Business Review Europe - September 2017

S e pte mb e r 2017

www.businessrevieweurope.eu

TOP 10 SUPERMARKET CHAINS

LUXCONNECT

PUTTING LUXEMBOURG ON THE DATA CENTRE MAP

THE HISTORY OF CIRCULAR

ECONOMIES

FLYING HIGH WITH

KIWI.COM OLIVER DLOUHÝ’S STORY OF A BASEMENT STARTUPTURNED-GLOBAL LOW COST AIRFARES PL AYER

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FOREWORD WELCOME TO THE September edition of Business Review Europe.

First up is our cover feature with the Founder of low cost flight booking platform Kiwi.com, Oliver DloughĂ˝, who has transformed his basement startup into a serious global player in the industry.

Also leveraging the power of data is LuxConnect, key data centre provider in Luxembourg and quickly positioning the country as a go-to destination for data services. See our interview with CEO Roger Lampach to find out more.

Our top 10 this month looks at the biggest supermarket chains dominating the European food retail scene. Find out which companies currently hold the largest footprints on the continent.

Finally, be sure to read our other exclusive company insights with JLL, Sheffield Hallam University and Houghton International.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the issue, and as always, please tweet your feedback to @BizReviewEurope

Enjoy the issue!

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F E AT U R E S

8 TECHNOLOGY

HOW THE CIRCULAR

ECONOMY CAN DEVELOP

EMERGING

NATIONS

TOP 10

INTERVIEW

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AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL 4

September 2017

EUROPEAN SUPERMARKETS

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NGN Group

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JLL

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Sheffield Hallam University TECHNOLOGY

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Houghton International MANUFACTURING

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HOW THE CIRCULAR

ECONOMY CAN DEVELOP

EMERGING

NATIONS LEILA HAWKINS TALKS TO JOE ILES, DIGITAL ARCHITECT AT THE ELLEN MACARTHUR FOUNDATION, THE CHARITY THAT WORKS WITH BUSINESSES AROUND THE WORLD TO PROMOTE THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY Wr i t t e n by : LE I L A H AW K I N S

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CIRCULAR ECONOMY CIRCULAR ECONOMY IS not just essential to stop the planet from running out of its natural resources, it can also lift the developing world out of poverty.

The Industrial Revolution saw the transition from making items by hand to using machines powered by steam and coal. This lifted a large portion of the western world out of poverty by making production more efficient, as well as developing railways, communication systems and banking.

But this was only the first revolution.

The second, which extended into the early 20th century, brought electricity to industries along with the first cars and airplanes.

These advances were essential to growing the economy, which is how the linear system of producing and then discarding began. This inevitably resulted in harmful gas emissions and huge quantities of waste, and is still how the world works today. 250 years later, with the earth’s natural resources and space to dispose of rubbish running out, this simply isn’t fit for purpose anymore.

The more recent third industrial revolution uses technology and digitisation to automate services, but 10

September 2017

we are now in the midst of the fourth, which is taking this many steps further with innovations like artificial intelligence, 3D, the Internet of Things, self-driving vehicles, and cloud storage among many others.

The emergence of circular economy Thanks to these developments along with wireless devices and smartphones, the world is becoming seamlessly connected, making it possible to reach out and help the communities who need it the most and all without harming the environment.

Just as the linear economy improved the livelihoods of vast swathes of the western world’s population, the new circular economy, which consists of wasting less and making best use of what is already available by recycling and repairing, can have the same impact in the developing world.

Joe Iles is the Digital Architect at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the charity that works with businesses

D E V E L O P I N G E M E R G I N G N AT I O N S

“If the Indian population followed the linear model we have, in the next few years we’d see more and more people buying cars. Why would we do that?”

– Joe Iles, Digital Architect, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

around the world to promote circular economy, founded by the former famous professional sailor.

He explains that many developing countries haven’t established the infrastructure of the linear economy in the same way there is in the west.

“One example is that in some lower middle income countries they didn’t 11

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D E V E L O P I N G E M E R G I N G N AT I O N S

have landlines and there was no telephone communication, or it was very limited. Then mobile phones came along, they were cheap and accessible, so the landlines and that infrastructure never really developed.

The hypothesis is that maybe they could skip over some of that linear infrastructure to something that’s inherently more circular.”

One of the places where there is a real opportunity for circular economy to have a big impact is India, where there are far fewer car owners than in the west.

Iles explains: “If the Indian population followed the linear model we have, in the next few years we’d see more and more people buying cars.

Why would we do that? Let’s go straight for an on-demand, shared multimodal transport system that works out better for the customer, better for cities and the urban environment, and is a way better use of resources and energy.”

Development initiatives This form of transport Iles talks about is currently being created by LG

Electronics and Volkswagen. “A group of neighbours, friends or family will share ownership of one car,” Iles says.

“The idea would be that you save on the financial burden of owning, maintaining and running a car, by accessing it rather owning it outright.”

The motor industry is a particular focus. “The average car in the EU is sat in the driveway doing nothing for 95% of the time, which isn’t a good investment,” Iles continues. “Then when we’re using it, 3% of the time we’re just sat in traffic or looking for parking.”

Other initiatives embedding this new model include companies renting out top-of-the-range gadgets like Apple watches, iPads and virtual reality headsets, retailers selling make-up cases that can be refilled with beauty products, and manufacturers refurbishing medical equipment making it available at a lower cost to hospitals. These are all designed for customers to avoid buying brand new equipment and discarding them when the latest models are released.

Large organisations are also implementing telemedicine services for patients to be treated remotely 13

CIRCULAR ECONOMY such as Philips, and in India, Apollo Hospitals. This will address doctor shortages, benefit overstretched health services, and could make healthcare much more accessible.

Circulating out of poverty Sweden has taken a particularly progressive direction with its policy of reducing VAT on repaired and refurbished goods. There have also been a few countries springing towards it that Iles wasn’t expecting to be so forward-thinking. “It always amazes me. Awareness of circular economy is cropping up in countries that wouldn’t necessarily be your first thought. Rwanda appeared last year on our radar as they are considering circular economy as a development strategy. Emerging nations might be the ones who surprise us with ambitious policies and directions.”

The Ellen McCarthur Foundation has predicted there could be huge benefits to people’s income. By 2030 it believes EU households could see an increase of €3,000 a year in disposable income, which is 10% more than if the economy follows its current path. “We put it down to a reduced cost in 14

September 2017

products and services, and the conversion of unproductive to productive time,” Iles says.

This would apply globally too. In India, for instance, there would be 15% less spending on food and a decrease of 24% in transport costs.

“You can read all these things about how the world is getting better and standards of living are increasing,” says Iles. “These are sweeping statements, but I mention them because if we want everyone around the world to alleviate poverty and to pursue sustainable goals, we don’t believe you can do that on a linear development path. It’s something that worked quite well when you had lots of energy and resources, and places to put stuff when you didn’t need them anymore, but we don’t think those conditions are reliable in the 21st century.

“If we largely agree on that, and most people do agree that those are issues, then what’s the alternative?

That’s why for me personally, a circular development path is definitely the best approach.”

Explaining the circular economy

“The average car in the EU is sat in the driveway doing nothing for 95% of the time, which isn’t a good investment” – Joe Iles, Digital Architect, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

INTERVIEW

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

How one Czech company is bridging airline gaps in order to make travelling cheaper and smoother

W r i t t e n b y : H A Z E L D AV I S

THERE’S CERTAINLY NO shortage of companies eager to make life easier for people on the move.

The average traveller can barely move for journey-planners and AI-generated assistance, eagerly adopted by the major airlines and travel providers, keen to differentiate their own offer and hang on to their customer for as long as possible.

But online flight aggregator service Kiwi.com (formerly known as Skypicker) does something different; it combines airlines that normally wouldn’t cooperate with each other into one service, selling flight itineraries that cover missed connections using something called ‘virtual interlining’.

Virtual interlining Oliver Dlouhý, the company’s 29-year-old Czech founder explains, uses a unique algorithm that allows customers to create flight itineraries from an almost limitless amount of flight combinations.

The Kiwi.com guarantee offers free support and replacement if you miss a connection due to a delay. It does this thanks to an army of more than 800 people on hand to solve issues 24/7. Far from feeling threatened, the airlines love it, to the point where 90 of them have signed agreements with the company.

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INTERVIEW Dlouhý says: “We are actually solving one of their biggest problems. Mostly they’re happy that someone is taking care of the thing that they don’t want to do. It’s extremely complex in the airline world to define what portion of the fare should be split and who takes care of the customers.”

Kiwi.com works with more than 90 airlines and 150 distribution partners, through whom the service is displayed along with other mainstream flight search results.

Dlouhý came up with the idea six years ago while travelling with his thengirlfriend. He says: “We wanted to go to Portugal and were looking for a local flight from Prague to Porto. We found a flight with Ryanair from Prague to Milan, then Milan to Porto, then Porto to Eindhoven and back to Prague again.

The four flights were only £50 or £60 and we saved a lot of money. It took us some time, but we were able to do it. I knew if we offered this service to customers it would be successful.”

What Dlouhý assumed would be a small gap in the market turned out to have much greater appeal. Last year the company made more than €700mn in sales, with more than 40m flight searches and 6,000 daily bookings.

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It wasn’t Dlouhý’s first business. He first tasted the entrepreneurial bug when he started a school newspaper at the age of nine in his hometown in the Czech Republic, 15km from the Austrian border. The teenage Dlouhý was walking past the local bakery one day, when he noticed that they were buying up blueberries for €2 per litre. He says: “The road sellers close to the border were selling them to the Austrians at €5 or €6 per litre. So, I decided to buy up the blueberries in bulk from the pickers in front of the store for 10% more than the bakery.

After 70 litres or so, I sold to the Austrians with a 300% markup.”

It’s this sort of attitude that Dlouhý thinks has helped Kiwi.com to be such a success: “I walk around the world with my eyes open and see what could be done better,” he says.

It’s also this sort of attitude that has

‘Kiwi.com works with more than 90 airlines and 150 distribution partners’

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL

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seen him expelled from no fewer than four university courses. He laughs: “I was studying because my parents wanted me to, but I wasn’t attending classes. I was busy running my own businesses. The problem is that I’m not very good at anything, but I know a little about everything. And although I liked all the subjects at school I never wanted to be an expert in any of those topics. I am the guy who understands a bit of everything but doesn’t want to focus too closely on any one topic.”

But Dlouhý credits most of the company’s success to the team he has around him. “For some reason people trust me and believe my vision,” he says. “I was very lucky in the beginning to find great people to work with. The whole management team are superstars, experts in their own areas and that has helped the company grow.”

And grow it will. With almost 1,400 people around the world working for Kiwi.com, there are, says Dlouhý, many new developments afoot. The company has just signed an important deal with tech provider Amadeus, which will be supplying it with more data. The new Amadeus technology means around 750mn more pre-calculated

flight combinations and one more step in Dlouhý’s plans to multiply his company’s market footprint by 10.

Kiwi.com also plans to open more offices in Manila, Barcelona, Durban, Dalian and Prague, in addition to the existing ones in the Czech Republic, Kiev, Fiji and Belgrade. The company has also acquired a share in a small Slovene startup that focuses on ground transportation, so there are plans to integrate that into the Kiwi. com offer. This can only be good news for the airlines who, says Dlouhý, “will be able to get even more information on their customer”.

Throughout his company’s rapid growth, the biggest challenge has been maintaining relationships with investors, says Dlouhý. “They are all based in the Czech Republic and they don’t have experience with highgrowth companies so this is all new to them. Because they don’t have experience of similar projects it can be hard to persuade them that we need to raise money here and there.

Finding a common language has been the most challenging part.”

A challenge this may have been, but it is not one that has deterred Kiwi.com on its flight path to huge growth.

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TOP 10

N A E P O R U E S T E K R A M SUPER

across Europe? rk a m st e g ig b e th make e continent Which food retailers th n o s in a h c r ia il m ost fa Here are 10 of the m EW WOODS R D N A : y b n Wr it te

EUROPEAN SUPERMARKETS

10 E. LECLERC Known colloquially as Leclerc – E. Leclerc is an operator of hypermarkets based in France. The company has revenues of €47.3bn, 94,000 employees and more than 600 stores around the world. The bulk of Leclerc stores – a mix of independent stores and hypermarkets – are scattered throughout France. Other locations include Portugal, Spain, Poland and Slovenia. www.e-leclerc.com 23

TOP 10 EDEKA GROUP Based in Hamburg, Germany with a workforce of 250,000 Edeka Group operates about 4,100 stores that range in size from hypermarkets to neighbourhood corner shops.

The company boasts revenues of about €51bn and operates throughout Germany with a significant presence in Denmark.

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www.edeka-verbund.de

08 GROUP AUCHAN SA Founded in 1961 and boasting a revenue of €51bn, Group Auchan SA operates in 13 European and Asian countries around the globe. More than 300,000 employees work in the retail giant’s 3,051 stores. Achan is headquartered in Croix, France and operates stores in China, Portugal, Hungary, Luxembourg, Italy, Ukraine, Taiwan, India, Poland, Russia, Romania and Taiwan. www.groupe-auchan.com

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EUROPEAN SUPERMARKETS

REWE GROUP As the REWE Group, the retailer operates more than 15,000 stores around the world.

The supermarket chain has nearly 330,000 employees and operates in dozens of countries across Europe under different names. These include 3,300 REWE stores in Germany, 1,000 BILLA stores in Austria and 3,000 Penny stores scattered throughout Italy, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Italy and Germany. Collectively, the REWE Group posted revenues of €51.1bn. www.rewe-group.com

ALDI

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German-based Aldi and its subsidiary, Trader Joe’s, operates more than 10,000 stores around the world. This grocery retailer has two headquarters in Germany with geographical oversight for certain areas the sole responsibility of each. Essen is the headquarters of Aldi Nord with its 35 regional companies that operate individual stores in northern, eastern and western Germany as well as France, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the Iberian Peninsula. Headquartered in Mülheim, Aldi Süd oversees operations via its 32 companies for stores in Australia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ireland, Austria and Hungary as well as in southern and western Germany. The retailer boasts a revenue of around €63bn.

www.aldi.com 25

TOP 10

AHOLD DELHAIZE Ahold Delhaize is a 2016 merger between Koninklijke Ahold N.V. and Delhaize Group. The group operates 6,500 stores selling 21 local brands and employing more than 375,000 people in 11 countries. Based in Zaandam, Netherlands, Ahold Delhaize has an active presence in Romania, Germany, Serbia, Greece, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Luxembourg and the United States. It reported €62bn in revenue.

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www.aholddelhaize.com

METRO GROUP

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Metro Group is one of the most diversified companies on this list. With a revenue of nearly €74bn, Germanybased Metro operates hypermarkets, warehouses, clubs and superstores with the professional customer in mind. While most of the company’s core customer base include caterers, hotels, restaurants and the like. The company also operates nearly 1,000 electronics stores for consumers across the globe and employs about 100,000 people at its nearly 1,500 locations in Europe, Asia and Africa. www.metroag.de

EUROPEAN SUPERMARKETS

03 LIDL A discount grocery store based in Germany, Lidl serves 20 countries in Europe with more than 10,000 stores. France and Germany boast the most Lidl locations with 1,500 and 3,200 respectively. The retailer employs more than 315,000 people worldwide and posts revenues of €74.65bn. Lidl – which is known for its no-frills approach that provides consumers with cartons of groceries with the manufacturer’s prices prominently displayed – recently expanded to south eastern United States with notification regarding Australian markets expected to be unveiled in 2017. www.info.lidl 27

TOP 10 CARREFOUR GROUP Carrefour boasts nearly 12,000 locations throughout the world with its primary focus being the European market. With more than 1,460 hypermarkets that sell a variety of products in addition to groceries, Carrefour operates in diverse countries worldwide such as Armenia, Belgium, Spain, Morocco, Brazil, Jordan and China. Headquartered in BoulogneBillancourt, France, Carrefour posted a revenue of nearly €86bn. www.carrefour.com

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EUROPEAN SUPERMARKETS

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TESCO PLC

Tesco operates more than 6,550 supermarkets, superstores and hypermarkets throughout Europe. From its headquarters in Hertfordshire, England, Tesco oversees more than 476,000 employees at stores in 12 countries.

It generates revenues of more than €86bn, earning it the rank of the world’s ninth largest retailer. In addition to being the UK’s grocery leader with nearly a third of the market, Tesco also operates in Thailand, Ireland and Hungary. www.tescoplc.com 29

Putting Luxembourg on the internet map Written by: Nell Walker Produced by: Lewis Vaughan

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Roger Lampach, CEO of LuxConnect, describes the company’s enormous contribution to Luxembourg’s data security and ever-strengthening connectivity

N LuxConnect’s reception area

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estled within the tiny nation of Luxembourg lies a powerhouse of innovation in the form of LuxConnect.

Fully owned by Luxembourg’s government, LuxConnect was established in 2006 with a view to improve the country’s connectivity.

Now, the company runs four multi-tier data centre facilities – boasting 14,700sqm of server space – and has introduced at least 1,300km of optical fibre to the nation.

“Dark fibre as a product was not really available when we started deploying fibre in 2007,” says Roger Lampach, Chief Executive Officer of LuxConnect. “Therefore it was a very important product for new players coming into Luxembourg, such as telecommunications operators. International operators started employing their own dark fibre networks over Luxembourg, but in the end they all stopped their projects because it was such a small market and the effort to bring dark fibre in was very high.

“We saw that this was a product that was really

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LuxConnect’s fourth DC in Bissen

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Low voltage distribution

by Köhl

needed in the market, and started deploying it. As of two years ago, we are doubling the infrastructure on the data highways where the demand is the highest. With LuxConnect we’ve succeeded in bringing this product into the market, and we now have close to 30 carriers in our buildings using our infrastructure.”

Having attended the University of Munich, Lampach began in engineering, specialising in high frequency and telecommunication.

He continued along various veins of the industry – including maintenance, systems engineering, broadcasting, and industrial automation – before bringing his technological expertise

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to LuxConnect as Chief Technology Officer in 2007. Eight years later he was appointed CEO, and having been part of the team almost since its inception, Lampach was better placed than anybody to lead the business in the right direction.

“At the beginning our mission was to bring Luxembourg onto the internet map,” he explains.

“While there is an exchange point in Luxembourg, to have a growing exchange point you need bigger centres and connectivity, and connectivity is mostly based on fibre.”

THE APPEAL OF LUXEMBOURG LuxConnect’s sterling work in making the country connected has ensured that Luxembourg is an even more attractive prospect for data centre space than the nation already was. It is in fact the safest country for data privacy and storage in the European Union, with an average risk score of just 2.6%. Location makes LuxConnect an even stronger competitor in

Cold water production

by Sperber

“With LuxConnect we’ve succeeded in bringing dark fibre into the market, and we now have close to 30 carriers in our buildings using our infrastructure” – Roger Lampach, CEO

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the market, and carriers can rest assured that their data is secure.

“We are based in the centre of Europe and the latency is quite low,” says Lampach. “That’s important because it means that any business choosing Luxembourg for a major installation would be able to cover everything around the country, even down to Italy. For online gaming for example, from most parts of Europe, Luxembourg is well-placed to keep the game functioning.”

LuxConnect’s data centres with high levels of security are further enhanced by the presence of Faraday cages, which protect the facilities from electromagnetic interferences. The business is a specialist in this domain, as it is unusual for data centres to be protected in this way, and so Lampach relies on his talented staff – as well as partners – to keep LuxConnect at the forefront of technology.

“You have to be very accurate and have full control in this industry,” Lampach explains. “So much of that is down to the operational side and we have really professional people here in the data centre domain; it’s better

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Number of employees at LuxConnect S.A

26

to have a small but highly-motivated team which is also open to listen to the customer and ask how they’d like things handled. We try to keep our staff happy and when potential customers visit, they say they have felt welcome and that we are open and transparent. Transparency with customers is key for us.”

KEEPING GREEN Sustainability is a vital component of the data centre world for the company and customers alike. LuxConnect considers itself one of the greenest in Europe, and that dedication starts from the infrastructure itself.

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LUXCONNECT S.A

“More and more out partners and customers are requesting higher services targeted to the IT domain, and we are looking to prepare LuxConnect for the future” –Roger Lampach, CEO

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about energy, because wasted energy results in cost for the customer,” Lampach says. “So from day one we tried to have very good efficiency of the building. Our first building’s efficiency was 1.6 and nowadays the latest building is 1.3.”

Alongside buying hydroelectricity from Scandinavia, LuxConnect makes use of the KioWatt project, a cogeneration plant where waste wood is used to produce electricity via waste heat. LuxConnect utilises this heat transformed into cold that would otherwise be lost

MULTI-TIERED LuxConnects boasts the ability to offer a variety of tiers in its facilities but, unusually, it started with the most complex tier and worked backwards in response to customer demand.

“When LuxConnect started it was Tier IV only, but over time we learnt that customers don’t always require the highest standard for all their applications,” Lampach says. “This opened up more opportunities. We can separate our Tier IV concept into two Tier II’s; in the Tier IV case

there are two separate installations feeding into the server room, but for Tier II there is just one, so that was quite easy to establish. From the operational side this is easy to do too, because we know exactly how to do it. The same goes for Tier III.” In fact, LuxConnect is the only data centre business in the world to offer this range of tiers, and has its partners to thank for much of its technical capability. For the physical infrastructure, LuxConnect enlisted GHMT, a business which Lampach describes as “real professionals in their domain” and that supported LuxConnect during every step of construction. GHMT developed the concept for the Faraday cages, ensuring that all of the necessary wire mesh had bonded correctly with the concrete and supervising alongside LuxConnect.

Köhl, a long-term partner of LuxConnect, provided and installed many of the materials involved in the company’s facilities. Lampach says: “They are professionals, and the advantage is that they are a known manufacturer. They

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LUXCONNECT S.A

create the cabinets we need in line with European regulations and installed the lighting system. Using an installer which is active outside Luxembourg in the industrial domain made us see data centres as an industry – you can’t operate these buildings like a normal office.”

Bobinindus Power Systems is also a valued partner for LuxConnect, delivering and maintaining all of its generator sets (gensets). “They use very good brands out of Germany, so they have real experience,” Lampach says. As for Sperber, this business was in charge of heating, ventilation and air conditioning – a vital aspect of a green business – for all offices and server rooms.

LUXCONNECT’S FUTURE For LuxConnect’s future, Lampach plans to expand its services to ensure the business remains trusted and relevant.

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“Up until now our business model has been one where we offered the infrastructure or the dark fibre network,” says Lampach. “We are convinced that for the future we have to enlarge our offer.

“We hope to not only be present in Luxembourg, but to set up with other data centre providers – we have chosen two already, one in London and one in Frankfurt – and set up a match network between operators, which brings forward the whole industry. Currently in Europe, there is an initiative from the European Commission to focus on high performance computing, so in the end we will have to have an HPC network in place that brings connectivity and data centres together.

“More and more out partners and customers are requesting higher services targeted to the IT domain, and we are looking to prepare LuxConnect for the future.”

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Roger Lampach CEO

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Star of Bosphorus

At the forefront of sustainability and security Written by: Laura Mullan Produced by: Lewis Vaughan

NGN Group’s VP, Technology Ufuk Yasibeyli and Marketing Director Secil Kocoglu describe how the Star of Bosphorus is raising standards in the data centre industry, by offering an energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly, and seismically protected option for global giants

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ustainability and security are just some issues that are driving today’s data centres towards change and innovation.

NGN Group is meeting these challenges face on; setting new standards for the industry with the Star of Bosphorus - one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in Turkey.

“Our team has built many data centres but none of them has been so ambitious,” says Ufuk Yasibeyli, VP, Technology - and it’s clear to see why.

The facility aims to be NGN group’s

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most pioneering project yet, offering clients access to a Tier III certified, energy-efficient, environmentallyfriendly, and seismically protected data centre near Istanbul, just in sight of the Bosphorus narrows in Turkey.

“This data centre is our dream on the shore of Bosphorus,” says Yasibeyli.

“We conceived it as the world’s best data centre of unparalleled reliability, ease of operation, and beauty.

“Therefore, it is deeply symbolic that it is called The Star of Bosphorus, with two blocks, Vega and Sirius. It is a pioneer in engineering solutions, including seismic protection, and, as we believe, a future leading commercial data center in Turkey.

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Ufuk Yasibeyli VP, Technology

Ufuk Yasibeyli has been working in the IT and Telecommunications industries in areas of practice including IT Management, Software Development, Database Design, Network Design/Management and Datacenter/Cloud services with a total experience of 28 years. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Bogazici University ’90.

Since his graduation, he has worked for many companies in various areas, including Finansbank, Cisco Systems, Sabanci Telekom, Borusan Telekom, Turkcell Superonline and Ericsson. Currently, Yasibeyli is working as VP, Technology at NGN, responsible for project management, project delivery and aftersales support&maintenance functions in NGN for Infrastructure, Datacenter/ Cloud and Software lines of business.

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In addition to being a pioneer in engineering solutions, it will also be a pioneer in cloud and managed services. As a leading system integrator in Turkey and Middle East, NGN’s expertise in managed services will be the most important value add for cloud and data center customers.”

With a size of about 24,000sqm and a total power of 16MW, Star of Bosphorus operates over 2,000 standard racks and is secured with two external power feeds and 24/7 maintenance.

However, perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of the facility is that it is seismically protected, meaning that each building nearly floats over the possible earthquake thanks to a single monolithic slab serving as a foundation resting on seismic isolators known as friction pendula from EarthQuake Protection

Secil Kocoglu

Marketing and Communications Director

Secil Kocoglu is an expert in marketing and communications with extensive experience in marketing communications, strategy and brand management.

Prior to NGN, Kocoglu has held range of senior marketing and strategy roles in esteemed companies such as Dogus Holding, Benetton and JCDecaux Group. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Marmara University and a Master’s Degree in Marketing Communications from Galatasaray University.

Kocoglu is responsible for all NGN’s marketing activities and operations including advertising, digital marketing, partnerships, public relations and events.

S TA R O F B O S P H O R U S D ATA C E N T E R

‘With a size of about 24,000sqm and a total power of 16MW, Star of Bosphorus operates over 2,000 standard racks and is secured with two external power feeds and 24/7 maintenance’

Systems (USA). Yasibeyli says: “We consulted local specialists and professors of seismology, and ARUP (USA) was involved into peer review of structural design and seismic isolator design. Today, we are sure that Star of Bosphorus is one of the best seismically-protected data centers in the world.”

“Our constant challenge is to ensure we comply with the highest quality, safety, and reliability standards at all construction phases - from design to equipment selection and installation,” adds Yasibeyli. “Yes, it takes time and resources, but when standards are high, there is no place for trade-offs.”

Professor and NGN’s consultant as seismic expert, Dr Barış Erkuş, was also highly excited by the facility’s structural and seismic design.

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“What makes Star of Bosphorus Data Centre genuinely unique is the seismic design of the facility,” says Erkuş. “We implemented the best seismic protection system which ensures keeping the data center operational during earthquakes with a probability of one-in-every 2,000 years, which also established a new standard for future projects in the region.”

The facility was awarded a LEED Gold certification, the most popular green building certification, thanks to its innovative equipment and systems which ensure environmental safety. By using free cooling technology when available, the data centre has achieved a Power Usage Effectiveness rating

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S TA R O F B O S P H O R U S D ATA C E N T E R

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of 1.3, making it the most energy efficient facility in the region.

The Star of Bosphorus is also leading the way as the first ‘carrier neutral’ commercial data centre in Turkey, with Tier III design and facility certificates.

NGN’s Marketing and Communications Director Secil Kocoglu emphasizes: “Turkey’s data centre market is one of the fastest growing markets worldwide, and our group is poised to be a leading pioneer in the industry. Situated in Istanbul, Star of Bosphorus data centre is able to tie together markets from across Asia, the Middle East and Europe which should attract a lot of global businesses to the facility.”

NGN Group has big ambitions for the Star of Bosphorus, but in an industry that is constantly evolving

how does NGN stay ahead of the curve? “The answer is simple,” notes Kocoglu. “We are learning.

“We are experts in system integration business, which means dealing with new technologies and solutions is our daily life. We are learning on each and every project, be it constructing data centres for customers, deploying clouds, or creating engineering infrastructures for various facilities.”

Named after the stars, the Star of Bosphorus Data Centre is an ambitious endeavour for NGN Group.

However, the pioneering efforts of the company have not gone unnoticed.

By creating an environmentallyfriendly, seismically protected, and carrier neutral facility, it seems that the future is bright for the company.

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THE INDUSTRY EXPERT Written by: Nell Walker Produced by: Lewis Vaughan

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WE SPEAK TO ALEX TILLEY, DIRECTOR – DATA CENTRES AT JLL, ABOUT THE VAST IMPACT HIS EXPERT ADVISORY TEAM HAS HAD ON THE COMPANY’S EUROPEAN OPERATIONS

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s one of the biggest names in real estate, JLL’s footprint can be found all over the world, and its striking ability to retain – and develop – its status as an industry leader is illustrated by an incredibly strong global team.

Alex Tilley is a Director in JLL’s EMEA Data Centres team, which he jointly leads. Educated in Land Management at the University of Reading, Tilley started his career as a Graduate at Lambert Smith Hampton before qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor and moving to CBRE in 2011, where he entered the data centre sector completely by chance. After four years he started his own business – Alpha Real Technology – a private equitybacked organisation which advised private and institutional investors looking to enter the data centre sector, either by real estate or corporate investment. It is at Alpha Real Technology where Tilley structured a joint venture with JLL. The latter outsourced its data centre work to Alpha Real Technology, and his expertise led to Tilley being asked to join JLL. Dissolving Alpha Real Technology, he co-founded JLL’s European Data Centre Advisory Team,

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September 2017

CONSTRUCTION

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CONSTRUCTION

and has been building a small, highly-skilled team which is taking on large scale data centre development and investment projects in London, Frankfurt, and beyond, since January 2016.

“I wanted us to be able to compete against other established real estate firms and corporate advisory teams alike,” says Tilley. “There was no real credible alternative to the likes of CBRE across Europe, and we wanted to offer that. JLL, as one of the largest global real estate organisations, gave us that platform, not only for the UK but across the continent for both real estate and corporate advisory. We concentrated on creating a small, highly skilled team, completely focussed on the data centre sector.”

2016 THE YEAR JLL’S DATA CENTRE TEAM WAS ESTABLISHED

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JLL

There are challenges involved in operating as a small team, but positive ones as far as Tilley is concerned. His team has demonstrated that it can act on behalf of institutional investors through to hyperscale end-users, and high-profile businesses approach the group for expert advice, thanks to its extensive knowledge which is well-bolstered by the nature of being part of a high-profile company.

“As a team of four we are a little constrained in terms of our capacity,” Tilley admits. “Some of the projects can take up to two years, but that’s

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down to the level of due diligence we undertake. While time constraints may sometimes seem problematic, it’s a nice problem to have, but we always ensure our service is delivered to the highest of quality.”

A level of mutual respect between JLL and the end-user makes all the difference when working under potentially strained circumstances, too: “We see ourselves as part of our clients’ internal team rather than an external outsourced advisor.

We don’t just advise on what we’re asked to do, we really get involved with all the internal stakeholder decisions to be made from real

CONSTRUCTION

estate through to business risk, IT risk, procurement, the implications of outsourcing technology, and so on.”

This is what differentiates JLL from competitors. While other businesses may provide similar services, JLL boasts Tilley’s small, niche team that focusses on bridging the gap between real estate investment and corporate investment, together with occupational advice.

“None of our competitors seem to have the ability to stitch those elements together,” Tilley says. “That, coupled with our ability to understand what’s going on in the occupational market like no other, really gives us our competitive edge. We’re not just

real estate professionals; we’re finance professionals and chartered surveyors, meaning we can advise from a corporate standpoint as well as a real estate investment standpoint – which is crucial given the way the market currently operates.

“We’re an alternative investment team as opposed to a traditional real estate team, and our clients are increasingly interested in all of the services we provide. Nobody else offers such a range of service within a dedicated data centre advisory team.”

BREAKING GROUND This dedication is displayed by two of JLL’s current development projects in London and Frankfurt. The Point in Greenwich was a tired development in the heart of the docklands data centre market, standing as the former London Stock Exchange and London Fire Brigade data centre sites, and comprised three low-rise buildings. Tilley acquired the site in 2015 for TH Real Estate under Alpha Real Technology, and has since acquired planning permission for a new 140,000 sq ft data centre.

“We worked very hard on

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JLL

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this project, and we broke ground on the site mid-2016,” Tilley explains. “We are due for completion at the end of August 2017, and that will deliver a brand new powered shell data centre scheme to the London docklands market, which has never been seen as a product set.

“What does that mean for us? It shows JLL’s capabilities to take a prime development site and ensure that the client takes the right advice to purchase sites at the right time in the market, and that the correct planning management measures are in place.” This has ensured that the product has been timed to market in such a way that it reduces leasing risk for the Fund and maximises returns.

As Tilley’s team is pan European, they have been working thoroughly to bring forward an East metro Frankfurt site, working jointly with a private equity group to, again, identify a lack of data centres land/buildings and bring product to market in a timely manner. Tilley and his team ran with this unique opportunity, launching a large development scheme within the heart of the metro area with access to all major metro routes in Frankfurt and ensuring the availability of a diverse power supply – this was crucial for this area of Frankfurt, which is significantly power constrained. Tilley dealt with Mainova to ensure that a diverse 35MVA power supply was secured. JLL is currently undertaking the planning permission process to create a 380,000 sq ft data centre, and engaging with end-users to pre-let the site, such is the level of trust and loyalty that JLL inspires.

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JLL

“NOBODY ELSE OFFERS SUCH A RANGE OF SERVICE WITHIN A DEDICATED DATA CENTRE ADVISORY TEAM” – Alex Tilley, Director in JLL’s EMEA Data Centres Alex Tilley 30 Warwick Street | London W1B 5NH T: +44 (0)203 147 1544 M: +44 (0)7756 560867 Alex.Tilley@eu.jll.com | www.jll.co.uk

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CONSTRUCTION

PREPARATION Projects such as these require a great deal of primary research and planning on the part of Tilley’s small team: “We spend a significant amount of time each month looking at supply, demand, absorption, forecasting, and pricing, and as such we keep ourselves ahead of the curve,” he states. “We report these figures on a monthly basis, focussing on tier 1 carrier-neutral colocation markets, as well as secondary European markets. Looking at this ensures we’re not going to mistime the market and that our clients are kept in the loop appropriately.”

JLL also keeps its finger on the pulse of industry trends which are less specific to the company, such as the evolving infrastructure of cooling solutions and increasing power densities. The business is also seeing a greater emphasis on connectivity, and across Europe, more collaboration with private equity banks looking for industry-strong capital to buy them out for their platform and become more competitive. This is where JLL’s expertise in corporate

advisory as well as real estate advisory becomes particularly useful.

“We’re really trying to position our team to help those businesses which are private equity-backed look at alternative finding options and, as such, help more mature institutional capital enter the market, therefore aiding liquidity and a continued growth of the data centre sector,” says Tilley.

He concludes: “We’re also forecasting that we’re going to see more end-user development in the market; we’ve seen a lot of hyperscale cloud end-users acquire large chunks of colocation infrastructures from third party operators, and I think the next wave of development will be ground-up development with close proximity to established colocation footprints.

We’ve seen proof of this already and are excited to be a part of it.”

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Supporting the

IT CROWD

Written by: Nell Walker Produced by: Andrew Lloyd

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Leon Etherington, CIO of Sheffield Hallam University, explains how he handles the challenges inherent in maintaining strong and consistent IT Services used by over 35,000 people

T

he world of technology can be challenging to traverse, and even more so in an environment like higher education.

At Sheffield Hallam, technology is seen as an essential utility, like gas, electricity, or water; the University’s mission to transform lives depends on this technology utility being uninterrupted. With zero appetite for disruption in technology services, how does the University meet the need for potentially disruptive change against the fluctuating needs of 31,000 students and 4,000 staff? This is a question Leon Etherington, CIO at Sheffield Hallam University, has worked to address.

Technology is ever-evolving, and students expect to attend university using the very latest developments; this year, some students begin their academic careers by accepting a place offered by the university

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via Facebook. But the breadth of underpinning technology services in any university is huge: “There are some 700 academic courses taught here, with each course has its own technology demands.

These range from standard AV equipped classroom, to a techenabled Art School, to advanced games development labs and industry-leading tech in health, sport and science schools.

“We need to roll out hundreds of teaching and learning software packages across thousands of machines every year, used in around 400 classrooms, covering two campuses with two Libraries.

So in terms of the challenge, it’s about making sure that everything works every day for everyone.”

This requires absolute consistency, regardless of how other industries may operate.

TECHNOLOGY

“People claim digital disruption is amazing and it’s what you need to do, but if I disrupted 31,000 students and 4,000 staff, I’d become very unpopular very quickly,” Etherington states with a laugh. “Often the message from the industry is that we need a revolution in technology; that might be the case in certain scenarios, but it’s got to feel like an evolution to the consumer.

Students and staff rightly expect high standards in the kit and in the services they use, and all of this requires a Technology Department which can manage services professionally and rapidly. ” To further complicate the issue of seamless technological evolution, the deployment of technology change has to fit around the rhythms of the academic year. Changes can’t occur during clearing or enrolment, they can’t disrupt graduation,

“IF I DISRUPTED 31,000 STUDENTS AND 4,000 STAFF, I’D BECOME VERY UNPOPULAR VERY QUICKLY” – Leon Etherington, CIO

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and they can’t happen during term time or processes such as the end of the financial year. Etherington and his 180-strong team have focussed on deploying change rapidly and with minimum disruption to the business, thinking of recruitment in almost retail terms. Etherington says: “No retailer would make a change to its systems in December risking its Christmas sales. Why would we risk the experience of our students during recruitment or exams?”

To make the entire process of IT management run more smoothly, Etherington’s team introduced a ‘Service Improvement Programme’ which is being rolled out across

the Department and University.

This ‘professionalisation’ of Service Management focuses on meeting the University’s diverse needs in repeatable, achievable and economic ways.

“What we found was that we were trying to be everything to everyone,” says Etherington. “As such we were finding it almost impossible to standardise our provision and proceduralise our support of that provision. In any business you grow organically, but we knew we had to partner with the wider University to agree a sustainable technology provision. The alternative would mean technology costs quickly becoming

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SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY

“IF EMAIL IS DOWN IT’S SEEN AS A BUSINESS CRITICAL ISSUE, AND TECHNOLOGY NOW IS SEEN AS BEING AS VITAL AND AS BASIC A REQUIREMENT AS WATER OR ELECTRICITY” – Leon Etherington

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TECHNOLOGY

unsustainable and worse, that the performance of the whole technology stack would begin to fail.

“Therefore, we set out this programme to achieve service management best practice, to meet customer needs in a very transparent way so that they – the student or member of staff – know where to get help via a standard set of channels.”

Etherington notes that this is a long road and there is a need to demonstrate quick wins.

Furthermore, the focus on service professionalism is complemented by a wider Technology Strategy which will improve the overarching Technology stack used by the University.

This wider work picks up major themes such as Cloud, Cyber Security, Data integration and sourcing, but the emphasis is always on the people and the customer, not the technology. For Etherington, success in delivering technology change is nothing without people,” the technology is easy, but unless you have vital partnerships across the business and a close and collegial relationship with staff and students, the technology – no matter how good it is – will fail.”

The ‘people first’ approach has also led to Etherington avoiding silver bullet technology solutions. He recognises that change is complex, requiring a mix of innovative yet sustainable and stable solutions used by a workforce that acts as partners; this technology development led to the creation of a continually improving consistent and

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SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY

secure technology architecture.

Sheffield Hallam transforms lives via its teaching and research and it has to look closely at what its students need in order for them to succeed. “We always try to make sure we’re hitting that mark,” explains Etherington. “We’re very much focussed on the student experience. Our student satisfaction ratings have gone up but we can’t be complacent. If students aren’t happy, we’ll know very quickly that we’re doing something wrong, and we have to respond and fix what’s

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wrong to build upon what’s right.”

The IT Department maintains a strong relationship with the student union and with professionals in Finance, in Estates and in the Strategic Projects teams in order to listen closely to what customers want from it, creating a sense of partnership for deploying large scale improvements seamlessly.

“If you notice the technology, something’s wrong – it should just be there,” says Etherington.

“That’s a very difficult thing.”

Sheffield Hallam is delivering

TECHNOLOGY

transformational change, with projects including the deployment of Windows 10, Office 365, Azure Cloud solutions and co-located Data Centres, not to mention major improvements to student records, Finance, Wi-Fi and virtual learning environments. In this activity-rich environment, IT and its partners across the University are achieving great things, and there have been huge successes.

“We’ve got major suppliers, which include people like Microsoft, Blackboard, Crimson Consultants and PROACT, and we’re saying to them, you’re a partner in this, you’ve got to help us succeed, and they’re stepping up to the plate.”

By using the right suppliers, the right solutions and by focussing on the people, Sheffield Hallam can deliver transformational change seamlessly: “If email is down it’s seen as a business critical issue, and technology now is seen as being as vital and as basic a requirement as water or electricity. The whole business mission at the University is about transforming lives, so

it’s important to make sure we have the right tools to do that.”

Another of the ways in which Sheffield Hallam is transforming its technology provision is in its hybrid approach to resilience. Recognising that the dual data centre approach to resilience isn’t always the most effective approach, the University is now delivering a Cloud, on premise and co-location approach. With resilience, as with security or as with application provision, there is no single solution to the University’s needs. “With technology trends, it’s often about extremes,” Etherington explains. “What you’ve actually got to do is be balanced about your strategy and look at it in the long-term.”

As such, Sheffield Hallam is using Azure for its cloud platform supported by an on premise data centre, and this resilience will be supported by a secondary data centre 40 miles away in Leeds which will be managed 24/7. While this approach creates network challenges, it is important for the University that it uses a range of resources to meet the challenges it faces.

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SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY

“Like many businesses we are focussing on surrounding ourselves with the best solution providers,” says Etherington. “We cannot do everything ourselves anymore, we have to be experts at supplying a

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general IT service and have partners who are domain experts in things like Cloud or Data Centre provision. I think we’re getting the balance right. Our ethos is 100% availability of service; even when we shut down one data

TECHNOLOGY

“LIKE MANY BUSINESSES WE ARE FOCUSSING ON SURROUNDING OURSELVES WITH THE BEST SOLUTION PROVIDERS” – Leon Etherington

centre and moved it to a new stateof-the-art facility, there was zero disruption. Nobody noticed. We focus on this kind of professionalism.”

A challenge for businesses, no matter the sector, is finding

and retaining skilled IT staff and developing high performing teams who can deliver consistently in challenging environments.

Sheffield Hallam needs the best people to meet the demands

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SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY

“WE CAN’T INCREASE THE SIZE OF OUR WORKFORCE WITH EVERY PIECE OF WORK WE DO, SO WE HAVE TO WORK DIFFERENTLY” – Leon Etherington

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of transformation. For Etherington, the key to these challenges is being authentic with staff, engendering a belief in a common purpose and focusing on people and customer service.

The difficulty of this balance is in communicating with everybody and making sure they maintain faith in the vision. Sheffield Hallam has gone from undertaking a discrete number of projects a year to implementing a diverse and challenging portfolio of programmes and projects, which are only set to increase.

“We can’t increase the size of our workforce with every piece of work we do, so we have to work differently,” explains Etherington. “We have to seek solutions, phase work, prioritise it, seek not to gold plate work but be realistic where we can. Also, to engage with partners who we can trust so that we can deliver on multiple fronts whilst protecting the

E D U C AT I O N

essential day to day of University life.”

Interpersonal relationships between his staff and University partners is something Etherington has a large stake in, so he also concentrates on testing out the emotional intelligence of people before he hires them to ensure strong partnerships. “We really value not just the tech expertise, but also that balance of being able to work with people and to deal with challenges under difficult circumstances.

They’re the traits we focus on.

“If you apply reasonable service management and implement a balanced technology stack, underpinned by a commitment

for excellence across everything you do, you’re going to be able to enable the growth of the University, and that’s a privilege.”

Sheffield Hallam University is doing things right. Student satisfaction with the University is improving and the University’s students, its partners and its research are changing the region and the world in real ways. There is a focus on service that transcends the IT team to permeate the entire University. To quote Professor Chris Husbands, Vice-Chancellor, in the opening letter of the University’s new Strategy, it is “an innovative, imaginative University unafraid to take risks to make a difference.”

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Customerfirst success Written by: Nell Walker Produced by: Andrew Lloyd

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A giant in the industry, Houghton International is evolving all the time – and as Director of Marketing Mervyn Chung-Fat explains, its impact is stronger than ever

H

oughton International, the global metalworking fluid solutions provider, continues to go above and beyond to ensure top-rate relationships and collaborations with customers. With multiple Customer Solutions Centres being set up at an incredible rate across Europe, changing regulations across the continent, and a huge upcoming combination with Quaker, Houghton stands strong in the eye of the storm.

Mervyn Chung-Fat is the Director of Marketing for Houghton in the EMEA region, and the Automotive and Aerospace sectors globally. Chung-Fat spoke with us last year about the work Houghton was doing, and to say the business has evolved since then would be a gross understatement.

However, the focus remains the same.

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“We want to be working much more closely with our customers, and are trying to develop solutions that are much closer to their needs,” he explains.

Hence the development of the Customer Solutions Centres. Four new locations have recently been opened in Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UK, designed to bring Houghton and its customers into a more collaborative partnership.

“We’re trying to resolve problems ahead of time,” says Chung-Fat. “As we work more closely with customers, we can better understand what their main overall objective is, so it’s

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

Houghton International’s site in Germany

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H O U G H T O N I N T E R N AT I O N A L

easier for us, together with tool and equipment manufacturers, to make sure all variables are balanced and working in a synchronised way.”

The Customer Solutions Centres were a natural evolution for a company that already concentrates heavily on customer relationships and satisfaction. “Our approach here is to try and get everybody to start talking together more and planning further ahead, and create a forum where we give our customers access

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to all our engineers globally through these centres,” Chung-Fat continues.

“If we have more open discussions with customers, we’re able to bring the solutions to them much faster.”

Customer feedback has been positive, with the general consensus that the concept is long overdue.

Partners too are excited by the merging of minds, and the opportunity to influence both Houghton’s products and the consumers that buy them. If Houghton’s processes

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

are in alignment with what its customers are doing, those sought after productive and successful relationships are formed.

The impact of REACH These strong connections will prove vital in the wake of regulatory changes.

REACH – Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals – is a set of regulations in the EU which are set to have a heavy impact on Houghton’s services.

“REACH has somehow gone under the radar for some companies,” Chung-Fat explains. “It’s been out there for 10 years in the industry, and the major players have all been ready

for it for many years, but a lot of smallto-medium chemicals companies have completely underestimated the impact on the market. Some major automotive manufacturers have even told us that they are afraid some of their components may disappear in the next year, because a smaller supplier may not have considered that a chemical that goes into a critical car part is going to disappear.”

Houghton successfully anticipated the gravity of this issue, and already has a team dedicated purely to

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working with suppliers to understand the situation with every single one of its raw materials, how their status will evolve over time, and to ensure that Houghton’s own supply chain is guaranteed.

The business is looking closely at all 4,000 product formulations it provides to the market today, and in doing so, Houghton knows that it will soon lose around 10% of raw materials it buys as they are discontinued by suppliers. Registration costs are high, and labs are significantly overworked – however, thanks to Houghton’s dedication to preparedness, the company is placed in a more comfortable position than most as REACH takes effect.

“We feel very confident today on the availability of our products during 2018,” Chung-Fat says. “We’re a global leader in metalworking fluid solutions and we cannot afford to leave our customers in the trenches

all alone, so we’ve tried to anticipate this because while REACH is only occurring across Europe, it has global ramifications across industries. We don’t want to put our customers into a position where there’s a necessity to make a change last-minute which could then have other impacts on approval process flow. We are working closely with many of them through the transition and making sure they are ready for next year.”

The Fourth Industrial Revolution Unmoved by any problems that REACH may cause, Houghton is driving forward with new strategies.

The business is concentrating on the

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H O U G H T O N I N T E R N AT I O N A L

accelerating march of Industry 4.0, having worked on it for over a decade, and is applying solutions all the time to enrich the customer experience.

“Our Houghto-Trend solution is an information database that help our customers monitor how they are consuming their fluids and all maintenance related information,” says Chung-Fat. “With this data, which is available to them over the internet, they are able to see how efficient their operations are and can choose where they need to act.

With the new EHS regulation in the UK, Houghto-Trend allows to keep the required testing and monitoring history to be fully compliant.”

Houghton is also introducing a device called Greenlight to Europe.

Already available in the US, Greenlight is a simple bolt-on product with a green/amber/red lighting system that shows the user whether the fluids being monitored are within the correct concentration levels.

This level of effort to improve and simplify life for their customers is another feather in Houghton’s cap.

“We’re moving our focus away

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from just product competitiveness and more towards customer solutions,” explains Chung-Fat. “We’re a speciality process chemicals company, but we understand that our customers are looking for more than just the chemistry part. We’ve got experience and expertise on their production and processes, and we’re really focused on trying to go much further into offering these broader solutions.”

Creating a powerhouse Houghton’s desire to forge strong relationships doesn’t stop at customers, but also to long-term rival like Quaker Chemicals, with which Houghton is combining. There are many similarities between the two leaders of the industry, from technical solutions to their focus on customer intimacy. By combining Houghton’s and Quaker’s diverse technical expertise, the combined business will cover bases that neither has done on its own.

“For our customers needing fire resistant hydraulic fluids, independent of what type of equipment they

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

Mervyn Chung-Fat, Director of Marketing in the EMEA region for Houghton International

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

have, once we combine with Quaker they will have access to the best of both worlds with a single supplier,” says Chung-Fat. Investing in real talent is what has enabled Houghton to not only be successful as a business, but has ensured that people remain the focus.

The company’s team members bring the best solutions to customers because they care, and in a dynamic and ever-changing industry, caring is vital. This is what Houghton’s attitude going forward revolves around.

“To last another 150 years, Houghton needs to be operating more of a start-up than a wellestablished business,” Chung-Fat concludes. “We carry our heritage very closely, which has made us the global leader, but we have to keep thinking like an entrepreneur to thrive in this fragmented market.”

Mike Shannon, Houghton International CEO, speaking in Germany w w w. b u s i n e s s re v i e w e u ro p e . e u

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78 NOVEMBER 2017

FRANCE  PARIS PORTE DE VERSAILLES  PAV. 4

Heading for a collaborative & digital supply chain

• EXHIBITION • BUSINESS MEETINGS • CONFERENCES www.supplychain-event.com

20-23 MARCH 2018

FRANCE  PARIS NORD VILLEPINTE  HALL 6

International Week of Transport and Logistics

• 40,500 PROFESSIONALS • 800 EXHIBITORS • 100 CONFERENCES • 8 HIGHLIGHTS • THE INNOVATION AWARDS • SMART HUB by SITL www.sitl.eu

20-23 MARCH 2018

FRANCE  PARIS NORD VILLEPINTE  HALL 6

Materials handling exhibition for industry and distribution

• 15,000 PROFESSIONALS • 150 EXHIBITORS • CONFERENCES • THE INTRALOGISTICS EQUIPMENT AWARD • SMART HUB by INTRALOGISTICS

www.intralogistics-europe.com