Business Review Europe magazine - December 2016

D e c e mb e r 2016

TOP 10 POWERFUL

TECH BRANDS

www.businessrevieweurope.eu

SPECIAL REPORTS

&PizzaHut

ATOM BANK R E S TAU R A NTS U K

TRANSFORMING

TECHNOLOGY IBM SPEAKS OF A NEW SHIFT TO BECOME THE WORLDS LEADING CLOUD BASED PLATFORM

> Using ecommerce festivals as a gateway to China <

Market-leading technology and proven expertise.

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EDITOR’S COMMENT

TECH POWER HELLO AND WELCOME to our final edition of 2016.

We round off an eventful 2016 with a series of in-depth features and interviews in the technology space. Our cover feature is an exclusive insight into IBM, charting how the IT giant is moving towards becoming the world’s leading cloud platform provider.

We spoke with Andy Brierley, IBM’s Vice President of Global Technology Services, to find out more.

Almost all sectors are dependent on reliable and increasingly-smart technology, not least the restaurant trade. The past three years has witnessed enormous investment by Pizza Hut Restaurants UK in its customer facing and backroom IT setup – I spoke to IT Director Keith Frimley about the transformation. Also talking tech in our profiles section is Atom Bank.

Before you navigate to this you will discover how Chinese business behemoth Alibaba is helping European brands reach its massive native marketplace through the medium of ecommerce festivals. Continuing the tech theme is a look at the 10 most powerful technology brands in world and what takes their value into the billions.

Finally, a bit of festive cheer with a Q&A on the do’s and don’ts of marketing at Christmas. We speak to the masterminds behind Manchester City FC’s campaigns.

I hope you enjoy the issue and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Tom Wadlow Editor tom.wadlow@bizclikmedia.com 3

CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

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TECHNOLOGY

Using ecommerce festivals as a gateway to China S P E C I A L F E AT U R E

20

From Gamesmakers to Gamechangers Taking the UK on a journey of innovation

PROFILE

12

The dos and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ts of Christmas marketing 4

December 2016

28 TOP 10

Top 10 most powerful technology brands

90

DigiPlex Technology

C O M PA N Y PROFILES

102 IBM

Technology

Pizza Hut Restaurants UK Technology

54

36

Westminster City Council Supply Chain

130

140

Euromax Resources Mining

NHS Blood and Transplant

76

Atom Bank Technology

Technology

118

Brazilian Nickel

Mining

TECHNOLOGY

Meifang Chen, Alibaba Group UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Senior Manager, explains how the online retail giant is helping brands outside of China to penetrate the Chinese market, with UK supermarket Sainsburyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s among its beneficiaries

Using ecommerce festivals as a gateway to China

TECHNOLOGY THIS YEAR CHINA has moved closer to becoming the world’s largest retail market, with the total retail sales of consumer goods in the country reaching 30.1 trillion yuan (£3.39 trillion) in 2015, as cited by China Internet Watch.

To put that into perspective, according to Retail Economics the UK’s total retail sales reached £339 billion in the same year - just 10 per cent of China’s retail figures.

One important factor stimulating this growth has been the ability of brands outside of mainland China to

‘Businesses around the globe are responding to the increasing demand for foreign brands by Chinese consumers’

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December 2016

connect with consumers in what is the world’s most populous country.

Businesses around the globe are responding to the increasing demand for foreign brands by Chinese consumers. Indeed, in 2015 alone the number of overseas companies operating in China’s free trade zones doubled.

In today’s highly competitive global market, the ability of a brand to gain exposure in new regions is invaluable and more essential than ever before.

This constant search for international expansion options

U S I N G E C O M M E R C E F E S T I V A L S A S A G AT E W AY T O C H I N A

is why shopping festivals in China have become so important to a brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success in the country.

Not only do the festivals expose consumers to new products and allow them to experience new brands, but they provide businesses with the ideal platform to increase trade within a new market. They are gateways to the exciting, highpotential parts of this constantly evolving country that brands want to work, and compete, within.

One example is Tmall Globalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual 8.8 Shopping Festival in

China, focused on showcasing top-selling products from global brands to Chinese consumers. The platform, which is a subsidiary of e-commerce company Alibaba Group, offers foreign brands access to 434 million Chinese consumers.

The recent 2016 event featured more than 2,000 quality products from a variety of overseas markets and include fashion, cosmetics and even nutrition supplements. A series of live broadcasts also ran to connect consumers with the brands in realtime while they were watching from

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TECHNOLOGY

‘The benefits of shopping festivals are twofold – product accessibility for consumers and massive exposure for brands’ home and on the Tmall mobile app.

Major British retailer Sainsbury’s was just one of more than 100 brands to exploit the 8.8 opportunity, following an announcement earlier in the month that the British retailer was expanding its offering of branded products on the Tmall platform to over 100. A variety of new products were introduced such as their mixed nuts, Fairtrade Italian-style coffee 10

December 2016

and chargrilled vegetable pasta sauce Looking at the level of interaction Sainsbury’s experienced on the day clearly shows the benefits of the 8.8 festival. For example, its live stream during the day received over the 50K Weibo ‘likes’, whilst the number of customers with Sainsbury’s bookmarked in their Twitter favourites rose from 110k to 155k.

Brands should always be exploring new growth opportunities beyond their borders. Research is just

U S I N G E C O M M E R C E F E S T I V A L S A S A G AT E W AY T O C H I N A

the first step – appropriately leveraging an opportunity is the key.

Shopping days provide an ideal virtual shop window and best way to do just that, giving brands the chance to start leaving their mark on new places in the world. The growing appreciation of their modern relevance can be understood further by acknowledging the general breadth of major shopping festivals that now exist; from the Korea Grand Sale, to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the UK and US, as well as the USA Outlet Shopping Festival.

Take Alibaba’s 11.11, or ‘Singles’ Day’, for example - the biggest shopping festival in the world, four times the size of Black Friday and cyber Monday combined. During Singles’ Day 2015, a third (33 per cent) of all purchases were international products, with consumers from 232 regions and countries completing transactions.

The benefits of shopping festivals are twofold – product accessibility for consumers and massive exposure for brands, enabling them to expand into previously unknown territories to grow and improve brands need new territories. Shopping festivals offer them exactly that.

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PROFILE

THE DOS & DON’TS OF CHRISTMAS MARKETING Business Review Europe speaks to Absolute, the masterminds behind Manchester City FC’s Christmas campaign of 2015 Wr i t t e n by : TO M WA D LOW

PROFILE

In a nutshell, what defines an effective Christmas marketing campaign?

Chris Hodgen, MD of Absolute: “Christmas campaigns need to be linked to targets. In a lot of cases, the success will be down to brand awareness, engagement – such as through social sharing and comments – press exposure, and actual sales.

Often, the more memorable the 14

December 2016

campaign, the more successful it is. If a campaign gets people talking and sharing it online then it’s more likely to get people buying. With the Manchester City Christmas campaign we worked on, we needed to create something different which would get people talking – and this in turn helped generate sales.”

Simon Allman, Creative Director of Absolute: “Ultimately it’s down

to gaining maximum media exposure and social sharing, which in turn, can lead to an increase in product sales – but none of this is possible without originality or a great concept.

Christmas can be an overkill of the same ideas churned out year on year, so you have to look at things from a different perspective or even embrace history, humour or culture, which is apparent with the Manchester

City campaign and because of this, it achieved all of its objectives.”

Do the rules change at Christmas compared to any other time of the year?

CH: “Christmas is a difficult market, as every brand is fighting for shoppers’ budgets. There’s a bottle neck of ideas to buy into but the memorable campaigns will always 15

PROFILE win. There’s definitely a different pattern to shopping during the festive period. Over the year, shoppers are generally mission-led, but in the lead up to Christmas they can quickly becoming indecisive wanderers, endlessly roaming and looking for the right present at the right time – with some, like me, panic buying at the last minute on Christmas Eve! “Consumers’ behaviour also changes the closer you get to Christmas, as the early birds have completed the challenge well ahead of Black Friday. So campaigns during this period have to make a big impact at the right time, as well as stand above the competition, otherwise they get brushed aside.”

If you could state three do’s and three don’ts of marketing at Christmas, would they be?

SA: “In terms of what to do…

• “Do be original and have a great idea; • “Do plan well in advance and even create reveal stages to the campaign; • “And do engage with your customers.

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“When it comes to don’t…

• “Don’t do what everyone else is doing; • “Don’t overkill the concept; • “And don’t launch your campaign too early, otherwise the audience will become fatigued before the event.”

What is the most memorable Christmas advert you have watched? Why was it so striking?

SA: “There’s been a lot of great adverts over the years, most of them in recent times with big budget commercials from M&S, John Lewis and Sainsbury’s, but for me one particular advert from the 1990s stands out. It was from the Yellow Pages and it featured a young boy trying to kiss a girl who was a lot taller than he was. She was holding the mistletoe and he couldn’t reach up to kiss, but he grabs a Yellow Pages book to stand on and gets a result.

What’s brilliant about this advert is that agency who got this tough brief managed to take an un-festive product and produce something memorable – ‘Good old Yellow Pages’.”

CH: “It’s got to be one of the John Lewis ones for a lot of people

but mine is the Sainsbury’s war advert in 2014. Although being from Bolton, I could easily have said Warburton’s Muppets ad last year!”

What advice would you give to brands looking to implement a marketing strategy across a range of mediums and devices?

SA: “Keep the idea simple. M&S ran with ‘Magic & Sparkle’ for a few years which allowed them to have longevity with the same concept, but enabled them to change the art direction every year, refreshing a brilliant concept and

“M&S RAN WITH ‘MAGIC & SPARKLE’ FOR A FEW YEARS WHICH ALLOWED THEM TO HAVE LONGEVITY WITH THE SAME CONCEPT, BUT ENABLED THEM TO CHANGE THE ART DIRECTION EVERY YEAR” SIMON ALLMAN, CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF ABSOLUTE

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PROFILE

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THE DOS AND DON’TS OF CHRISTMAS MARKETING

it was easily implemented instore, online and across all media channels.”

Tell me about your Christmas 2015 campaign with Kitbag and Manchester City Football Club. What did you do for them and how was it received?

CH: “We were approached by Kitbag and Manchester City Football Club to come up with a creative idea for a photo shoot to promote the club’s Christmas clothing and gift range.

Because it was a Christmas campaign, we were able to have some fun to show the lighter side of the club and its players. Taking the art directional cues from the north’s favourite soap, Coronation Street, we built and staged a typical Manchester family Christmas meal for the players, who were sporting their Christmas jumpers.

“BECAUSE IT WAS A CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGN, WE WERE ABLE TO HAVE SOME FUN TO SHOW THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THE CLUB AND ITS PLAYERS” CHRIS HODGEN, MD OF ABSOLUTE

“As with any photo shoot, planning, preparation and timing was key.

As well as organising the lighting and composition of the room, we liaised with food stylists, venue dressers and wallpaper suppliers to get the set looking just right.

The day itself was fast paced, but thanks to careful planning we were able to set up relaxed, humorous shots which communicated the right messages in the right way.

“During the post production stage, we ensured there were versions of the assets made specifically for social media, as well as in the MCFC megastore.

“As well as the images being shared widely on social media, they were also picked up by mainstream media in the likes of the Daily Mail and The Sun. The club even used one of the images for its corporate Christmas card.

Overall, the club sold 8,000 units and for every jumper sold the club donated £5 to charity, totalling £40,000.”

How do you measure the success of a Christmas marketing campaign?

CH: “Sales, sales, sales and social engagement leading to more sales!”

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I N N O VAT I O N

s r e k a m s e m a G m Fro s r e g n a h c e m a G o t K U e h t g n i k Ta f o y e n r u o j on a n o i t a innov es c u d o r t n i exal, l P , O E C , ter erton s k o c f o o C t e d r i e Cla sign e d , t c e j o r y of p c a e g h t e l o t e h s t u ost o b d n a n mes a G c i p innovatio m y 12 Ol 0 2 n o d n the Lo

I N N O VAT I O N IF YOU WERE anything like me, you probably spent several days this summer in front of your TV watching the drama and excitement of the Rio Olympics. And if you were in the UK during the great summer of 2012, then you were no doubt reminded of the remarkable mood that swept over the nation four years ago when we hosted the world’s greatest sporting festival.

London won its Olympic bid in large part because of its groundbreaking focus on the legacy of the games. It committed that its state-of-the-art facilities would be maintained and re-used, and that the games as a whole would inspire a huge regeneration of a previously neglected part of the capital. This was deliberately targeted at answering those serious questions that dog so many Olympic hosts: what will the legacy be once the few weeks of sport are over?

What will happen to the sporting facilities (stadiums, velodromes and aquatic centres), media and visitor facilities or the auxiliary services businesses, many of which have been built at great expense?

I’m pleased to be able to say that 2012’s legacy has been and 22

December 2016

continues to be delivered every day in East London. Over the past four years, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – as the location is now known – has evolved to become a bustling and dynamic area. Today it is the site of, among other things, Loughborough University’s postgraduate research centre, a wealth of shops, restaurants and residential developments, the headquarters of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and of Transport for London,

TA K I N G T H E U K O N A J O U R N E Y O F I N N O V AT I O N

as well as being home to West Ham United Football Club.

Alongside this it will also become a hub for our future – of innovation and technology – and one that is closely tied to 2012’s sporting legacy too.

Creating history. Building on our legacy.

Despite the national nervousness beforehand, it’s really no surprise that the British made the London 2012 Olympics one of the most

successful games ever. Sport has always had a central place in British culture. We have invented, codified and exported many games all over the world. Rugby, football, cricket, tennis, golf, badminton, squash and ping pong are just some of the sports we coined and championed.

2012 was the pinnacle of our national sporting obsession, bringing us together as a country to a degree unprecedented in modern times.

Ninety per cent of the UK population watched BBC coverage of the games and 4.7 million followed London 2012’s social media channels.

In my view, 2012 represented everything that is best about the UK: togetherness, optimism, openness to others, determination.

Nothing encapsulated this better than the 70,000 outstanding “Gamesmakers”, the volunteers whose energy and commitment quite literally made the games possible.

Building on the legacy of 2012 means harnessing the spirit of the Gamesmakers, as well as ensuring that the landscape and facilities are being leveraged to best use.

That’s the ambition of Plexal, opening in Here East, the site used 23

I N N O VAT I O N

as the Press and Broadcast Centre during 2012 and located just a javelinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s throw from the Olympic Stadium. It is designed to deliver a real legacy from the Olympics by using the fantastic foundations the games laid down as a springboard for the future.

One significant result of the Olympics was that it gave us a renewed appreciation for the role of sport as a force for good in society.

As we saw, sport improves health, builds character, inspires dreams and unites communities. It made complete 24

December 2016

sense for an innovation centre which supports tech entrepreneurs and small businesses to scale internationally, to have Olympic values at its foundations, and a focus on sport, health, fashion, and design.

Technology is bringing together many once independent sectors: for example, fintech and cyber security innovations often underpin a well-performing connected device, such as your smart watch.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s driving the rapid convergence of these fields is the

TA K I N G T H E U K O N A J O U R N E Y O F I N N O V AT I O N

Internet of Things (IoT). Increasingly powerful internet-connected sensors are enabling our phones, wearable devices and other objects to connect to us and the world around us, creating useful data and allowing us to make more informed decisions.

That’s why this intersection of related areas – sport, health, fashion, design and mobility, all driven by IoT capabilities – is where some of the most exciting technological innovation is happening right now.

It’s where entrepreneurs, start-ups and corporates are exploring ways to address the big issues we face as a society, from tackling obesity to making our cities smarter and moving towards a future of driverless cars.

Plexal will provide a point of focus for these trends as they continue to develop. The largest facility of its kind in Europe, it will offer membership for up to 500 innovative companies, from start-ups through to corporates, and will offer them a portfolio of services to support new product development, business growth and collaboration. These services will include accelerator and incubation programmes, practical intrapreneurship and

entrepreneurship education and access to a range of funding opportunities enabling companies to scale across the UK and beyond.

The campus will also provide specialised prototyping facilities and a state-of-the-art technology lab, making innovation, market testing and development the beating heart of the centre. And we are forming valuable partnerships with large corporates, sporting teams, and local venues to enable product testing, and a pathway to market. Plexal will become a stage for companies large and small, supporting those located in it and cultivating connections to external and new markets, thereby continuing to drive economic growth and innovation in technology the UK has become famous for.

Plexal will also be utilising and contributing to the local assets of the Olympic Park area: not just the sporting venues, but also the creative cluster in nearby Hackney Wick, and the incredible local academic research facilities in robotics and mobility. The campus will draw inspiration from other creatively focused Olympic Park facilities such as the fast-growing Cultural 25

I N N O VAT I O N Quarter. This will accommodate new outposts for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sadler’s Wells and the London College of Fashion. The creative collision of technology and the arts will, we anticipate, prove inspirational for all concerned.

Teamwork and collaboration The UK has a proud track record in innovation. Over the past few years in particular the country has developed a thriving start-up scene.

Last year 608,100 new businesses were launched, an increase of five percent on 2014. The UK’s digital economy created jobs at 2.8 times the speed of the rest of the economy between 2011 and 2014. Yet despite this, many of the UK’s biggest tech success stories have been concentrated in a few areas, such as fintech and ecommerce. To ensure we remain successful, we need to develop the next fintech sector for the UK’s economy. This is where we believe the focus on the converging sectors of sport, health and fashion – what we call “lifetech” – comes in.

To boost our lifetech sector, start-ups and corporates need

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to collaborate more closely. Both have strengths that can add value to the other. Corporates are hungry for cutting-edge thinking and new talent, but they often struggle to replicate innovation consistently across their organisations or create tangible, impactful outputs from their innovation programmes.

Meanwhile start-ups often have great ideas but lack the funding, expertise, structures and scale to make the most of them. They can benefit from the sales teams, investment capital and international footprint of larger businesses.

The reality is that start-ups are often sceptical, even suspicious, about working with corporates – long sales cycles, opaque decisionmaking and pace of change has hurt many a small business. But by bringing these two groups together in a focussed innovation process, and brokering useful relationships between them, we can create an inspiring environment where new thinking is embraced, and accelerate the spread of game-changing ideas that will make us proud of our Olympic legacy all over again.

TOP 10

Top 10 most

powerful

technology brands

Business Review Europe charts the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most mighty tech companies, based on 2016 brand valuations calculated by Forbes

TOP 10

10 Brand value: $28 billion Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Oracle has made billions from selling cloud applications and platform services. Co-founder and long-time CEO Larry Ellison, now 72, has overseen a remarkable rise to a company which now generates $37 billion in sales. He is now listed by Forbes as one of the richest men in the world.

Brand value: $27.7 billion Intelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stock or brand value has risen by seven percent over the past year, placing at number 17 in Forbesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; list of powerful global brands from all sectors. Its annual turnover sits at around $55 billion, the company renowned for manufacturing vital components for computers all over the world.

9

TOP 10 MOST POWERFUL TECHNOLOGY BRANDS

8 Brand value: $28.4 billion Cisco, a prolific designer, manufacturer and seller of networking equipment, is one of the most important global communications and network companies in the world today. The company was founded in 1984 by Leonard Bosack, who was in charge of computers at Stanford University at the time. He was accused of theft by the university when launching Ciscoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first product, forcing his resignation.

Brand value: $35.2 billion According to Forbes, Amazonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand value has soared by 25 percent over the past year or so, helped by its ever diversifying portfolio of interests which now includes delivery by drone.

The company spent $3.8 billion on advertising last year, compared to $55 million spent by Oracle. Amazon is the 12th overall on the powerful brands list.

7

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TOP 10

6 Brand value: $41.4 billion Like Samsung, IBM also saw its brand value decline compared to last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s evaluation. It is unknown exactly why it fell by a steep 17 percent, but commentators have pointed towards the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s move away from consumer products. Foudned in 1911, IBM now employees more than 377,000 people globally, turning over $80 billion in sales.

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Brand value: $36.1 billion Samsungâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand value has actually dropped by five percent, a figure which could be higher following the recent embarrassment caused by the exploding Galaxy Note 7. With Apple releasing its newest smartphone at the same time, it was disastrous timing for the company. This said, it still manages to pull in around $180 billion in sales each year.

5

TOP 10 MOST POWERFUL TECHNOLOGY BRANDS

4 FACEBOOK Brand value: $52.6 billion There are four technology companies in the top five most powerful brands globally, with Facebook at number five. Despite relatively small revenues in comparison to other companies on this list ($17 billion), the brand of Facebook and power it yields with advertisers and consumers is enormous. Its brand value has gone up by a massive 44 percent in the space of a year.

Brand value: $75.2 billion The first of what many would consider to be the big three, Microsoftâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brand value shot up nine percent according to Forbes, despite fairly widespread criticisms of its newest Windows platforms. However, new ventures in virtual reality with the likes of HoloLens add some healthy diversity to the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portfolio. The device is currently on sale in the USA and Canada for $3,000.

3

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TOP 10

2 Brand value: $82.5 billion What doesn’t Google cover these days? From e-commerce and search engine giant to autonomous vehicle pioneer, the Google powerhouse marches on. Forbes states its brand value has risen by 26 percent year on year – this is despite some bad press over the summer caused by the European Union’s ruling that it had illegal tax dealings with Ireland.

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TOP 10 MOST POWERFUL TECHNOLOGY BRANDS

1 Brand value: $154.1 billion The only surprise here may be the margin at which Forbes places Apple ahead of the rest. Almost twice the brand value of second-placed Google, the iPhone, iPad and MacBook maker appears unrivalled when it comes to branding. Its decision to the remove the headphone jack from its newest smartphone, the iPhone 7, has been a controversial yet probably canny one given it will push many consumers into buying its own wireless earphones.

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Transforming technology Written by Nye Longman Produced by Danielle Harris

IBM

KEEN TO EVOLVE WITH THE INDUSTRIES IT SERVES, IBM IS SHIFTING TOWARDS BECOMING THE WORLD’S LEADING CLOUD PLATFORM PROVIDER WHILE INVESTING IN ITS STRENGTHS

I

BM has been at the forefront of innovation for over a century; its creations have consistently transformed how businesses and society at large interacts. Far from resting on its laurels, the company has embarked on transforming its products and services in line with the needs of its UK customers, as well as the global market.

Business Review Europe speaks to Andy Brierley, IBM’s Vice President of Global Technology Services, about how the company is building on its already very strong hardware and software offerings with a shift towards cognitive solutions and cloud-based platforms. We also explore how the rest of the company’s divisions are contributing to its long term transformation and prosperity.

OPERATIONS AND INNOVATION IBM’s vast portfolio covers everything from data technologies supporting cognitive commerce, through to analytics, mobile technology, security solutions and cloud platforms. This portfolio is constantly be strengthened through investments in

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TECHNOLOGY

w w w. i b m . c o m

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All the expertise in the world can count for nothing if your thinking isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t aligned from the very beginning...

Act as one.

When you’re undertaking large-scale, mission-critical projects like digital transformation, you need to have total confidence that all parties involved communicate well. But much more than that – you need them to understand the same strategy and share the same vision, right from the very start.

IBM and Citrix have a long-standing track record of collaborating successfully to deliver game-changing solutions across such areas as enterprise mobility, cloud, virtualization, security and networking.

We keep our joint focus sharp and on target, working together from project conception right through to final outcomes, to drive innovation and ensure that whatever the task at hand, you benefit from our joined-up thinking. www.Act-As-One.co.uk

“Our companies share a joint approach and technology roadmaps, access to technologies for end-to-end testing and a strong track record with mutual clients. Together, we provide the right services and technology to assess and plan, design, implement and manage a more cost-effective, centralized and virtualized desktop environment.”

Don Fitzpatrick, General Manager, IBM Global Networking Alliances

WITH A GREATER VANTAGE POINT, A GREATER ADVANTAGE.

Zebra gives you the big picture. In today’s data-centric world, real-time information is crucial for your business. And with hardware, talking to software, talking to the cloud, only Zebra’s intelligent, enterprise-level solutions give you the connectivity and unmatched visibility you need to manufacture success.

See the vision at ZEBRA.com/visibility ©2016 ZIH Corp and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Zebra and the stylized Zebra head are trademarks of ZIH Corp, registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.

TECHNOLOGY

new opportunity areas like Watson value for their organisations.”

Health, Watson Internet of Things “That involves IBM delivering and hybrid cloud, and through projects such as large hybrid cloud a broad ecosystem of strategic deals, taking costs out of our alliances and partnerships. clients’ organisations through IT The company also offers industryconsolidation, IT rationalisation and, specific expertise to a number of in some cases, taking over clients’ sectors, including banking, retail, IT infrastructure, transforming it, telecommunications and various and then running it on behalf of the public sector and government client for several years.” institutions. Underpinning He also explains that its market-leading a number of shrewd products, services, and acquisitions made solutions are a range in recent years of customer support have enabled functions from direct the company to Number of customer hotlines and offer a very strong employees education tools to online cloud platform to at IBM support communities. businesses – a key “I look after IBM Global aspect of the business Technology Services sales for the that IBM is looking to grow in the UK and Ireland and in particular our future. Brierley says: “Some of our very largest size deals by value” says clients will be moving 100 percent Brierley, “so my focus is primarily on of their IT function from their current making sure that we drive the sales insolvent state, located in a data that we need. We do this by creating centre somewhere in the UK, into value propositions that will address a managed cloud environment. our clients’ business challenges “This gives variability, flexibility, and therefore drive increased and better price point function – and

350k

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IBM

we’re doing these migrations for a lot of customers. This highlights that the investments we’ve made, the skills that we have, and the level of automation we are capable of deploying, are some of our strongest attributes we can apply when delivering compelling solutions for our clients.

“My team is talking to clients about how we can reinvent their businesses, change their cost profile and make them far more agile by using some of the strategic investments that we’ve made. Along with our products and key partnerships and alliances which are so important to us, in many different industries and specialist areas - we integrate it all together to provide a serviceintegrated approach for our clients.”

The structure and organisation of his teams are aligned according to each industry in order to have an unmatched level of specialisation and deep industry knowledge. “I’ve got one part of the team that’s focused on financial services,” Brierley adds. “I’ve got another part of my team that’s focused on the public

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“All the investment we’re making in cognit analytics, big data, a quantum computing eventually wrap itself a service form and le it to clients effective and efficiently”

TECHNOLOGY

ts itive, and will into ead ely

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Juniper helps you build more than a network.

Build the future.

Juniper Networks challenges the status quo with innovative products, solutions and services critical to businesses by transforming the economics of networking in the cloud and cognitive business world. We create highly scalable, secure and cost-effective networks for unprecedented agility, efďŹ ciency and value.

www.juniper.net

TECHNOLOGY

It is well known that IBM invests billions of dollars each year in R&D, but one overlooked aspect of this process is how the company is able to seamlessly integrate and roll out these innovations into the wider global business sector and I’ve got one focused on the majority of the other industries.

Beneath the leadership team, there are individual experts in each industry such as media and entertainment, telecommunications and utilities.”

It is well known that IBM invests billions of dollars each year in R&D, but one overlooked aspect of this process is how the company is able to seamlessly integrate and roll out these innovations into the wider global business. “All the investments we’re making in cognitive, analytics, big data, and quantum computing will eventually wrap itself into a service form and lead it to clients effectively and efficiently,” Brierley says.

“That continuous program of over 100 years of reinventing itself has enabled IBM to refresh both the messages to our clients and the

solutions and services we offer them.

It’s at the heart of everything we do.”

TALENT MANAGEMENT Five Nobel Prize Laureates have worked for IBM through the course of its long history, which gives no small indication of the sort of talent its operations attract and demand. The company retains an enviable portion of the top technology and sales talent available anywhere.

“I’ve spoken to a number of CIOs at a variety of banks who’ve told me they don’t mind paying extra for IBM’s staff because we bring talent that no one else has available to offer,” Brierley explains.

“The quality of the talent and the experience in the individuals that we’ve got and their ability to create and bring value to clients, is one of our major competitive strengths.”

It almost goes without saying

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IBM

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that IBM’s training and selection processes are rigorous. For Brierley’s team, which is responsible for hundreds of millions of pounds in sales annually, the criteria – and the rewards – are higher still.

“We have a very structured set of courses,” he says. “Starting off when our foundation graduates or apprentices arrive - that literally lasts from cradle to grave for the employees as they come on board.”

IBM’s incentive package is designed to ensure that a great deal is reached for all involved, for mutual long-term success: “We lead and motivate our salespeople to do good business – and good business is not just that they sold a very nice deal, it is something that is good for IBM and good for the client. We do retention on commission for a period of time to make sure what we sold for the

client is deliverable and the client is happy with what we’re delivering.”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE “I think we’ll continue on the journey of driving our solutions to be cognitive,” Brierley muses. “All our platforms will become cloud. All our focus will be on industries - I don’t see that changing. I think we’ll become more and more an organisation that drives all our products, our software, our hardware - as a service for clients.”

“We have reached that point and we’re on the right trajectory.

Certainly, if I look at the quality of our opportunities and some of the conversations we’re having now with clients, it feels like we’re ahead of the market. Indeed, our own analysts are telling me that in the UK and Ireland we have taken market share from our competition in the last few quarters.”

IBM has not faltered in cresting wave after wave of innovation and is aligning itself ever closer to the needs of UK and global businesses and industry segments

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Recovering from a hit to its share price last year, IBM has not faltered in cresting wave after wave of innovation and is aligning itself ever closer to the needs of UK and global businesses and industry segments. By channelling its unique knowledge and skill sets, the company’s move from tech provider to services integrator will be the driving force for at least the next five years, as Brierley concludes: “Technology is still encumbering far too many of our clients and they are struggling to get rid of it. As we transform to a cognitive solutions and cloud platform company the challenges will remain. We’ll just have to continue to come up with new ideas, innovative propositions, more efficient and effective ways of solving business issues, and I’m very confident we’ll continue to do that.”

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New ide IT, new b

Written by Tom Wadlow P

eas, new business

Produced by Andrew Lloyd

Over the past three years Pizza Hut Restaurants UK has matured and innovated its IT operations, leading to tangible benefits that ultimately enable restaurant team members to provide a better experience and service to guests up and down the country

F

or more than 40 years UK pizza lovers have been dining in Pizza Hut restaurants. From a single store in Islington, London, to 268 outlets with more than 8,000 staff, a lot has happened since 1973.

It is, however, the last three years which has seen arguably the most significant degree of change. The brand is evolving fast, thanks to innovation and transformation inside and outside of the restaurant. By the end of this year, 192 restaurants will have been refurbished. New menus and cocktail bars are generating an entirely new evening atmosphere all helping to provide a better experience and service to guests Working behind the visual refresh,

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technology has proven to be the great enabler of improvement.

Keith Frimley is Pizza Hut Restaurants UK’s IT Director, joining in March 2013 to oversee the separation of the restaurant business’s IT from YUM! and to develop a 5 year IT roadmap to improve the technology to help team members deliver great guest experience. Now with a team of 19 behind him, the vision is very much to plan, build, run and service all things technology to best possible standards.

“The ultimate vision is to provide business leadership in technology to enhance our operational capability,” he adds. “By doing that, we will be providing first class support on the new IT systems, and on the people

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Redefining Service A smooth restaurant system enables our team members to focus on service

Pizza Hut Restaurants and Oracle Maximising Technology As witness to the refurbishment of nearly 200 Pizza Hut Restaurants in the UK during the past three years, Keith Frimley, the chain’s IT director, is intimately familiar with the relentless pace of modernisation.

Teaming with an IT partner who drives innovation to meet ever-changing needs is essential in today’s marketplace, according to Frimley. That criterion explains Pizza Hut Restaurants enduring 12-year partnership with Oracle and MICROS Systems, which was acquired by the former in 2014 to establish the industry’s preferred solutions provider, Oracle Hospitality.

Here Frimley discusses Pizza Hut Restaurants partnership with Oracle whilst providing his top tips for choosing technology today that is ready for tomorrow’s challenges.

Choose software and hardware that’s engineered to work together: “Fundamentally, we need a robust, effective restaurant enterprise system that enables us to take customers’ orders and process them to the kitchen to ensure that food gets to our customers on time and enhances the customer experience. A smooth restaurant system enables our team members to focus on service rather than worry about logistics or how the restaurant system is performing.”

The right IT can create efficiencies across the enterprise, from increasing staff productivity to improving process performance: “If we didn’t have a good restaurant enterprise system, then we would be manning the restaurant with a higher number of team members. For example, with the tablet technology that we’re now introducing to our restaurant, it enables our team members to serve customers faster and more accurately, and they can deal with more customers at one time. From the order processing point of view, sending the order from the point-of-sale terminal to the kitchen and having KDS screens enable kitchen staff to see what they need to make – it’s far more effective than having pieces of paper flying across the restaurant.”

Continuously invest in technology not just to offer new services but to bolster brand relevance: “The next work we are in early stages of planning with Oracle is to implement Oracle commerce platform – giving our guests the ability to order and pay the

way they want to pay. Imagine if you’re a guest in our restaurant and you’ve already been served once, but you want to top off an order with another drink. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just order that drink on your mobile app? That gets fired to the bar, and it’s delivered to you. And once you’re ready to pay your bill, you can actually pay your bill from the mobile app, too. That’s something we’re going to implement in 2017. It’s quite an exciting element not only for our guests, but for our team members to show that we’re investing in this technology.”

Select POS systems with the ability to seamlessly integrate third-party innovations to meet evolving demands: “We’re constantly trying to elevate the restaurant experience. In the near future that may be through targeted, personalized coupons. For instance, when you last came into the restaurant you ordered a margarita pizza and a Long Island iced tea. So we could then actually push a notification to you with offers for that order. Or we may move forward with beacon technology, so if we know that you’re wandering past our restaurant we can push a notification to you, saying, “Come in today – we’ve got these special offers.” It’s all about increasing customer engagement so they feel that they’re really valued. And I’m sure there will be integration with social media. If you’re on Facebook, and you fancy ordering a product, you can just press an icon – and it’ll order your (favorite) pizza.”

Plan for Cloud now – it’s adoption is inevitable: Industry experts say the on-premise model is unsustainable, considering that 75% of expenses are drained by routine maintenance and integration efforts, leaving only 25% available for actual innovation. “With cloud, the overall administration and speed of change will be so much more effective. But that’s just one thing.

There’s also the cost of ownership and financial impacts.

The benefit is actually not to have to replace server technology, which is quite costly. Each of our restaurants has a back-of-house server; a cloud-based solution will remove it. It’ll also have central configuration so that’ll lead to great omni-channel enablement. Right now, when we create a menu in a restaurant, we then have to replicate that menu on a web interface and then on a mobile interface. What I really need is one system that can feed all of those channels. Ultimately, with cloud, we’ll enjoy a good return on investment. As yet we are some way from making the move to cloud but this is certainly in our longer term strategy”

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side have a team of customer driven By the end of 2016 48 restaurants people with a focussed can-do will have been introduced to the new attitude. In terms of reliability, we system. “This has been particularly want to ensure dependable on-time effective,” comments Frimley. “It has delivery of services and products to proved that we can make better use our restaurants and facilitate secure of staff’s time, as team members access to information systems can deal with more customers by anytime, anywhere via mobile.” not writing down orders and walking Indeed, ‘technology at the heart to and from the kitchen. It also of the development of Pizza Hut removes errors and speeds up the Restaurants’ forms ordering process.” the crux of Frimley’s “As well as tablets, five year plan, which we have also upgraded focuses on four key a lot of our point of areas: In restaurant sales terminals in our technology; CRM, restaurants. Pizza The year that digital and social media; Hut Restaurants first Pizza Hut was Business intelligence introduced the terminals founded and institutional in around 2005, but knowledge and, over the next three finally, infrastructure. years all of them will be upgraded, which is a considerable investment.

Restaurants revitalised We have already rolled out 300, The five-year plan bids to build on vast with another 350 coming by the enhancements and upgrades already end of the year and another 400 in made since 2013, no more evident early 2017. It will increase reliability than in the restaurants themselves. and support - for instance, when New Windows 8 Lenovo tablets are we require menu changes, the new linked up to the point of sales systems, system will reload more smoothly.” allowing staff to take orders digitally.

As soon as orders ring through, it

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“Redfaire is not just a supplier to us, but a strategic partner.

Thanks to Redfaire’s outstanding support of our Oracle ERP system, and their technical know-how around Cloud, we have an extremely cost-effective and user-friendly ERP system. With Redfaire looking after our ERP system, we know that we are in safe hands, issues get resolved quickly, efficiently and with no hassle.”

Keith Frimley, IT Director, Pizza Hut Restaurants

“Redfaire shares Pizza Hut Restaurants’ ethos of outstanding customer service. Like our team at Pizza Hut Restaurants, Redfaire people don’t just clock in, they always go the extra mile.”

“Our customers value the sense of security that comes from knowing that we’ll help them ‘keep the lights on’ and that we are committed to helping them unlock latent value in their Applications. We help our clients to continuously create value.”

Christian Fronteras, Managing Director, Redfaire Global Support

Redfaire Optimising and Supporting Oracle ERP at Pizza Hut Restaurants In 2014, Redfaire worked with Pizza Hut Restaurants to upgrade Oracle’s JD Edwards ERP and to move their on-premise ERP to a private Cloud.

As part of the upgrade, Redfaire and Pizza Hut Restaurants took advantage of the latest technology to bring tighter Point of Sale integration to enable automated reconciliation of restaurant data. Since then, with a 100% guaranteed uptime, Redfaire Global Support has provided 24x7 IT Support to Pizza Hut Restaurants’ Oracle

A Winning Partnership Redfaire Global Support works hand in hand with the IT team at Pizza Hut Restaurants to optimise their Oracle ERP system. It is a long-standing and strong partnership which is based on a shared ethos of excellence in customer service and a no-nonsense, can-do attitude.

ERP team.

This model has many advantages for Pizza Hut Restaurants: • Moving the on-premise ERP to the Cloud has allowed Pizza Hut Restaurants to reduce costs and to benefit from Cloud-based infrastructure.

• ERP in the Cloud offers Pizza Hut Restaurants agility, scalability, and future-proofs their ERP. • Outsourcing ERP support means that the IT team has time to focus on more strategic initiatives, safe in the knowledge that they have a team of experts on hand to support their back-office business systems.

Redfaire Global Support was chosen

by Pizza Hut Restaurants thanks to their deep technical and functional skills, clearly defined methodology and proven commitment to maintaining

focus on what they do best. What’s more, because Oracle ERP Support is our core business, we can deliver this service in a highly cost-effective and efficient manner.

We work with a diverse group of customers across EMEA, from ambitious SMBs to large multinational companies. However, what all our customers have in common is that they appreciate the hassle free, personalized service we deliver.

the highest quality standards. Redfaire Global Support is ISO27001 certified (British Standard Institute - BSI) and the company places data security at the heart of service delivery.

About Redfaire Global Support Redfaire Global Support is part of Redfaire International, a leading Oracle ERP partner in EMEA.

www.redfaireinternational.com hello@redfaireinternational.com +44 (0)118 965 3904 @RedfaireERP

By letting us look after the day-to-day support of Oracle ERP and its users, our customers have more time to Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

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is vital that the kitchen is made aware of what is needed and when, and this is where a new restaurant enterprise system has been earning its crust.

Old and multiple versions of the software has been upgraded to one common version of Oracles Micros RES3700, a unified platform rolled out across the restaurant network.

“The last thing we want is half an order being ready and waiting on the side for the rest to catch up,” Frimley says. “The system stages an order for the kitchen. It will tell you to first start cooking a pizza, and then three minutes later it will notify you to start making the sides to go with it.” Crucially, the Restaurant Enterprise System also keeps track of inventory levels as and when orders are made, allowing restaurants to know exactly what goods need ordering at any particular time.

Further optimising service is the simple addition of buzzers to prompt front-of-house staff when food is ready to be taken to tables, again helping to enhance customer experiences and turnover tables more efficiently.

Customers are also benefitting from

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the provision of free Wi-Fi from O2, introduced in 2013, which has allowed Pizza Hut Restaurants to gather crucial customer insight data and engage them with offers and promotions.

Appwardly mobile The most notable promotion comprises a loyalty points system available through the iOS and Androidenabled mobile app, a huge area of focus for Frimley for next year.

Since the national launch in May over 100,000 customers have downloaded the app and are participating in the points deal. The app allows customers to book tables, order take-away and collect rewards when dining in. Rewards include a choice of free food, such as free sides or pizza as a reward after three and six visits respectively. Additional offers like free desserts and money off vouchers are also available. The app forms part of a wider strategy to appeal to the millennial market.

It is the improvements in the pipeline next year that energises Frimley. “The exciting thing for us next year is the opportunity to extend the reach of

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the app,” he says. “Customers will be able to order and pay for food and drink on their mobile device, either in the restaurant or before they arrive.

“You could book your table and also order your food, which we’ll have ready for when you sit down, and even then you can add things on and pay when you like. That lapse time between deciding to leave and paying bills can be frustrating for customers, so this offers real flexibility and speed.”

Supporting team members Team members have been the other major beneficiaries of Pizza Hut Restaurants’ recent IT investments.

Hutters, formerly known as HutSpace, is an internal social network built on Microsoft Yammer to help staff engage better with the Restaurant Support Centre and each other.

“Having 268 restaurants across the UK can make it difficult to generate proper team member feedback,” Frimley explains. “We only have 120 employees in the RSC but 8,000 across the restaurant network, so we needed a platform which would help engagement”.

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 Leverage push messaging to communicate with employees

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8 years!

Celebrating 8 years as Pizza Hut’s Technology Partner Application and Security Managed Service Provider We are at the centre of today’s business and technology revolution. With UK based on-premise, public and hybrid cloud platforms for enterprise applications CSI helps transform complexity into simplicity. CSI understand that applications drive business and CSI manages applications securely.

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“We chose Yammer because it Team members can also enjoy is Software-as-a-service (SaaS) content generated by The School hosted in Microsoft cloud, it has of Life, its behavioural learning mobile applications meaning anyone which is using external expertise to can access it anywhere. It provides deliver behavioural and personal us 24/7 access and everybody development to all our team members now has an email address.” for free on top of their traditional Feedback has so far been training. It’s blended whole person extremely positive, and 3,800 staff development and the tech of Yammer are currently using the portal, with has allowed it to be delivered, but individual restaurants also accessed wherever able to set up their and whenever team own groups and drive members want it. localised discussions.

Pizza Hut Restaurants Team member rotas UK’s Chief People The amount of and training videos, and Marketing Officer revenue produced played through Hut TV, Kathryn Austin recently

by Pizza Hut along with emergency won HR Director of Restaurants UK IT support are other the Year award at helpful tools. the HR Excellence “It’s a great way of getting feedback awards. Her adoption and from our restaurants, in fact our CEO implementation of Yammer was has appeared several times on there, praised by award organisers. posting ‘ask me anything, and I will This open communications answer it’,” Frimley adds. “Menu underpins the behavioural culture of discussions also take place, app the organisation, through the best of discussions take place, and customer me and best of us approach as well feedback can be posted on there too, as assists the technology journey. helping us to recognise the great work Supplementing the additional carried out by individual restaurants.” organisational benefits of the

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Hutters network is a new workforce management system, implemented

by Verteda. This has enabled Restaurant managers a greater degree of accuracy and control over labour planning and deployment, as restaurants can forecast how many employees will be needed for any given shift at any given restaurant.

With accurate labour forecasting, based on activity and sales data, you can build efficiency, grow revenue and positively impact the restaurant’s bottom line. “Without this you are in danger of impacting the ability to properly serve customers which, if we’re going to be the best place to eat, we have to get right,” Frimley adds.

Backstage Behind the scenes, several key partnerships have transformed vital IT processes, from enterprise resource planning through to 24-hour IT support services.

A key task for Frimley when joining in 2013 was to review upgrades to Pizza Hut Restaurants’ ERP software, which back then comprised JD

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Edwards AS/400. He decided the best course of action was to stick to the expertise of Oracle and keep the JD Edwards product suite, bringing in Redfaire to implement the upgrade. Numerous benefits have been reaped from the move.

“We upgraded to JD Edwards EnterpriseOne release 9.1, taking the opportunity to adopt a SaaS approach, using Redfaire to host the application in its Cloud 9 private cloud infrastructure,” Frimley explains. “This has given us a far more robust service level agreement and disaster recovery.

The user interface is now a web-based setup, which is far more user friendly for our teams and more intuitive.”

Pizza Hut Restaurants’ underlying server and network infrastructure, including that which runs their main website and key business intelligence systems has been successfully supported, monitored and maintained as part of a Managed Service Contract held with CSI for the past eight years, while Retail Assist provides crucial support to keep the business online when problems arise.

“One of the challenges we faced was the quality of support and service to our restaurants,” Frimley says. “I had no awareness of the call volumes being made, key issues, let alone the information needed for my team to identify trends and root causes. For me it was very important to implement a one-stop-shop for our restaurants to report and resolve any IT issues, to have a single point of contact where all calls can be logged.”

After three months, having transferred the knowledge of how a Pizza Hut restaurant works, Frimley saw a step up in service.

The number of incidents gradually reduced and the Helpdesk is now delivering an impressive first time fix rate of 90 percent. Retail Assist, awarded Best Managed Service Desk by the Service Desk Institute, also provides early morning global checks and validation of systems, meaning IT has been thoroughly checked before staff arrive for work.

All suppliers and partners are encouraged by Pizza Hut Restaurants to visit the sites and grasp a feel of the

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“IT at restaurants should be like turning your lights on, a given that it will work, like electricity - that is the panacea. Job well done” – Keith Frimley, IT Director

PROUD TO BE THE SINGLE POINT OF CONTACT FOR PIZZA HUT RESTAURANTS’ IT AROUND THE CLOCK For award winning IT service desk support contact us on: +44(0)115 904 2777 | www.retail-assist.co.uk | info@retail-assist.co.uk

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pressures of service, creating a picture long term customers to Frimley, of how their services can translate into whose vision can be described by frontline impact. “In general I look to standing in his customers’ shoes. work with partners and suppliers who Frimley explains: “In terms of what are challengers, come to the table with our customers will notice, I want them fresh ideas and who have a strong to say ‘I have reliable and secure track record,” Frimley adds. “Most access to the products and services importantly they do what they say I use; our IT Team deliver great value they’re going to do, as our suppliers through services, products and are an extension of our IT team.” provide up to date technology, they “We have introduced are always bringing new a formal supplier ideas on how technology review process which may assist and improve includes a Supplier the business and of the year award, ultimately the service The number of enabling ourselves and to our guests and value staff employed our partners to provide to our shareholders.

by Pizza Hut feedback and ensure The support of our Restaurants UK that jointly we maintain systems is first class.’” high service levels”.

And as an internal supplier to the business, Frimley’s Foot on the pedal end game is for his customers to say: Though much has already been ‘IT are jointly owning the success achieved in three years, with new of the business by working with technology coupled with a balance operations to provide and operate of leveraging existing applications world class IT solutions in the giving a blended platform to Restaurants rather than just provide build upon, plenty of hard work kit that works. They are always there, still lies ahead. Restaurants and 24/7 to assist us help improve the IT colleagues are considered effectiveness of the operations.’

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The past few years has seen IT move from what Frimley describes as “firefighters to trusted operators”, and with new innovations such as the app extension coming in next year, technology looks set to drive the business forward in the future, enabling the IT team to deliver business value.

In Asia new innovations include robot waiters, while the UK team’s new Subconscious Menu concept is also making waves. Frimley explains: “The digital menu uses eye tracking software to assess where the customer is looking on the menu and then using a mathematical algorithm, determines which pizza is most suited to their tastes. When 200 customers tested the Subconscious

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Menu, it had a 98 percent success rate of recommending pizzas that customers enjoyed.

“We love to excite and innovate.

We wanted to try a few ideas on the traditional menu format and we’re delighted to have developed the world’s first Subconscious Menu, a unique way to reinvent the dining experience.”

Although robot waiters are not on the near future menu as they are in Pizza Hut Asia, best practice and excellence remain the overriding priorities.

Frimley concludes: “Ultimately, we are running IT as a business.

IT in restaurants should be like turning your lights on, a given that it will work, like electricity – that is the panacea. Job well done.”

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Introducing the mobile

bank.

Written by Nell Walker Produced by George Tweed

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COO of Atom Bank, Stewart Bromley, describes the incredible strides the digital-only bank is making in the financial world

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tewart Bromley is the Chief Operating Officer of Atom Bank. Having graduated from the University of Warwick, Bromley began working internationally for Ford Motor Company, moving on after 14 years to help with the rebrand of O2. He then started working independently before being headhunted by HSBC Direct, setting up and running the first central centre of excellence for the HSBC Group. It was at this point that Bromley delved deeper into banking, consulting for Lloyds and Nationwide, spearheading digital projects in the 1990s which were fresh and innovative for the time.

“My skills lie in change,” says Bromley. “Whether it’s technological, digital, or cultural – I’ve done the lot.”

Bromley was approached by a peer and friend of his, Mark Mullen (Atom’s

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CEO), asking if he would help to set up a new bank. Bromley responded that if the bank was digital-only, he was interested: “Having preached the threat of a digital bank at board-level for a number of years, this was too big a calling,” Bromley says. In May 2014, he formally became the second employee of Atom Bank, joining before all but one of the founders. “I started right from day one, and at the time there were six of us in a little room trying to work out how to build a bank.”

A digital challenge That six-strong team had no small task on its hands. A digital-only bank would require a great deal of research, but Bromley soon discovered that the research leaned heavily in Atom’s favour: “Atom is about the absolute recognition that consumer behaviour

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“Digital technology not only enables us to provide superb self service capability within the app, but also enables us to differentiate our customer support capability. Customers that contact us through the app have already been identified; we have contextual information, including their personal details, their device, operating system and where they have been in the app, all provided to the agent to enable them to provide a ‘telepathic’ customer experience.”

– Helen Wilson, Head of Customer Services

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is changing to be very mobile-centric,” thanks to Atom running at a lower he says. “We’ve been researching cost than other banks. He knew this topic for years. Back then there from his consulting work that banks’ were 8.7 million adults in the country biggest threat was digital start-ups, that wanted to bank digitally-only, and which wouldn’t need to grow new felt disenfranchised. Those people digital capabilities on an existing were underserved by the industry, mess of technology and processes. and the segment has grown at a rate “It’s not that established banks of two million customers a year. don’t want to advance, it’s that they “There was a total physically can’t because of the gap in the market, so technology layers they Atom didn’t do this for already have,” says Atom’s sake – it was Bromley. “You’ve got because there was to either start from an underserved fresh, or sub-brand The year Atom Bank community that which involves was founded wasn’t getting what cannibalising your it wanted. You can own company. Banks argue that other banks have are spending millions some form of mobile banking on digital and marketing, but the access, but they’re not a mobile bank.” amount of actual functionality they’re Creating a digital-only bank includes creating for customers is negligible. the advantage of delivering better You can start a new bank and launch technology geared specifically to the a complete suite of products for a proposition being created, along with tenth of the money, and it’s so much a much lower cost base thanks to it easier to keep abreast of technology’s being a self-service bank. According swift pace. If you can’t keep up, to Bromley, the customer receives a you’re never going to survive. We’re better experience and better value, leapfrogging the high street banks.”

2014

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AT O M B A N K

Innovation Atom Bank had to undertake some serious innovation in order to make it work. “You’ve got to think about how to squeeze the whole of a bank into a landscape of a few inches,” says Bromley, meaning that his team had to decide what a bank needed to be, and the top priority was customer experience. Atom created an animated interface using Unity 3D – a platform used predominantly in the gaming sector – and expanded that into a fully animated experience without any formulaic navigation.

The app features real-time information architecture, bringing the contextually-relevant information to the customer’s screen without the need for menus. Atom writes its own code for the app, but the services that depends on are almost entirely bought through partnerships. While most banks will partner with huge global companies like IBM, Atom prefers to form relationships with many smaller companies, ensuring that it keeps ahead with innovation and lowers costs. “Without those

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types of partners,” Bromley says, “we would never be able to deliver at this pace. And we will readily create more partnerships to maintain pace and supply best-in-breed capabilities.”

Security As the potential for security breaches becomes an increasing concern, Atom is made an all the more attractive prospect as a mobile-only – and therefore specific to the customer – concept.

“You get massive increases in levels of security with mobile-only,” says Bromley. “If all we did was regurgitate what a bank did there’d be no point – we had to completely differentiate.

We use either facial, voice recognition, or a passcode, depending on what the customer wants. Soon we’ll have fingerprint technology too.

“Most of our customers prefer the facial recognition software, and while some global companies may be using this technology, it’s new to the UK. We do have a support centre for any customers needing help, and it’s integrated into the app with a live

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TECHNOLOGY

chat function. Next year we’ll have video and voice to accompany that.

There’s a level of intelligence that’s been thought through to deliver the best customer experience.”

Atom’s biggest challenge at the start was funding. “We’re a start-up and we don’t have big pockets,” Bromley explains. “Banking is certainly not for the faint-hearted.”

It’s a tightly-regulated industry, and start-ups have very little negotiation power. While many companies can launch with only a few hundred pounds behind them, banks require several million just to meet the basic regulations; Atom had to raise £100 million at the very least, and managed £135 million to get started. “That’s before getting a single penny of income. The shareholders want a return as soon as possible, so you

immediately have to deliver at an incredible pace on a shoestring. But we’ve always got over our hurdles and have risen to the challenges of the job.

Today we’re doing pretty damn well.”

Bromley and his team are deeply passionate about the concept of digital-only banking and its place in a sector that is otherwise outdated, and believes strongly in its mission statement of ‘changing banking for good’.

“The future of the digital bank is based on what customers want, and the behaviour that customers are demanding,” Bromley concludes.

“Having the speed and agility to stay with the technology that the high street can’t compete with, and a cost-income ratio which makes all the difference – that’s a pretty compelling proposition.”

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Nordic

ingenuity

Written by Nell Walker Produced by Danielle Harris

DIGIPLEX

Byrne Murphy, Chairman of DigiPlex, describes the innovations his closeknit team has accomplished and the resulting impact on the industry

B

yrne Murphy is Chairman, Founder, and Co-Owner of DigiPlex, a global innovator of data centre technology. With the aid of a shareholder – William Conway, co-founder and CEO of The Carlyle Group, and one of the world’s most successful investors – Murphy began the company at a time when the first wave of data centres had already tried (and failed) to gain ground in Europe.

“There was 20 times more supply than demand, because the internet was so new in Europe in 1999-2000,” Murphy says. “The continent wasn’t ready for the infrastructure being built.

So all those data centre companies in their race for market share hit the wall and either went bankrupt or closed down. I negotiated a buyout from the banks and started DigiPlex in 2001.

“The first few years were quite lean

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because the infrastructure demand needed to mature, but the last eight have been gangbusters. In terms of expanding, you don’t want to keep building data centres across the map with dots on every corner – you want each dot to become bigger and bigger. All of our centres have been expanded several times, and they all have the potential to expand further.”

Clean and green There are several reasons why DigiPlex has succeeded where so many others failed, not least because its data centres are housed in Nordic countries, meaning that it enjoys the advantages of a cold climate. In addition, the centres use hydroelectric power, halving power costs versus those on the continent.

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TECHNOLOGY

and economical source; huge global love us because costs are dramatically companies like Apple and Facebook are reduced. Environmentalists love us investing massively in Sweden, Finland, because we’re using so much less Denmark and Norway because those power. We’ve won numerous awards countries offer such an abundance for this, and because the Nordics have of green, inexpensive energy. a very stable power supply, it’s a winDigiPlex decided to take this a step win-win situation for everybody.” further still by creating a new coolingsystem. The traditional water-based Customer trust system involves the movement of water According to Murphy, there are two all around the facility, which sub-sets of clients: those already proceeds to grow hot and present in the Nordic then requires cooling region, and international again, consuming a customers which come great deal of energy.

– and stay – for the DigiPlex, however, massive savings (a decided to utilise 20-megawatt data The year DigiPlex the surrounding centre running for 10 was founded air, which is already years in the Nordics cool, and develop would save around $75 what it calls an indirect million compared with the air-to-air cooling system. same size data centre in the UK).

“We take the cool air and use huge DigiPlex has the most modern and fans which operate very slowly, and efficient system available, the highest blow the air across the hot computer level of security staff, and crucially, 15 units, ensuring that the entire room years of experience in the industry. remains cool,” Murphy explains. “We “When we started in 2001, nobody had end up with a power usage efficiency deep experience in this sector,” says level of 1.1 or less, which places our new Murphy. “The most important thing to centres in the top three percent of the the customer is to choose a provider most efficient in the world. Customers with a proven track record. Customers

2001

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“You don’t want to keep building data centres across the map with dots on every corner – you want each dot to become bigger and bigger”

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are putting their mission critical data in our centres, and they have to trust that the power never shuts down. We have some of the biggest Nordic retailers as clients, not to mention banks, chemical companies, and mining companies, and we have the expertise to keep their information secure.”

DigiPlex has earned its 98 percent customer renewal rate. As well as offering the best possible service for data centre customers, the company maintains a personal relationship with them, helping them to reduce power usage: “We can save them a lot of money, and that’s what we do on a proactive basis,” says Murphy. “We can say to our customers ‘if you do the following things, you can reduce

your power bill by X percent’ – they love that. Then we’ll go back in six months or 12 months and reassess.”

DigiPlex further aids the industry with quarterly seminars in Norway, where the company gathers its customers and works through an agenda of anything they might like to know more about. “We talk about how operations are going and gauge whether our customers have considered the latest technology,” Murphy says.

DigiPlex is more bullish than ever about the attractiveness of the Nordic countries for data centres; one major reason why is that the government of each Nordic country is reducing the taxes on power consumption by data centres.

“Cheaper power enhances the region’s competitive advantage relative to mainland Europe and other areas of the world. The tax reforms will further accelerate the trend of international customers choosing the Nordics as the preferred location to host their data,” concludes Murphy.

Constant innovation DigiPlex is always innovating. Its goal is to offer the greatest possible level of

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TECHNOLOGY

flexibility and trustworthiness, and it achieves this by consistently working to offer more high-quality products.

The company works closely with vendors, reworking its power units as dictated by customer needs: “We came up with a way that upgrades 1.5 megawatt generator units to 2.0 megawatts for very little extra cost,” Murphy explains. “That ability has a lot of benefits for us. We can redesign a unit based on one customer’s needs, then sell that redesign to other customers. It’s very symbiotic.”

According to Murphy, as soon as a data centre is built, it’s already time to re-evaluate: “The pressure to innovate and update is constant, and there’s always more we can do,” he says. “Each time you create innovations, it should be that you’re realising great savings and efficiency out of it. We rely heavily

on the UK for our experienced staff; we’ve hired the best right from the start, and the level of talent from marketing, finance, engineering, construction, and management is unbelievable.

Most important to DigiPlex is its team, and the happiness thereof. A content team is the secret of a successful company, Murphy concludes: “We don’t have hundreds and hundreds of people – we have a much smaller team with an extremely high level of engaged spirit, and we work on that spirit, proactively, every day of the year. We take the whole company on a retreat every spring and try to keep the company culture at a high-performing level. If you’re not having fun on a sustained basis, then senior management is doing something wrong. It takes work to ensure everyone is happy, but we’re achieving that every day. That benefits our customers.”

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Driving innovation and efficiency through effective procurement

Written by Catherine Rowell Produced by Richard Durrant 103

S U P P LY C H A I N

With extensive experience of large projects, such as the major global transformation of procurement at National Grid, Westminster City Council’s Chief Procurement Officer Anthony Oliver has led the review of procurement at Westminster and kicked off a significant transformation process

S

ince Anthony Oliver’s appointment in 2012, the procurement team at Westminster City Council has strengthened its systems and operating model, making the organisation more commercial, driving greater innovation whilst maintaining strong governance and enabling effective decision making.

The council has achieved the CIPS Corporate Certification Standard, issued by The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply, of which Oliver explains, “This recognises what we’ve achieved to date, but we’re now able to build upon that with our 2016 Procurement Programme and move it into 2017. I really think that gives the

council a true competitive edge over what other authorities are doing.”

The recent CIPS recognition reflects the council’s continued focus on people development, market development, our operating model and technology development, as well as acknowledging that there are effective policies and processes in place with regards to best practice and management of risk, providing efficient innovation and change management.

Procurement Services provides a centralised category management approach that supports and enables the services in Westminster City Council. The team consists of Category Management which

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provides leadership, commercial insight and sourcing assurance to the stakeholders throughout the council, and Procurement Development that provides the procurement systems, policy and training and takes the lead in the strategic and day to day developments of the Procurement team. The team addresses spend of c. £450million per annum on goods, services and works, with a supply base of around 6,000 suppliers. The council’s primary role is to ensure that what they procure provides value for money (VFM) and meets the functional needs of the Council. Through strong relationship management, Westminster Council ensures that their suppliers deliver high standards of performance, as well as continuous improvement and innovation within the VFM framework.

Effective procurement is fundamental in supporting the delivery of the Council’s vision of a City for All – an unrivalled city of aspiration, choice and heritage, where the connections amongst residents, businesses and visitors get stronger as everyone

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plays their part in and benefits from the city’s continued success.

City for All underpins Procurement Service’s business plan and the council’s Category Management and Development objectives and activities are fully aligned to the City for All commitments. Oliver explained that Westminster City Council has sought to work in collaboration with several partners on the significant development and renovation works in the north of the borough, ensuring all procurement strategies are aligned with the council’s ‘City for All’ vision, incorporating Aspiration, Choice and Heritage, whilst focussing on all aspects of social value and sustainability with their Responsible Procurement approach to all procurement projects.

With the aim to retain the existing communities, whilst also developing areas of the borough, the council works to enable families to stay in their homes, gain affordable rent and return back to work. Oliver explains, “Often when councils redevelop, they move everybody out to put some new

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S U P P LY C H A I N

buildings up, and everybody who goes back in comes from somewhere else. We want to retain the community that exists in the north of Westminster in the Church Street ward area.”

Six new schemes supporting the City for All vision will enable the procurement team to deliver quality outcomes. One of the most significant will be employment and the creation of opportunities for residents to gain essential skills within the workplace.

This can be provided through apprenticeships and work experience, in addition to investment in advice centres to support individuals to return to work. This in turn creates a domino effect with regards to the other areas of focus: economic independence, quality of life, resilient communities, world-class environment and clean air. Oliver explains, “If, through our procurements and with our suppliers’ help, we can get more people back into work, it creates a knock-on effect, because once you’ve got people back into work, the impact that has on a family creates aspirations. We want our residents to have aspirations and

have those choices, but it really starts to have an impact on a family once we’re able to make those differences.”

Sustainability has become an important focus, and there is a procurement lead at the council who ensures that all procurement activity is aligned with the council’s social policy vision. This vision also extends to enabling families to make informed health choices. “Whether we are building or helping with employment outreach or helping with some of our public health procurement activities – we actually see the outcomes and that’s what leads back to a city of aspiration because we are creating those aspirations,” comments Oliver.

With significant investment for a new technical college, Milton University Technical College, in addition to a £26 million investment for a sports leisure centre and a £2 million community centre at the Jubilee Site, the council aims to give local communities the best possible support.

The Category Management team works with customers across the organisation and also collaborate

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WESTMINISTER CITY COUNCIL

on pan-London procurements with other London Boroughs and the Clinical Care Groups. Category Managers support customers in City Management and Communities, Planning, Public Health, Corporate Services, Housing Regeneration, General Construction and Property.

To enhance the value that our team creates Category Managers will often co-locate to work in the same areas as the services that they are supporting.

Procurement Services, working in collaboration with the Council’s key Services, are driving innovation within their procurements. For example, rather than adopting the traditional parking enforcement approach, the council has adopted the use of marshals, who ensure that drivers park safely can find a street where parking spaces are available and pay the appropriate fee. To support this further, the council has invested in parking sensor technology as part of its procurement strategy, enabling staff to view parking spaces and direct drivers to a street with ample space. Members of the public are also

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able to download an app created by the council in order to find a suitable space. However, Oliver explains, “This is all about trying to help people through our parking solutions – however, we do still issue parking tickets and we have a back-office service that is outsourced to NSL that delivers a very efficient service in terms of process and transactions.”

To ensure the delivery of key services, the council currently outsources a number of contracts, such as Agilisys for distributed computing and service desk. BT currently holds the council’s managed services contract, in addition to back office finance services (processing of invoices), alongside its data centres and essential HR services, as part of several frameworks. “Outsourcing our back-office functions is providing great efficiency to the council, but also, importantly, these procurements are helping to deliver against our medium-term plan to bridge the funding gap that all local authorities are facing in these times of reduced funding from central government.”

Oliver says. “While we take an approach that helps to deliver in excess of a £1 million worth of savings to Westminster, it is a framework that is open to 32 other London boroughs to also call off and gain efficiencies.”

Category managers in the Procurement Services team in Westminster ensure consistent positive working relationships with key stakeholders and customers, identifying key stakeholders and their roles within procurement projects, whether they are the owner of the budget, main decision maker, representative of finance, legal or any other vital position. Whilst the council adheres to current EU procurement rules, the Procurement Services team always aims to engage with the market as early as possible, as part of the category management process, in order to understand how the market can support the delivery of current services.

Collaboration and communication is vital with all procurement projects, as Oliver explains, “I would very much describe it as a partnership. It is about

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relationships, understanding what the customer wants and supplying the expert advice that we can provide as category experts, whether that’s category & market knowledge, or best practice policy and process, such as EU procurement regulations or some of the policies around what we do on social value and also how we use technology to the best affect when we go to market.”

The organisation has invested significantly in the use of various technologies in order to remain innovative and consistent. The use of capitalEsourcing, the council’s eProcurement platform – a framework that the council awarded to BravoSolution in 2014 and that Westminster has configured and rebranded to make it work for local government – has streamlined the management of all procurement and contract activity. The framework was open to 22 other London authorities, of which seven are currently using the technology. The system is the tool for all procurement activity providing an end-to-end e-sourcing suite that gives

full visibility of 3rd party contracts. This has allowed the procurement team to look at opportunities for aggregation, drive savings out of existing contracts and provide more effective reporting of contract performance. Oliver sees capitalEsourcing as “developed by local government for local government.” It was successfully used for the procurement of the Triborough contract for ICT provision which was awarded to BT and Agilisys, but, says Oliver, because it “standardises” the way Tri-borough councils do business and “simplifies the engagement process”, it is also useful in encouraging local businesses to tender, particularly SMEs, who have warmed to the online system.

Oliver concludes, “To complete the picture, we are now in the process of linking capitalEsourcing into our back office and service facilities with BT.” New ways of working have also been a key facet of a number of strategies including People, Digital Engagement and Asset Management Strategies. The Council has sought to create an environment that delivers

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“We actually see the outcomes and that’s what leads back to a city of aspiration because we are creating those aspirations”

more collaboration, collective responsibility and productivity as part of our cost reduction proposals.

The council is aiming at extending its operations and procurement services through the creation of Westminster Procurement Services Ltd, a trading arm for Westminster, with the aim to become more commercial and offer consultancy expertise to other public Supply Chain organisations.

A recent joint venture with niche procurement consultancy firm, shortly to be made public, will ensure the organisation is able to leverage its substantial capability in the delivery of procurements and best practice, in order to sell into other public Supply Chain organisations, giving the council a competitive edge.

The Council has strengthened its strategic commissioning and procurement capabilities. This is a key enabler of their strategic vision and has delivered more than ÂŁ10m towards the 2016/17 savings target. The council has undergone significant financial pressures, with a gap of ÂŁ100 million to close within two years, in addition to a

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further £100 million gap which needs closing. To this effect, the organisation has streamlined operations and looked closer at the services delivered, alongside a reduced workforce to see how they can be delivered to residents in a more effective way.

The current procurement supporting the refurbishment of City Hall, an investment that will in time, deliver substantial savings, will ensure an improved workplace and consistent service approach. The council is also keen to invest in its employees with a leadership programme named the Westminster Way, supporting the organisation to remain efficient and provide resilience.

Westminster Council has built efficient and effective ways of working to support the running of procurement, with well-informed outcomes and increased savings. Oliver explains that it is important “to manage change better, because it is significant – the change that we’re driving”. The organisation has become a beacon council for what they are doing in procurement, with other councils

wishing to discuss how they have implemented category management, best practice, strong governance and become more commercial, driving innovation and efficiency.

Oliver says, “Our team are engaged, we’ve developed our own category management approach, we’re embedded with the service departments and we have strong stakeholder engagement.”

However, the council is still on a journey, but wishes to become the best within local government, and is on the road to success as it continues on that journey.

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Brazilian

brilliance Written by Dale Benton

Brazilian Nickel Ltd

BRAZILIAN NICKEL

The Piaui Nickel Project in Brazil looks to change the nickel industry: Brazilian Nickel talks about revolutionising the nickel industry by building a strong legacy in Piaui

T

he relationship between a mining company and the local community or economy in which it operates is not something that should be taken for granted. For a company like Brazilian Nickel, enhancing, protecting and developing a sustainable future for the local community in Piauí is one of the most important aims of the business, second only to shaping the future of the nickel industry.

Brazilian Nickel formed in 2013 and began to develop the flagship Piauí Nickel Project, in the North Eastern Piauí state of Brazil. Over the last three years the company has fully integrated itself into the surrounding community, providing jobs, training and opportunities.

“We want to be a local company, a

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Brazilian company,” says Mike Oxley, Managing Director of Brazilian Nickel.

“We’ve made a real effort to try and balance employment from different towns and villages in our area so that we don’t just concentrate on one or another to truly maximise the benefit of a local network,” he says.

For a UK company, heading into a foreign state can prove difficult for many reasons, not least that it can be met with detractors and dismissed as merely another ‘foreign company’ disrupting the local environment.

This is crucial to the success of the company and achieving the vision for the future.

“This is the poorest state in Brazil and so we want to bring opportunities and jobs and wealth to this part of the country,” says Anne Oxley, Brazilian

MINING

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MINING

Nickel’s Technical Director. “As a company we can empower the local people and build their capacities.”

Luciano Ramos, Chief Operating Officer at Brazilian Nickel, is a native Brazilian with a wealth of experience in mining organisations worldwide.

Locals in the state of Piauí are not wealthy and job opportunities are slim, but Ramos believes that through training opportunities, Brazilian Nickel can prepare locals “not just for Brazil, but for the world.”

Through the Piauí Nickel Project the company aims to create a competitive advantage in the heap leaching of Nickel laterite. Heap leaching is a process of extracting valuable metals from ores through dissolving the metals in solvent. It is a low cost process which naturally brings huge capital cost savings and a competitive edge over other nickel laterite operators.

Local business, local suppliers One way in which the company aims to grow and achieve success as a business while maintaining that local Brazilian foundation is

through working with local suppliers.

Brazilian Nickel works to establish a mutual benefit for both the company and the local partner.

“As a company we realised that local suppliers deliver to high standards but may lack in experience. This is where BRN comes in; we embed sustainability into what we plan to do in the area by creating and training a group of local companies who can then work to world class standards,” says Mike Oxley.

For any mining operation, choosing the location in which to create and develop a project takes time and consideration in order to fully realise the potential in the business. This process saw him look at over 118 different locations in which the technology could be applicable, including Russia, Indonesia, Turkey and North America before settling on Brazil.

“Brazil has a strong mining culture. The people here understand mining and the benefits that it can bring to the economy as well as what it can bring for the ordinary person in terms of the metals we

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use in our technology,” he says. there is a huge melting pot of them Brazil has a strong and clear in Brazil. Of course you can use legislative path which Brazilian Nickel expats but for me it is better if you will follow in order to obtain all the can take your skilled people from required licences for operation. The the country you’re working in.” company in fact has received a great level of support from the state of Booming Brazil in 2016 Piauí and the state capital Teresina, 2016 has been a strong year for it has assisted in this process Brazilian Nickel as the company to allow BRN to both produced its very first understand and operate saleable nickel product within the regulatory from the Piaui project requirements. demonstration plant, Looking at the using low strength choice of location acid lixiviant on Number of employees from a technical the heaps to gain at Brazilian Nickel perspective, Brazil a PLS high in value has a very rich technical metals. From this we base with multiple create a product that technical universities to Oxley believes is the “right support the country’s mining culture. product” to take to the nickel market.

“As a technology company as The company recently completed a well as a mining company, the pre-feasibility study at the site which skills needed to operate are at a determined that at full operation the high level,” says Anne Oxley. project will produce around 24,500 “Engineers, metallurgists, process tonnes of nickel per year contained engineers, electrical engineers in an intermediate product. are all needed for this project and Despite this, Oxley is keen to bring

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the project into production earlier and BRN looks to head into production in early 2018 at a much smaller scale at around 1,000 tonnes per year.

“In many respects, by taking things in bitesize chunks it means we can bring our people and team with us. We have time to develop them and in today’s capital markets, we are aware that it’s not easy and it’s not been easy for a number of years,” he says.

“We feel we have achieved and been different from many other companies in that we have made real progress against very strong headwinds. We expect to keep on being able to do that but we’re not trying to leap and run, we’re making sure we are within our capabilities on each of our steps.”

Breaking out into the world Brazilian Nickel prides itself on its local suppliers and local roots but it does not underestimate the importance of international partners. The nickel industry, despite being global, is in fact relatively small due to the fact there is not a large number of companies producing the metal.

“It does get larger the further downstream you go of course,” says Oxley. “It’s a small industry with nowhere to hide, so It is important for us to build a solid reputation and highlight that as we position ourselves as a low cost producer of nickel we are a professional and ethical company that can bring relatively high shareholder value.”

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Beyond the project, Brazilian Nickel is committed to sustainability. Mine closures are commonplace across the industry and this is something that must be brought to the table of discussion when planning ahead.

A legacy of empowerment Brazilian Nickel incorporates the idea of a positive legacy into its strategy.

As with its commitment to creating opportunities and growth within the local community, the company is committed to a legacy of change as evidenced by the work with growing local supplier businesses.

“Sustainable mining could be regarded as something of an oxymoron,” says Oxley. “Mines by their very nature at some point will run out, regardless of how long their mine life might be.”

“Once upon a time a mine would close and that would pretty much be the end of that

town,” says Anne Oxley.

“If you start at the beginning of the process with a view to create a legacy that can survive the mine, there are things you can do.

Businesses will grow and survive, communities will grow with them.”

The company, in producing the first saleable nickel product, has surpassed its technical expectations and achieved its success on time, on quality and most importantly on budget. This has allowed the company to think beyond the Piauí Nickel Project, with testing currently underway on an improved nickel product with the use of ion exchange and plans to one day expand across wider Brazil and worldwide.

“We are looking at other opportunities of course but right now it’s important not to lose focus on what’s important to the company, which is to get the Piauí project into production,” Mike Oxley concludes.

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“We’ve made a real effort to try and balance employment from different towns and villages in our area so that we don’t just concentrate on one or another to truly maximise the benefit of a local network”

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Sustainable resources Written by Nye Longman Produced by Jack Pascall

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Utilising unmatched expertise, Euromax is delivering its flagship copper-gold mining project in Macedonia while making a significant contribution to the local community

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estled in the verdant hills of south eastern Macedonia are the villages of Ilovica and Shtuka which together sit on one of the nation’s largest copper-gold porphyry deposits.

Spotting the opportunity to develop this lucrative resource back in 2012 after selling European Gold Fields to Eldorado Gold Corp, Canadian-owned Euromax Resources stepped up to the challenge and the current management team moved in. Four years down the line, and with all but one of the necessary permits and assessments completed, construction of a bulk tonnage open pit mine is almost ready for the go-ahead. Business Review Europe speaks to Patrick Forward, Chief Operating Officer at Euromax Resources, and examines how the project has been engineered to be a profitable success, and how the company has placed sustainability at its core.

“We recognised it was actually a business necessity to get the project finance we want, but it is actually, I think we have proved it, relatively easy to do that,” he says.

The Ilovica-Shtuka mine The long term goal of Euromax is to grow to become Europe’s leading gold and base metal mining company, with the Ilovica-Shtuka mine as its flagship project that will employ 500 locals. In line with this ambitious goal, the company and its experienced

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“A project of this size can move the add percentage points of the GDP of a country that size” – Patrick Forward, Chief Operating Officer

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teams are looking to lead the European mining industry for social and environmental responsibility, and for health and safety.

The mine, which has proven sulphide ore reserves of 198.1 million tonnes, is optimally situated, as Forward explains: “We like the area and we like the deposit particularly because we like the copper porphyries. It has got good infrastructure, a well-educated workforce, good logistics, proximity to a smelter and we knew how important all of that was from developing the Skouries deposit further to the south when we were at European Goldfields.

“The deposit has great continuous mineralisation and it is very amenable to open pit development. It was a perfect combination of being on entirely state owned forestry ground, a little bit up in the hills and only 17 kilometres from a reasonable sized town. We weren’t looking at displacing anyone - there is a good workforce available and good infrastructure locally. That’s what attracted us in.”

With construction at the mine

billed for completion in the next two years, Euromax is working with key industry partners to ensure that it is not only delivered on time and on budget, but also to the satisfaction of the local community and to international environmental standards.

The fact that it already had an approved EIA indicated that there was much approval for the project, both locally and in the country as a whole.

“Although we had been working in

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the area, we didn’t know Macedonia itself; what we found was a country that really wanted to develop its natural resources,” Forward says.

“When we sat down with ministers and the Prime Minister, we immediately realised that there was a desire to attract foreign investment and develop their resources; a project of this size can add percentage points to the GDP of a country that size.”

to deliver on key outcomes.

Forward explains: “We have, through the local technical university, got experts on air and water, dust, noise, and socio-economic professors as well. For water services, we worked with WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff; we particularly chose to have them as dedicated water experts who would be able to talk to all the engineering needs of the project and the environmental impacts.

Sustainability “They manage For Euromax, water on-site but Number of employees at Euromax Resources measuring the also talk to the successful construction environmental and of the project hinges on social impacts of the delivering an operation that has project and make sure that as little an impact on the environment all of the other stakeholders are as possible and, moreover, makes taken care of with respect to water. a positive contribution to society WSP has been absolutely brilliant at large. To achieve this end, the in training up our own people.” miner has examined every link in An important partner was the chain – from studying the social Geops - a drilling contractor used and archaeological impact of the for the project’s drilling, resource, project, all the way through to geotechnical and hydrological engaging with specialist partners work. “Geops has been responsive,

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“We have, through the local technical university, got experts on air and water, dust, noise, and socio-economic professors as well” – Patrick Forward, Chief Operating Officer

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offered very competitive rates and world class quality,” says Forward.

“They have also managed to train up local people as part of their drill operating teams and help us manage community issues relating to drilling.”

SGS was another key partner, Forward explains; its expertise was vital to delivering metallurgical test work over the four years of development. “This has included helping us optimise the process route, establish recoveries and reagent levels, characterise tailings and characterise waste rock,” he says. “The characterisation of tailings and waste rock is a vital part of making sure that our mining waste facilities, including the tailings management facility, conform to the highest international standards.

“SRK has made sure this concept can be applied in a practical way through detailed design and execution of the mining operation.”

This partner was responsible for executing the post-feasibility study

mine design, delivering a range of objectives including geotechnical analysis, pit optimisation and design, haulage design and fleet selection, as well as cost estimation and mine waste management.

“The fact that all of our mine waste is used in the construction of the embankment for the tailings management facility means that we have a reduced footprint,” Forward explains. “The embankment is entirely rock filled and uses the ‘downstream’ construction method which is the most conservative approach available.”

In the four years spent developing the Ilovica-Shtuka mine, Euromax has demonstrated that sustainability isn’t simply a matter of compliance, more an active, positive contribution to the locality. By developing the project in line with the highest international standards, and through working with local and national stakeholders, Euromax has ensured that the project’s positive legacy is secured for the long term.

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Putting digital at the heart

Written by Lucy Dixon Produced by Andrew Lloyd

For NHS Blood and Transplant, digital is at the heart of everything it does, from its customer-facing website and blood donor portal, to the ways that transplant surgeons receive information and make decisions

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HS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) facilitates donation and transplantation across the whole of the UK and also manages the supply of blood and tissues, as well as a range of specialist blood testing, for England. And, as Chief Digital Officer Aaron Powell explains, technology is making an incredible impact on the work it does, ultimately improving patient outcomes and saving lives. “What we’re doing has a direct impact in saving and improving people’s lives. It’s what we’re about as an organisation.

Whether it’s providing services to blood donors that enable them to make appointments to come and give blood or providing services that allow us to accurately and efficiently allocate the precious gifts that people donate to us to the right patient, my

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job is to make sure the technology services that we offer are resilient and robust to enable the team to do the best possible job that they can do.”

Powell’s appointment as CDO for NHSBT in 2015 coincided with the organisation’s shift towards a more digital operation. “My appointment heralded the beginning of a real focus on digital and what digital can mean for what we do as a blood and transplant organisation,” he explains.

“We had already started to explore digital opportunities but, in line with many public sector organisations, we’d focused initially on our customerfacing activity.” So the website and portals for potential blood donors were already developed, making the next step thinking about what NHSBT might do differently as an organisation if it was able to take

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www.scc.com

Driving Digital Transformation NHS Blood and Transplant has partnered with SCC, Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest independent IT services business, and HP Inc., to deliver innovation in a way that will change healthcare.

SCC and HP Inc.: Driving digital transformation with NHS Blood and Transplant

NHS Blood and Transplant delivers an essential service, saving lives on a daily basis.

At any given time, NHSBT employees need visibility of exactly where blood products are, exactly where they’ve been and exactly who they’ve gone to, so it is critical that allows them to access this information in a timely manner.

With a view to become asset-free in the next 3-5 years, NHSBT recently underwent a large scale transformational project to move away from their legacy infrastructure and begin transitioning services into the cloud.

To support this, SCC, Europe’s largest independent IT solutions provider, teamed up with HP Inc. to design and execute a solution to refresh their desktop estate and provide futureproof technology to support desktop modernisation.

The introduction of HP Elite 1012 devices between tablet and laptop mode, allowing them to securely access information and applications from the cloud, even when on the move.

Using HP’s T630 thin client devices, NHSBT employees can now connect to SCC’s secure cloud network to remotely access their desktop applications from any device. This increased business mobility infrastructure.

The whole project is funded using SCC’s

Following a successful hardware rollout, SCC provides ongoing managed services, with teams of HP accredited device experts on hand to provide maintenance to all NHSBT sites across the UK and 24x7 support from SCC’s award winning customer service centre.

The 30 year partnership between SCC and HP Inc. combines SCC’s end to end technology solutions and secure cloud services, with industry-leading HP devices to provide NHSBT with the technology they need to support the delivery of services which save lives.

total cost of ownership. Flex Start consolidating all invoices for purchased equipment into one predictable quarterly statement, reducing administration and making it easier to audit.

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full advantage of the capabilities that digital technologies provide.

NHSBT enables over 4,000 transplants to occur across the UK every year and has over one million blood donors registered to book appointments via the organisation’s online portal. It processes around 6,000 units of blood every day, supplying 200 hospital trusts in England with essential blood for surgery, trauma and blood

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transfusions. “We maintain a regular supply of blood across the country and then we have a diagnostic and therapeutic services division, which is an essential collection of business units, providing specialised testing capabilities and therapeutic apheresis services,” Powell adds.

The digital transformation that is now framing everything NHSBT does is all about connectedness and personalisation – focusing on how

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it can connect information across the different business units in order to provide a better service. “We’ve been working on understanding what a connected health service and a personalised health service actually means. How we can provide a more joined-up service to people with other parts of the NHS? And how can we ultimately connect that information to someone outside of the health sector, to make sure that the service we’re providing is one that is designed around the needs of individual donors and suits their lifestyle and the way they wish to donate?”

Although Powell describes this as a ‘journey that we’re on rather than a destination we’ve reached’, the work it has carried out on the online blood donor portal has led to over 50 percent of all bookings being made online and a three percent increase in attendance in just two years. “We’re looking at the data, the processes and technology we use to understand how we can connect across NHSBT and beyond in order to rethink the services we offer,” he adds. The donor portal’s primary purpose is to give donors a

We’re looking at the data, the processes and technology we use to understand how we can connect across NHSBT and beyond in order to rethink the services we offer better experience in terms of allowing them to make and view appointments at a time convenient to them, and it has additional benefits for NHSBT. “In terms of our own processing, it has significantly reduced the overhead of management appointment bookings and we have saved around £1.4 million just in terms of the paperwork associated with donor appointments as a consequence,” Powell says.

NHSBT’s technology strategy needed a complete rethink in order to deliver this digital-first approach, says Powell. “Like a lot of organisations we have got very good legacy systems that we have been running for a number of years that were essentially developed in either the late 90s

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or early 2000s. Sharing data and standards and open interfaces into processes on these systems has been other applications that are delivered hard so we framed a strategy around to us primarily as SaaS.” This means this – we knew that we needed to do that NHSBT doesn’t need to think technology differently but we hadn’t about the infrastructure and the really thought through how differently technology, but can focus on the so, as a consequence of that, a business functionality and usability. number of our systems were at risk of “We think about how we can leverage becoming unstable and we needed to the technology to save and improve shore them up. So the watch words lives, which is ultimately what we’re around the strategy were about as an organisation.” that we would stabilise, So NHSBT has been protect and migrate the working with SCC existing systems.” closely on this issue of A significant part of operational stability that stabilisation was of its applications, for achieved by securing the future for all of the Number of employees hosting arrangements services it operates. at NHS Blood and SCC data centres that “We also worked Transplant put NHSBT’s systems on with Microsoft quite a sound footing. Powell heavily to explore the adds: “And then we’re looking to possibilities of cloud services and protect those systems by bringing in how we can have those flexible the latest versions of the technologies services that allow us to scale up in that we currently operate as we times of peak activity but also scale migrate them to the new world, down in times of reduced activity as we call it, which is about using and have confidence that those cloud services to provide resilience, services are available and they’re scalable and flexible solutions supported in safe environments, that we can integrate using open with other people worrying about

5,000

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the underlying technology.”

Another crucial partner has been Vodafone, Powell says, which provides all of NHSBT’s connectivity and telephony contracts.

“Our collaboration with Vodafone gives us the network capability to access these services and to access them in a reliable way, and the bandwidth across our network to allow us to access and make heavy use of cloud-based services.”

On the organ donation and transplantation side, NHSBT has started to use the intelligent

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computing capabilities of the IBM Business Process Management Solution in order to develop a set of allocation rules. “With this we can change more flexibly over time to respond to clinical needs and clinical practices around organ allocation, to ensure that the maximum number of people have access to organ transplantation as a therapy and we make best use of the organs that are available to us from donors.”

Organ allocation schemes are designed to balance equity and utility – fundamentally to make

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sure that everyone in need has a fair chance of an organ transplant.

When you consider that organs are in short supply, and on average three people still die every day in need of a transplant, it is easy to see that every efficiency allowed by technology can make a difference on the number of lives extended through organ transplantation. “It’s about making sure that we match

the donor organ with the transplant recipient in a way that is safe and will result in a positive outcome to the transplant, but also make sure that the allocation scheme maximises the number of people who will receive a transplant and the number of years that they will live with a donated organ,” Powell adds.

The allocation scheme works behind the scenes in conjunction

Next Generation Digital Transformation T-Impact is NHSBT’s strategic delivery partner for Business Process Automation and Business Rules Management using IBM BPM and ODM. We’re helping to deliver NHSBT’s 2020 transformation strategy by improving the process and efficiency of organ donation and transplantation across the UK. It’s a partnership delivering world-class technology to a vital service, and we’re proud to be a part of it.

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with DonorPath, which is an iPad app created for the specialist nurses.

Powell says: “The nurses can collate all the information they need about an organ donor in order to provide information to the transplant surgeons to make a decision about whether or not to accept an organ.

That’s a risk-based decision based upon the factors of the recipient they’re dealing with and the donor.” This transforms 75 pages of paper forms that the nurses fill in into a risk profile that the transplant centres can make a decision on.

“We have another digital service called our Electronic Offering

Service (EOS) which is available to transplant surgeons on a range of mobile devices that gives them the critical information they need in order to make that decision in real time.” And the nature of organ donation and transplantation means these decisions need to be made quickly. Once again, this illustrates how technology – in this case, the processing of information, can make a difference by reducing delays and helping the transplant teams manage the logistics more efficiently.

Powell highlights the multiple benefits his team provides to the wider organisation with its core delivery

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We have another digital service called our Electronic Offering Services which is available to transplant surgeons on a range of mobile devices that gives them the critical information they need in order to make that decision in real time programmes, such as the ODT (organ donation and transplantation) Hub programme. “This is effectively creating a central command and control centre for organ donation and transplantation that uses intelligent technology such as the IBM business process management system to allow us to manage the realtime logistics.” There is also a Core Systems Modernisation programme, which is replacing the traditional blood control systems with an intelligent CRM capability using Dynamics CRM, and a supply chain management capability using Dynamics AX. Another core programme is updating the infrastructure and desktop operating system.

“Balancing how we interact between SCC data centres and Microsoft cloud services, we are relying much more

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on needing connected systems, so we also have a network improvement programme with Vodafone that is looking to improve the bandwidth to all of our sites and all of our locations over the next 12 months,” Powell says, concluding that NHSBT is currently investing more heavily in technology than it has for some time, meaning that this complex organisation is making steady improvements. “The technologies that we’re using allow us to both provide convenience to our donors and to clinicians, and also gives significant overall operational efficiency to NHSBT. Ultimately, it all contributes to what we are about as an organisation – enabling our donors to do something amazing, to save and improve the lives of others” Powell says.

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