

“It’s not an ideal future where we lose physical contact with our customers,” he says. “We need to be in touch with them to understand what their thoughts and needs are, but also

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to understand what is happening in the industry from their perspective.�

Fritz notes that this approach allows RBI to gain a much more comprehensive picture of what the financial customer wants from an organisation and he admits that in some cases it actually opens the company’s eyes to solutions or opportunities that it hadn’t considered.

The challenge then becomes one of turning data into value, both for RBI and the customer.

Fritz approaches this by creating a dialogue between various areas of the organisation. This sees business leaders, IT teams, marketing and operations sitting together and breaking down the information they receive from customers and understanding exactly how to implement it into future decision making.

Technology has always been and will continue to be an everevolving beast, and so is this journey of discovery that RBI is currently undergoing.

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RBI is a key player in the CEE financial markets

“The question really is, will this journey ever end?” says Fritz. “Look over the last 30 or 40 years and the first digitisation of payments. To me, that was the beginning of IT continuously disrupting and evolving the financial industry. For both an organisation and a manager, the trick is to be as agile as you can to follow these developments.”

As the financial industry continues to be redefined by technology, Fritz believes that as its influence continues to grow, some could argue

that it could become a technology industry itself. This in turn would lead to the development of new industrial ecosystems, and for Fritz it is crucial that companies find their roles in them.

“Defining your role will help you become a much more relevant player in the market,” he says. “I am sure that, by actively embracing the future, the RBI Group can root itself into a key role within these ecosystems across our footprint so that we can truly safeguard its leading position in our region.”

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BROTHERS IN BUSINESS

The rise and rise of Talash Hotels Group Written by Ben Mouncer

Produced by Brogan Baggott 231

Sanjay and Ravi Kathuria, brothers and Directors of the UK-based Talash Hotels Group, on their journey from being humble waiters to awardwinning hoteliers Determination. Resilience. Passion.

It’s these qualities and more that have enabled brothers Sanjay and Ravi Kathuria to make a mark on the British hotel industry over the last decade with Talash Hotels Group.

Driven by a burning ambition to replicate their uncle’s success in the trade, the pair are proud to have overcome a series of challenges to establish their position in a highly-saturated market, growing their business to boast a portfolio of 13 individual character hotels across the country.

“Our parents have offered great support from the start and we were really inspired by our uncle, who used to be a hotelier,” recalls Sanjay. “When we were growing up as children we used to sit on fire-exit stairs in his hotels and have the dream of owning one ourselves.

“Our uncle and his family lived in a mansion with a swimming pool and we were the poor relations, growing up in a two-up, two-down terrace. The motivation was there, knowing you could make all of

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The number of the Group’s hotels located in the United Kingdom

13

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Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel & Golf Resort

this out of hotels, thinking that the way to succeed in life was to buy a hotel.”

The Talash Group tale Both waiters in their early careers, the brothers took their first plunge into ownership in 2005 – but suffered a setback when the property they had lined up to purchase was suddenly

swept up by a corporate bidder as part of a wider sale agreed by its owners. It was a blow to Sanjay and Ravi, who saw an opportunity to follow their dream cruelly snatched away.

It took 18 months to uncover another suitable project, but the development of the Falstaff Hotel in Leamington Spa didn’t reap

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DISCOVER A BRAND THAT DELIVERS MORE‌

...and a brand that is investing for the future and changing for the better. We are proud that in the last 12 months, more investors and operators than ever before are choosing to partner with Best Western Great Britain; groups like the entrepreneurial Talash Hotels.

That is because we have listened to the investment sector, strengthened and diversified our brand offering, improved our guest experience and, in case you have missed it, we have also changed our logo.

The new bigger and better Best Western has 11 unique brands, which means we can mean more to more people. We have a brand

for every hotel from economy to upscale and, because we are a membership organisation not a franchise everything is reinvested back into making our hotels busier and our guests happier.

With short minimum membership contracts starting at just 5 years, we are a brand that likes to work in partnership with operators on a short or long-term basis.

We are investing for the future too.

In the last three years our member hotels have spent ÂŁ214m upgrading properties and improving guest experiences with a further ÂŁ100m planned for investment in 2018 and 2019. The improvements we have

been making have resulted in a record increase in hotel applications in 2017 and we are confident about breaking that recruitment record in 2018.

In short, Best Western has been busy getting better and expanding its range of brilliantly different stays.

New by Best Western: This year we launched four brands including our first in the economy sector, Sure Hotel by Best Western. Other new brands include Sure Hotel Plus by Best Western, Sure Hotel Collection

by Best Western and BW Signature Collection by Best Western.

All attractive options for travellers wanting independent places to stay but attractive too for investors and groups looking for a brand that allows them to keep their identities.

Loyalty scheme with global reach: Joining Best Western gives you access to an award-winning global loyalty scheme with over 27 million members.

Business friendly stays: We have a selection of rewarding accounts for businesses and business travellers covering worldwide, Europe and Great Britain. All providing brilliant benefits wherever you are in the world.

Coming soon to Best Western: We are looking to innovate as a brand and expand our brand offering, providing more reasons to make Best Western the first choice for investors and hotel operators and the first choice for guests wanting unique stays.

We are passionate about working in partnership with independent hotel operators and investors, and have ambitious plans to build on our recent success.

If you would like to know more about the new, bigger, better Best Western family we are happy to answer your questions.

You can start that conversation if you are a hotel operator or investor by emailing us at hoteldevelopment@ bestwestern.co.uk, or, if you are looking to book your next stay, you can discover our 250 distinctive hotels at www.bestwestern.co.uk.

Now more than ever, there is more to explore with Best Western Great Britain.

Rob Paterson Chief Executive, Best Western Great Britain

TA L A S H H O T E L S G R O U P

Sanjay Kathuria

immediate rewards for the duo. The location opened its doors in 2007, but recession hit business hard and by 2009 the Kathurias had conceded 60% of the property’s value.

“We were then forced into business support with the bank, and it was only through our negotiation and our determination that we continued to drive the business through the recession,” reveals Sanjay. “We had to cut costs, we did a number of shifts ourselves, we did kitchen work – we did everything basically. We learned everything there is to learn about running a hotel.”

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“ Everybody talks about the fact that how, as owners, we go and engage with every single person, whether that be guests or our staff members. Then they feed off each other” Sanjay Kathuria Director, Talash Hotels Group

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Ravi Kathuria

These experiences proved invaluable to Sanjay and Ravi, who today own a wide range of unique accommodation but each of which are ran in line with the clear management philosophies the pair have established over the last 11 years.

Talash Group’s flagship hotel is at Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel & Golf Resort in Lincolnshire, an historic location with close to 100 guestrooms, two restaurants and an indoor swimming pool. As well as the

still flourishing Falstaff Hotel, other desirable premises include the 11th century Risley Hall Hotel in Derbyshire and the stunning Tudor-design Chimney House Hotel in Cheshire.

In order to maintain a keen eye over their portfolio, Talash has an important relationship with its staff at all levels, as the brothers outline.

“Our General Managers (GMs) come in for a monthly meeting with ourselves, but we also work on a one-to-one connection with them,” says Ravi. “We

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Sector focus yields results for Allied Irish Bank (GB) customers With a 25-year track record of supporting growing businesses in the hospitality sector, Allied Irish Bank (GB) (AIB (GB)), is putting its money where its mouth is.

Earlier this year the bank launched a dedicated £500m lending fund targeted at owners of established businesses looking for growth finance, be it for acquisitions, capital expenditure programmes or re-financing packages.

AIB (GB)’s sector focused approach is one which the bank believes in whole-heartedly, as Emma Young, Head of Hotels, explains: “The hospitality sector is one of four areas of business focus for AIB (GB) and one with enormous significance to the UK economy. It’s an ambitious group, too. In a recent survey*, which we conducted among hotel and leisure business owners, the majority had experienced turnover growth of between 11% and 20% in the last two years and 65% believed they had an ambitious approach to growth”.

“Concentrating on key sectors means we really get under the skin of the industry, understand what the drivers and challenges are, as well as the market forces at work. Crucially, it also means we can work more flexibly with clients. In the case of hospitality, we understand the seasonality of the industry, how currency changes and exports can suddenly

AIBGB.CO.UK/ HOSPITALITYFUND

L/R Mark Duggan, AIB (GB) Birmingham; Ravi and Sanjay Kathuria, Talash Hotels Group; Morgan Keating, AIB (GB) Birmingham.

affect cash flow and costs, and what investments are required to future-proof businesses.”

Steve Sisson, Relationship Manager at AIB (GB), whose team has worked with Talash Hotels Group on three of its most recent acquisitions, adds: “Ravi and Sanjay are typical of the successful management teams AIB (GB) works with. They are highly motivated entrepreneurs with a clearly defined strategy of buying well-located properties with significant potential for growth. They combine their extensive experience with a philosophy of offering genuine hospitality to their guests and this combination is clearly bearing fruit for the brothers.”

Talash Group’s emphasis on top quality customer service chimes with AIB (GB). The hospitality industry is a people business and the same is true of relationship banking - something which AIB (GB) holds as a central tenet to everything it does.

Young concludes: “Customers continue to tell us how important this aspect of our work is to them. Our sector expertise, coupled with empowered teams and short reporting lines, means we’re able to provide them with a very responsive service. Feedback from customers and professional contacts supports this, pointing to our knowledge, professionalism and accessibility. We know how much these things matter.” *Source: AIB (GB)’s 2017 Steps to Growth survey

Steve Sisson, Relationship Manager – Corporate Business 0121 483 6934 | 07917 413349 | steve.a.sisson@aib.ie Allied Irish Bank (GB), 61 Temple Row, Birmingham, B2 5LS Emma Young, Head of Hotels – Corporate Banking 0207 090 7169 | 07824 820013 | emma.j.young@aib.ie Allied Irish Bank (GB), Podium Floor, St Helens 1 Undershaft, London, EC3A 8AB

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have created a head office with the key people being a regional business development manager, an area manager, a group operations manager and a group financial manager. But what we tend to do is we try and give our input directly to the GMs so that everyone understands our thinking.”

Sanjay adds: “One thing we don’t do, we don’t differentiate between a senior manager or a toilet cleaner.

Everybody talks about the fact that how, as owners, we go and engage with every single person, whether that be guests or our staff members.

Then they feed off each other.

“I always say to every single one of my staff members, ‘please don’t come in thinking to yourself your name is Joe and I just work on reception. When you park the car, when you walk in, think to yourself that you’ve booked into this hotel tonight, that you’re staying here. What do you see?’”

Investing in technology For every business in the sector, customer service remains by far and away the number one priority.

Talash Group has recently invested

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a six-figure sum to overhaul its web platform, which will become a onestop-shop for potential visitors to explore the company’s choice of hotels and utilise an innovative booking solution to easily reserve rooms and book restaurant tables.

The new site will also have video content at its forefront, a deliberate strategy to engage the modern consumer.

“In today’s market the consumer is buying with their eyes,” comments Ravi. “They’re not buying by reading anymore. It’s so important to make sure you’ve got video websites, which a lot of hotel groups in the UK still haven’t got smart to. It’s started in the United States, but it hasn’t started properly here yet.

We’re going to be one of the first hotel groups in the UK to have a video-led site.”

Talash Group’s commitment to innovation doesn’t stop there, with the firm currently working on two pieces of pilot technology that would greatly improve the customer’s experience on-site; a direct marketing tool to send key hotel information

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straight to guests’ devices when they arrive at the property, and also an automated check-in system that hugely simplifies the process for both the visitor and members of staff.

Giving something back In February, Talash Group picked up the ‘Excellence in Business’ award at the 4th Signature Awards at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, and Sanjay and Ravi each admit that the surprise at receiving this recognition led them to reflect on the journey they’ve been on since 2005.

As a gesture last Christmas, the brothers helped with providing food for the homeless community and both are determined to inspire other young business people in the West Midlands and beyond to follow through with their aspirations, as Ravi explains.

“We feel a lot of young people can benefit from our experience. What we’ve now started to do is work with some of the local entrepreneurs to create a community. It’s about engaging them with how we did it – we know how to continue the growth in our business but some

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“ We feel a lot of young people can benefit from our experience.

What we’ve now started to do is work with some of the local entrepreneurs to create a community” Ravi Kathuria Director, Talash Hotels Group

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‘ Talash Group has recently invested a six-figure sum to overhaul its web platform, which will become a one-stopshop for potential visitors to explore the company’s choice of hotels and utilise an innovative booking solution to easily reserve rooms and book restaurant tables’ 242

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Talash Hotels Group picked up the ‘Excellence in Business’ award at the recent 4th Signature Awards

people don’t get that opportunity.

“There are some amazing entrepreneurs out there but they don’t know how to take it forward. This is about bringing awareness to younger entrepreneurs of how to do just that.”

Would entering into business with your sibling be one piece of advice?

“We get questioned on this every day by so many people because sometimes two brothers in business just does not work,” Ravi laughs. “The beauty with me and Sanjay is that we’ll have an argument if we need to for 15 minutes, but we know by 25

minutes we will make up and that’s key to making the business a success.

Sanjay goes further, revealing: “We have an amazing working relationship to be honest with you.

We normally come to decisions quite quickly and sometimes it’s scary because I’m saying something and he’s already thought it, it’s strange the way our minds work.

We’re like two peas in a pod.”

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