Business Review Europe magazine - September 2016

September 2016

w w w.businessrevieweurope.eu

MARCHING

AHEAD

How Irish Defence Forces is using technology to meet future challenges

SPECIAL REPORTS:

First Utility and Home Group

PROCTOR & GAMBLE on sustainability

MISSION ZERO

$1bn carpet manufacturer aims for carbon neutrality by 2020

Q&A WITH ENEL working with Formula E

ENTRY DEadli ne

5 Augu

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OPEN FOR ENTRIES

The17th Annual Banking Technology Awards Thursday 1 December | The Tower Hotel, London

The Banking Technology Awards 2016 are open for entries!

Now in their 17th year, Banking Technology Awards recognise the best of the best in financial services technology worldwide.

The winners will be announced at our gala dinner on Thursday, 1 December 2016 at the Tower Hotel in London.

Visit us online at www.bankingtech.com/awards for all the categories and details on how to enter.

Award sponsorship opportunities The award sponsorship package includes your logo in all Banking Technology Awards promotions in print and online.

You will also get a full page advertisement in the awards brochure and a table of ten guests.

For sponsorship enquiries, please email Judith McInerney at judith.mcinerney@knect365.com or call +44 203 377 3506

For general event enquiries, please contact: awards@bankingtech.com

EDITORS COMMENT

Strictly sustainable Welcome to the September edition of Business Review Europe. This month our front of book focuses on the sustainability sphere, charting the initiatives of some industry giants.

First up is my visit to Proctor & Gamble to interview Global Sustainability Director Virginie Helias, who told me about her desire to make her role redundant by embedding a sustainable ethos across P&G’s vast brand portfolio. We discuss notable achievements made by its Febreze, Fairy and Pampers brands.

Another manufacturing giant is Interface, producer of £1 billion-worth of carpet tiles each year. Sustainability Director Ramon Arratia tells us about its target to completely wipe out its carbon footprint by 2020 – Mission Zero. Also looking to go completely carbon neutral is the Formula E racing championships, in alliance with Italian energy powerhouse Enel. Read our Q&A to find out more about the pioneering partnership.

We turn from protecting the planet to protecting the people in our profile with Irish Defence Forces, looking at how the organisation is transforming its technology processes to enable flexible communication and access to information wherever and whenever it is needed.

I hope you enjoy the issue – join the debate @BizReviewEurope

Tom Wadlow Editor tom.wadlow@bizclikmedia.com

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WHAT DOES THE CX FUTURE HOLD FOR YOU? Meet the best customer experience minds in Europe to discuss and share best practice to improve the future of CX within the financial services sector.

JOIN THIS INVITATION-ONLY, DIRECTOR LEVEL MEETING TO: Network, Learn and find solutions to your biggest CX challenges.

Update your strategy and get the latest innovative technology and solutions.

Email exchangeinfo@iqpc.com to discover which industry leaders you can benchmark your strategy against

EMAIL EXCHANGE@IQPC.COM TO SECURE YOUR PLACE TODAY

0207 368 9484 / EXCHANGEINFO@IQPC.COM

WWW.CXEXCHANGEFSEU.COM

CONTENTS

F E AT U R E S

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

P&G: a conglomerate conundrum?

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

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

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18 Mission Zero: Global carpet manufacturer Interface vows to eliminate its environmental impact

Q&A with Enel: working in Formula E 5

CONNECT THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DOTS MEET THE BEST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MINDS FROM THE TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY SECTOR TO DISCUSS AND SHARE BEST PRACTICE TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE OF CX

JOIN THIS INVITATION-ONLY, DIRECTOR LEVEL MEETING TO:

Network, learn and find solutions to your biggest CX challenges.

Update your strategy and get the latest innovative technology and solutions.

Email exchangeinfo@iqpc.com to discover which industry leaders you can benchmark your strategy against.

EMAIL EXCHANGEINFO@IQPC.COM TO SECURE YOUR PLACE AT THE EXCHANGE

WWW.CXTRAVELHOSPITALITY.COM

+44 (0) 207 368 9484 / EXCHANGEINFO@IQPC.COM

CONTENTS

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Company Profiles

Irish Defence Forces Technology

Home Group Healthcare

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50

First Utility Technology

90

Aldermore Bank Plc Finance

Mistras Group Ltd Energy

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CTO of the Year Europe Promoting the importance of technology and innovation in Europe CTO of the Year award aims to promote the importance of technology and innovations for Europe’s future, and especially the crucial role of technology leadership in this, by celebrating two European Chief Technology Officers, one for large companies and one for SMEs. It rewards outstanding technology leaders in innovative European companies from any industry who contribute to the development and sustainability of their industries, as well as to the society at large.

The winner will be selected by the international jury and awarded in October 2016.

Who is going to be the CTO of the Year Europe 2016?

Nominations are open at www.ctoeurope.net

of the year europe

2016

award

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

P&G: a conglomerate conundrum?

How sustainability is approached by a company home to brands which generate â‚Ź67 billion a year Wr i t t e n by : TO M WA D LOW

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y NOT MANY BUSINESSPEOPLE wish redundancy upon themselves.

For the Global Sustainability Director at Proctor and Gamble (P&G) however, this is the endgame.

“My vision is for my role to be eliminated,” asserts Virginie Helias, who has spent 28 successful years at the global powerhouse helping to build some of the worlds most renowned brands.

“Sustainability will be embedded in everything we do, it will be second nature. Innovation and communication will not be conceived without sustainable groundings.

That will be job done, retirement.”

P&G is one of the world’s most prolific brand makers. Across its 10 product categories, ranging from fabric and home care to beauty and health, the company owns 21 brands with annual sales of more than $1 billion. Pampers, Fairy, Ariel, Febreze, Olay, Pantene, Braun and Gillette are just some of the household names in P&G’s portfolio.

The challenge Such a diverse and wide-ranging array of manufacturing, marketing and sales processes naturally leads 12

September 2016

one to ask how sustainability can possibly be embedded effectively from the top. Being responsible for so many brands is the toughest part of the job for Helias, who took the role in 2011 after recognising the potential of sustainable development when marketing Aerial’s cold wash capabilities.

“Sustainability is different from one brand to another,” she explains. “If you take shampoos, 96 percent of the carbon footprint is in the hot shower, whereas with diapers it is all about the materials used in the manufacturing.”

Helias started with the top, educating the leadership of P&G.

P&G: A CONGLOMERATE CONUNDRUM?

“I saw we had a great team of sustainability scientists but they lacked a real connection with the business, so the job was to breach the business and science gap and embed sustainability into the company. Why are we doing this?

What is the business case?

“Once I answered the why I then move onto the how. The how begins with evaluating the impact of your business – what is your life cycle? Then it is about embedding sustainability into the business process and brand message, which is one of the more difficult parts of the challenge.”

“My vision is for my role to be eliminated.

Sustainability will be embedded in everything we do, it will be second nature” – Virginie Helias, Global Sustainability Director at Proctor and Gamble (P&G)

Febreze A perfect example of this conundrum is Febreze, one of the leading brands of air fresheners. While the brand is all about transforming air quality and odours, by far the largest impact of the product environmentally is its packaging. Alignment of the two presented a difficult challenge, but one Helias and her team overcame.

She adds: “We spent a long time trading ideas and came up with the idea of ‘leaving nothing behind but fresh air’ – you address the packaging because you don’t want anything to go to landfill, and you also address air quality and pollution as you want to have Febreze manufactured in plants using clean energy. All of a sudden there are many ways the brand and sustainable impact can work together.”

This concept has translated into sustainable processes on the ground.

P&G has partnered with EDF to build a 100MW wind farm in Texas to power 13

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y the manufacturing of home and fabric care products. This will be in operation by the end of the year, and is important step towards the company’s 2020 goal of using 30 percent renewable energy.

In terms of leaving nothing behind but fresh air, P&G’s Zero Waste to Landfill initiative is now fully in force with 68 sites and four countries (Germany, Japan, Poland and Vietnam) entirely landfill free – a move which has also generated $1.6 billion in value for the company.

“To address the Febreze packaging impact we have partnered with TerraCycle,” Helias explains. “They are a wonderful organisation that manages waste that is difficult to recycle. The trigger heads in some

To download P&G’s latest sustainability report, CLICK HERE To find out more about the Febreze recycling partnership with TerraCycle, visit: www.terracycle.co.uk 14

September 2016

spray products are made with plastic and an aluminium spring, which municipal recycling plants can’t deal with. We have sponsored 971 locations that ship the packaging for free and then TerraCycle upcycles or repurposes the waste. For consumers it is great because we give them points which they can use to give to charities.”

Pampers, phosphates and beyond By integrating sustainability into brands’ messaging and ensuring it delivers a return on investment, P&G has made some significant environmental steps in recent years.

Another renewable energy drive is taking place in Alabama in a partnership with Constellation to build a 50MW biomass plant at P&G’s Charmin and Bounty manufacturing site, one of its largest in the USA. This is due to begin operations in June 2017 and will provide 70 percent of the facility’s energy needs.

In Europe, recent innovation has resulted in diaper brand Pampers

P&G: A CONGLOMERATE CONUNDRUM?

Safe Water Swimming champion Becky Adlington is an ambassador for the campaign reducing its packaging material by 80 percent in terms of weight, saving more than 6,000 tons a year. Plastic has also been cut by 10 percent, saving a further 900 tonnes. By reducing the size of the Pampers packets, 14,000 fewer pallets were required to transport the product in 2015, leading to 400 fewer trucks being on the road, or 160 tons of carbon emissions. Project NINA (New Intermodal Network Approach) aims to remove even more trucks from Europe’s roads by using other

modes of transport, especially rail.

“Another big breakthrough is with our Fairy brand and removing all phosphates,” Helias reveals. “This will be fully in place by October 2017 and will remove 14,000 tonnes of phosphate, or 270,000 football fields.

This is in effect a 50 percent CO² reduction, which will be received extremely positively in the UK because its consumers are very conscious of the impact of their cleaning products.

“People ask why didn’t you do this 15

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y earlier, and the answer is that it takes time to develop. Anyone can release an eco-friendly detergent but it is no good if it doesn’t clean properly.”

These are just some of the environmental schemes running across the P&G portfolio, working alongside various social initiatives to form a comprehensive sustainable programme. Social sustainability plays an equally important role, no better demonstrated than by the Children’s Safe Drinking Water campaign, which has so far delivered more than 8.9 billion litres of clean water in over 75 countries.

Challenge from the outside Being open to scrutiny and target setting from external influencers has kept Helias and her team on their toes. Working alongside WWF has certainly heightened the ambition of P&G’s sustainability programme.

“They are an amazing partner,” Helias says. “In 2010 we decided to form a really ambitious vision and we reached out to them to help us make our 2020 goals. We had a conference with our CEO and the head of the WWF, and since then they have helped us a lot in particular 16

September 2016

environmental areas, especially in palm oil and our commitment to a zero deforestation target.

“WWF is challenging us to go further and making sure we set higher goals. We set up an external advisory board made up of WWF and people from other industries to advise our leadership on sustainability and share best practices.”

By instilling the motivation to operate more sustainably and convincing P&G’s brand bosses of the business case for environmental innovation, Helias could well see her job dissolve in the coming years.

But what was her motivation?

“It’s not because I have a green background. It was a business accident almost. My work is humanised. How can you show people that sustainability can transform their work?

“When you do it the right way the feeling is amazing. I have people come up to me and say my work is up to here, but I want to do this sustainable project too. It is working beyond increasing market share. It is beyond me, my ego and my business inclinations.”

P&G: A CONGLOMERATE CONUNDRUM?

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

MISSION ZERO Global carpet manufacturer Interface vows to eliminate its environmental impact by 2020, an ambition which has put sustainability at the company’s core and delivered some spectacular results Writ ten by TO M WA D LOW

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

WHY SET YOURSELF an impossible challenge? For a company that sells $1 billion worth of carpet tiles a year, total elimination of its environmental impact by 2020 is surely beyond the realms of possibility.

Industrial manufacturing processes, heavy use of raw materials and layers of supply chain that are not always possible to influence make it difficult to comprehend how Mission Zero can be achieved.

But this is exactly the point for Interface. What are the realms of possibility, and how close to zero impact can be achieved? In 1994 the company’s founder Ray Anderson signalled a sea change in corporate attitude towards sustainability.

Legal compliance, although important, was no longer enough.

“Ray was inspired by the book Ecology of Commerce written by Paul Hawken,” says Sustainability Director Ramon Arratia. “He changed our thinking from the traditional takemake-waste to a circular model.

Industry has the power to make a difference, and this is where Mission Zero and our 2020 vision was born.”

It was this ambition and integration 20

September 2016

of sustainability into every aspect of the Interface business which led Arratia from Vodafone to the seemingly less glamourous world of carpet tiles.

Progress to zero The setting of such an ambitious target has led to some enormous advances, and in many areas Interface is tantalisingly close to achieving zero impact.

MISSION ZERO

“THIS GOAL OF MISSION ZERO PUSHED US TO VENTURE INTO THE UNKNOWN. OUR PEOPLE HAVE GONE TO PLACES THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE” – RAMON ARRATIA, SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, INTERFACE

Since 1996, the amount of waste to landfill from carpet factories has been reduced by 91 percent and in Europe this has been reduced to zero. Greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 92 percent during the same period, a large part of which is down to huge growth in the use of renewable energy. In Europe, 95 percent of energy used comes from renewable sources.

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S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y Interface also uses 50 percent recycled or biobased raw materials.

Operations have also become more efficient, again with European production leading the way. Energy usage has gone down by 54 percent since 1996 while the amount of gas and water used has dropped by 40 and 93 percent respectively.

These headline numbers are hugely impressive, and Arratia is certain that much more can be achieved: “Since 2008, our entire environmental footprint of our products, which includes the whole supply chain of suppliers, their suppliers and so on, has been reduced by 39 percent. We have shown it is possible to do it,” he says.

“While we can’t control the entire footprint of a product and the various layers of supply chain, we have calculated that per square foot of tile we can reduce the environmental impact by 80 percent, which is huge.”

The key for Arratia will be flexibility in the manufacturing process.

“We need to have production lines which are adaptable to many different kinds of raw material from which we can make carpet tiles,” he adds. “You need to be flexible 22

September 2016

enough to make yarn from material X or material Y, which can change depending on price and availability, or something new we have found.

“We have installed a new line in our Scherpenzeel factory in the Netherlands which makes the back of our carpets, and hopefully in the next year we will be able to launch new products made from different raw materials.”

The Scherpenzeel site is arguably Interface’s sustainability flagship, producing zero waste to landfill and using 100 percent renewable energy.

Fishing for carpet Interface’s sustainability drive is being felt socially as well as environmentally, thanks to schemes such as NetWorks which transforms fish nets into nylon for carpet manufacturing.

So far some 93 tonnes of discarded nets have been gathered from some of the poorest coastal communities in the likes of the Philippines and Cameroon, providing welcome income for local fishermen and muchneeded waste removal from oceans.

“With this sort of innovation we can create much more of an impact beyond the environmental,” Arratia

MISSION ZERO

explains. “This is as much a social programme as environmental, and is about how we can put more income into communities.

“Businesses like Vodafone and other tech companies make their impact with their technology – Vodafone has done great work to get mobiles to people in Africa. For a carpet tile manufacturer we can’t do this, so we make a difference with raw materials.”

Sustainable is profitable The commercial business case for sustainable investment, beyond simply becoming more efficient and using fewer resources per square foot of carpet, has also been proven by Interface.

“Once you arrive with a new sustainable product or innovation you can expect a premium for it because you have invested in its sustainability – there is a hard business case for investing in it,” Arratia says.

“There are softer business cases too, like the ability to recruit and retain people. At the end of the day, we are a carpet company which, on the face of it, may not sound that exciting. I moved from Vodafone to work in this industry because I was won over 23

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

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September 2016

MISSION ZERO

“THIS IS NOT SOMETHING DREAMY AND US JUST DOING THE RIGHT THING, IT IS ALSO ABOUT US BEING CLEVERER THAN THE REST”

– RAMON ARRATIA, SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, INTERFACE

by Mission Zero and the ambition.

“We have the ability to recruit people who are looking to work towards a higher purpose, and this is not just us saying nice things, it drives right to the core of the company. We are trying to be the first, trying to show the world that this is possible. This is not something dreamy and us just doing the right thing, it is also about us being cleverer than the rest.”

Aim high, face reality Asked what advice he would give to businesses looking to develop their own sustainability strategy, Arratia identified three key messages based on his experiences at Interface.

“First, understand the true impact of your product,” he says. “That is hard, because when you carry out a genuine life cycle assessment of

a product it is the elephant in the room, and many people don’t want to accept the results. It is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow, but you have to face it because eventually it will give you a competitive advantage.

“Following on from this, you should always look at sustainability from a product perspective. This is the only way to truly embed sustainability, and once we innovate a sustainable product this gives our marketers and sales teams an angle to approach the market.

Finally, and perhaps what has been most influential for Interface, is instilling a mind-set without limitations.

Arratia concludes: “Don’t be afraid to set high targets which you might not reach. I hear so often of targets being revised down just so companies can be sure to meet them, and this is so wrong.

“This goal of Mission Zero pushed us to venture into the unknown. Our people have gone to places they have never seen before and taken innovations from other sectors and applied it to ours. All of the technology is out there, we just need our engineers to find and access it somehow. We need to be ambitious in order to push people out of their comfort zone.”

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SUSTAINABILITY

Enel and Formula E: on track for carbon neutral racing

Business Review Europe asks the Italian energy giant about its innovations being deployed on the electric motoring stage. Federico Caleno, Head of New Technologies and Global Infrastructure & Network Innovation, answers our questions Wr i t t e n by : TO M WA D LOW

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

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Why is Enel getting involved with Formula E?

Enel closely followed the inaugural season of Formula E, and saw it become one of the most important automotive initiatives to promote the development of electric mobility, making it the right platform for technological cooperation that could boost innovation in e-mobility.

The partnership offers Enel a high-tech testing ground for the ongoing development of its green power technologies and also allows the company to showcase 28

September 2016

its e-mobility products and solutions to a global audience.

Considering its growing international popularity and reach, the competition offers a great opportunity to boost global awareness of sustainable mobility, smart cities and new energy models. Moreover, by locating the races in city centres, Formula E enables people who may not necessarily be racing fans to get to know and experience new green smart technologies.

ENEL AND FORMULA E: ON TRACK FOR CARBON NEUTRAL RACING

How is the partnership working?

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Enel decided to partner with Formula E because both companies are well aware of the opportunities that come from electric mobility, smart cities and the clean energy revolution.

Enel is a pioneer in smart technology and is ready to open it up to the world. Formula E gives Enel the opportunity to showcase its technological and management capabilities by building in the space of just a few days and in the middle of some of the world’s greatest cities, a fully-digitised and transportable micro grid, which requires a massive deployment of technology and significant engineering expertise. Enel is able to do this thanks to its experience in the micro grid sector, which is currently focused on rural electrification projects, non-interconnected islands and R&D projects, and ensures an advanced, integrated technological framework for the management of complex electrical systems.

Formula E and Enel are working to make the racing the first FIA event to go carbon neutral, breaking new ground for the environmental sustainability of the entertainment industry, and the partnership aims to contribute to this goal by making the most of Enel’s expertise in renewable and smart energy technologies.

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

Talk to me about some of the projects you will be working on and how these will enhance the sustainability of Formula E. Enel is designing a fully digitised micro grid for Formula E. The mini-grid will be powered by PV solar and other renewable energy generators and will be supported by energy storage systems selected by Enel and tailored for the specific needs of the itinerant races. Of particular importance is the micro grid controller, which will ensure the reliability of the service by taking into account all the info needed to optimise energy management (weather forecast, load prediction, performance of 30

September 2016

each micro grid component in different working conditions, etc.).

A transportable micro grid will eventually ensure that the championship’s races continue to place little or no extra strain on the host cities’ existing electricity grid. Enel will also provide its LED lighting technology for areas around each circuit, as well as setting up its own charging points (including Vehicle-to-Grid – V2G technology) for fans arriving at the ePrixs in their own electric vehicles.

By the 2017/18 season, Formula E will be ready to deploy a combination of solar panels and glycerine-fed generators connected to a highly innovative storage system that will distribute energy at the event whenever needed. The company’s smart metering technology will enable the monitoring of power usage and give fans the chance to interact in real time with an advanced energy system. In the current season, Enel will progressively deploy its smart meters and energy management system, gradually harvesting data on energy usage for each team and across the event at every race.

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ENEL AND FORMULA E: ON TRACK FOR CARBON NEUTRAL RACING

Can these technologies be applied in other ways?

Formula E will give Enel the chance to test several technologies typically associated to what we call “smart cities” of the future, such as: Movable storage systems and their integration with PV solar, which will be useful in smart cities where more people will become producers of energy; The integration of electric cars with local energy grids through our V2G technology, an innovative technology which allows EVs owners and energy consumers to use their vehicles as real “four-wheel mobile plants”, storing and feeding back into the grid the energy that has not been used. This will be a great test bed for additional commercial projects on top of those that Enel is already carrying out with other partners, such as with

Nissan in Denmark and in the UK; Innovative energy management applications that can open the way to commercial products for our Business-to-Customer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B) customers, promoting energy efficiency solutions for energy-intensive sectors with high carbon emissions, such as construction sector and large industries.

Thanks to Formula E we will also assess potential business models for the future, as we expect that the demand for events’ sustainable powering and smarter solutions for the entertainment sector will grow all over the world after this Formula E experience. Smart cities will also host smarter entertainment solutions.

Moreover, the Formula E experience will be a testing ground for micro grid applications, in particular for rural electrification projects, mainly through off-grid solutions, but also in grid-tied systems. We will be able to test cutting-edge technologies for the increase of renewable integration, storage management, load control and metering, energy management with local controllers for real-time operations and cloud-based platform for systems’ optimization, among other things.

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

How big a challenge is making a carbon neutral e-prix?

Describe some of the challenges faced.

The most exciting challenge is to ensure the sustainability of all the events from an energy standpoint.

This can be achieved thanks to Enel’s experience in the renewables sector and in off-grid technologies.

We firmly believe that Enel’s micro grid solutions will be able to both rationalise power consumption needs and diversify energy sources, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and Formula E’s carbon footprint.

In this context the correct sizing of an extremely modular solution will be essential for guaranteeing both the micro grid’s full reliability and lower generation costs.

Another challenge is the variable nature of Formula E races around the world due to their location and the different availability levels of renewable sources. These differences influence the type and amount of load Enel will need to supply.

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5 “THE PARTNERSHIP OFFERS ENEL A HIGH-TECH TESTING GROUND FOR THE ONGOING DEVELOPMENT OF ITS GREEN POWER TECHNOLOGIES AND ALSO ALLOWS THE COMPANY TO SHOWCASE ITS E-MOBILITY PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS TO A GLOBAL AUDIENCE”

ENEL AND FORMULA E: ON TRACK FOR CARBON NEUTRAL RACING

What are your aims for the future, beyond the 2017/18 season?

Enel is working with Formula E on a long term vision, because this partnership could lead to the development of innovative and sustainable energy solutions. For this reason, Enel will assess the possibility of extending the current agreement beyond the 2017/2018. The company’s strategic goal is to raise awareness of green energy and sustainable development and to call attention to

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the green transformation of the global entertainment industry. From a technical standpoint, Enel aims to improve the performance of its innovative products, develop new technologies and use this great opportunity to test them in real world conditions. There will be many challenges in this partnership and as the competition evolves we will find new areas in which we can collaborate. For example, it is expected that starting from the fifth season a new technology for batteries, which would require a higher peak capacity and a more complex infrastructure, will be used, together with a new charging technology.

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The digital soldier Written by: Nell Walker

Produced by: Danielle Harris

IRISH DEFENCE FORCES

The ICT CTO of Irish Defence Forces, Damian Griffin, describes the organisation’s technological requirements, the challenges which lay ahead, and its digital future

F Comdt Damian Griffin

ormed in 1924, the Irish Defence Forces encompasses all of the nation’s military operations, with the President of Ireland as Supreme Commander.

The organisation has long taken on a neutral stance when it comes to armed conflict, and has an extensive history of peace-keeping activities as a member of the United Nations.

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September 2016

Comdt. Damian Griffin has served 22 years with the organisation, entering from school in 1994 as a cadet. The Defence Forces provided him the opportunity to attend university, initially to achieve a B.Eng (Electronics), which qualified Griffin to enter the Communication & Information Services (CIS) Corps as a technical officer.

Griffin was given further opportunity to study and has gained his MSc (Communications Engineering) and is a Certified Information Systems Security Practitioner (CISSP). Griffin credits the Defence Forces educational focus in providing him the leadership and technology skills required by any senior technology leader.

Griffin has delivered innovative efficiency since entering the CIO Office of the CIS Corps (known as

TECHNOLOGY

J6 within the military environment) in September 2009. In 2010, he completed a thought paper for the secure evolution of the Defence Forces network from user to data centre. The concepts were refined to form the Defence Forces ICT Strategy for delivery of all classified services, and cemented his role as a key technical strategist. “The key was to select complimentary technologies that

ensure the security of Defence Forces data. This secure evolution will reveal a re-engineered DF network enabled to deliver operational capabilities both today and into the future,� says Griffin.

Technology for all The Defence Forces General Staff see the combination of technology with innovation as a key enabler.

As in enterprise, the Defence

w w w . m i l i t a r y. i e

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IRISH DEFENCE FORCES

Force budgets must be efficient in delivering services to the highest of standard: “The network requires flexibility to enable DF personnel across a variety of roles; operations, logistics, and engineering to name a brief few,” Griffin explains. “DF personnel are tasked to deliver the mission on land, sea and air on a 24/7/365 basis, and the ICT environment must support this in a secure yet seamless manner.

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September 2016

“The strategic coupling of technology and innovation at all levels of the organisation has the ability to harness the collective organisational intelligence to solve all level of challenge across land, sea and air,” Griffin says.

“Another challenge is the continued transition of the organisation to the demand of the digital soldier; it is all about our ability to listen and deliver the user requirements.”

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IRISH DEFENCE FORCES

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September 2016

1924 The year Irish Defense Forces was founded

Partner power The CIS Corps through clear leadership has over decades formed strong technology partnerships across the ICT landscape. Over the last 15 months Griffin lead the Defence Forces team to complete a competitive dialogue procurement process for the delivery of a Virtual Desktop Architecture. This key partnership was awarded to the Evros Technology group on the 30th June 2016. The project will result in the complete re-

engineering of the Defence Forces network environment in the next 18-24 months. “Evros navigated a highly competitive procurement process in a professional manner, while demonstrating proficiency in all technical and service support areas. They now have the opportunity to deliver key ICT capabilities in partnership with the Defence Forces for a guaranteed 3 and up to 5 years.�

The partnership will be keenly tested in undertaking this huge

w w w . m i l i t a r y. i e

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“Service delivery will improve from the ground up as we change the network�

IRISH DEFENCE FORCES

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TECHNOLOGY

task, which Griffin is well aware of; it targets the creation of an intelligent, security-layered network to deliver all existing requirements while laying the foundation for future development.

“Is it going to be all smooth sailing? Of course not, but that’s why I’m calling it a partnership,” Griffin says, regarding the support of an organisation

of 9,500 personnel. “The dating (procurement) stage is complete, we have announced our engagement (award, design and implementation) in the hope of a strong and lasting marriage (sustainment). Like any type of relationship, it’s going to have good and bad days, but we’re confident in the qualities and skills on both sides to deliver.”

w w w . m i l i t a r y. i e

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IRISH DEFENCE FORCES

Secure networks “The key to securing any environment is a definite understanding of where the data is – at rest or in transit – and the level of protection required.”

Griffin continues, emphasising the need for simplicity for both the user environment and administrative management of all systems and services. This in turn must be complemented with efficient processes linked to the overall security framework.

The design challenge to Evros will always be focused on the delivery of a heavily secured yet user-friendly experience.

“The combination of physical and logical separation across the virtual environment will deliver the Defence Forces the required level of security,” explains Griffin. “It is about minimising the organisational security risk with the balance of usability. The future of application delivery, security and change management must be efficient and straightforward. Service delivery will improve from the ground up

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as we change the network.”

Technology is constantly evolving, and anybody in Griffin’s position must remain aware of emerging digital fluctuations. Griffin believes that all appropriate technologies, including the cloud, should be considered. “The technology or process of today will become the multiplying enabler tomorrow.

The need for continual forward progression must be a given.

“We have to always know where our data is,” Griffin concludes, “and for any organisation, if you know where all the data is and that it’s secured to the right level, you’re in a good place.”

“If you know where all the data is and that it’s secured to the right level, you’re in a good place”

r o t a v o n n i y g r e n E on Written by Lucy Dix w Lloyd Produced by Andre

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FIRST UTILITY

In eight short years First Utility has gone from a handful of customers to competing with the Big Six energy providers in the UK. Business Review Europe discovers how technology has made this possible

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hen Bill Wilkins took on the joint roles of CIO and CTO at First Utility back in 2010, he was faced with two challenges: making the IT fit for purpose and also capable of scaling up as the business grew. The pilot platform First Utility originally deployed wasn’t performing as required, Wilkins explains, and he was asked to advise on the correct route to take. “The platform wasn’t scaling and the company was looking at re-engineering it, so I presented the founders with a plan and was asked to implement it. And it’s been a very exciting few years watching a concept with a small number of customers growing to the very large business is today with

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close to a million customers and £1billion in revenue,” Wilkins adds.

First Utility was started by a group of smart investors back in 2008, looking to replicate the success they had already achieved in the telco industry, building an independent company and offering customers a different proposition.

Initially, the company was all about smart meters and accurate billing – relatively new concepts at the time – and it is still, primarily, a technology company, although the product it sells is energy.

As CIO and CTO, Wilkins says, he has two distinct roles. The CTO part of his role is about designing digital solutions around First Utility’s core energy proposition, and his

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TECHNOLOGY

CIO role is all about making sure that technology was never a barrier to what the company wanted to do from a business perspective.

“When you go from nothing to a million households and from 30 employees to 1,400 employees, the scalability of the platform is a

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Number of employees at First Utility

very important factor in how quickly you can grow. So the CIO part of my role is all about delivering that robust, secure, scale, fit-for-purpose business. The CTO part of my role is about positively evolving the way our customers engage with their energy consumption and also with us. So that it’s more convenient for them, they get a better service experience

and ultimately they end up staying longer with us,” Wilkins adds.

Research and development

And a pivotal part of this technology delivery is First Utility’s preference for investing in developing its own solutions. It has a Business Technology Group – carefully named by Wilkins to highlight that technology is at the core of the company and not just an internal service provider – that works collaboratively with and as peers of the other departments. “We have 203 technologists that work in the Business Technology Group so we invest quite heavily in building our own solutions rather than buying shrink-wrapped products from the marketplace.”

This focus on developing solutions in-house is partly the result of necessity, Wilkins says, as eight years ago there wasn’t much out there already for the relatively new independent energy sector.

“There aren’t many specialist software vendors that deal with how

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FIRST UTILITY

you support retail energy in the UK – because we couldn’t afford to go to SAP and buy their solution when we were a young company – so we had to hire a lot of smart software engineers and do a lot of that primary platform development ourselves.”

In-house innovation

Keeping the software engineering team engaged has been key to enabling the flow of innovation, by providing regular research days

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and encouraging contribution to open source communities. A good example is the successful research and development project that resulted in natural language processing techniques that works out what a customer is asking for in an intelligent way. Wilkins adds: “It handles a good proportion of our inbound customer contact traffic now via mail but also in our mobile platform, so customers can chat to what they think is an agent but it is an artificial intelligence brain and it’s available 24/7 helping fix a direct debit, find out what the last bill was or even submit a meter reading.”

It was important to Wilkins that Ask First, as this product is called, wasn’t seen by customers as a barrier to good service or as a deflection technique. He adds: “We wanted Ask First to actually answer the question, not just give back some standard request. So when we build a product, there is instrumentation inside the product to make sure we know who is using it and what questions they’re asking.

First Utility Helps Customers Optimize Their Energy Consumption Using DataStax Enterprise Company Background First Utility is the largest independent energy supplier in the UK, servicing more than one million households. The company is focused on disrupting the legacy, slowchanging utilities industry through innovative new applications that deliver total transparency and help customers understand and manage their energy consumption. First Utility has a number of “firsts” to its name: it was the first supplier to offer dual-fuel Smart Metering to UK households, the first to offer an consumer energy analytics platform and the first to offer fully automated video meter reads in its mobile app.

Business Objectives – Drive Better Customer Experience Before adopting the DataStax Enterprise (DSE) distributed database platform, First Utility sought to achieve two main goals – develop a modern platform to support a disruptive energy startup through innovation and evolve a highly efficient business model that allows us to offer consistently market leading prices to our customers – DSE supports both of these strategies.

First Utility drives innovation through applications such as “My Energy”, a core component of the company’s digital proposition that helps customers optimize energy consumption and lower their bills.

Many households now use the Smart Metering service on a monthly and even weekly basis, and First Utility seeks to bring more of these value-added applications to its

customers via DataStax Enterprise.

Each smart meter produces up to 17 thousands meter readings per year. Most households have two meters – gas and electricity – and First Utility supplies nearly one million homes. That’s a lot of data to store and process within the My Energy platform and doing it in an affordable way is why they chose DSE. “Investing in digital engagements creates higher customer lifetime value, and First Utility is focused on delivering applications that build trust and create long-term profitable relationships with our customers,” said Bill Wilkins, CIO/CTO, First Utility.

“DataStax Enterprise offers the data scale and analytics capabilities we need to bring these new innovations to market.”

DataStax Enterprise – Database for Cloud Applications First Utility realized it needed a new platform that could store and manipulate large amounts of data for their My Energy and other applications, so the company adopted DataStax Enterprise. DSE is a distributed database platform based on the open source Apache CassandraTM database.

DSE’s masterless architecture ensures very high availability and linear scalability to support the uptime and performance requirements of cloud applications.

First Utility was initially drawn to using open source Apache CassandraTM, but realized that DSE’s integrated Analytics capabilities based on Apache Spark provided functionality not readily available

elsewhere. The company also quickly realized that DataStax could help them adopt a “digital shift” mindset and adopt the skills needed to create next-generation applications.

When first undertaking their digital transformation, First Utility considered utilizing prepackaged software solutions that did not address their broader data management ecosystem. However for the long run, the company wanted its own framework for creating new applications and pursued a database platform that could accomplish innovative application delivery.

Results – Drive Customer Retention Since rolling out the data platform with DataStax Enterprise, First Utility has grown its footprint in DSE. It started as a strategy to support a modern innovative new platform.

However success there has spawned the desire to bring the benefits to more traditional areas of Energy I.T. and have deployed the framework in the Customer Care and Billing platform – a mission-critical, business facing system. With DSE, First Utility was the first company to offer an energy data analytics platform that shows how much energy customers are using and spending to help them optimize their usage.

First Utility can now see that customers who use the platform regularly use 5-6% less energy and save, on an average, £45 a year based on an annual spend of £900.

Customers are also happier, and stay with them 60% longer than before.

TECHNOLOGY

We also track customers through our digital platform and through our voice platform so we know if they subsequently call back in.

This way we know that people that use Ask First have a very high percentage of satisfaction.”

Identifying differentiators

When choosing whether to invest in its own solutions or to work with what the market has to offer, the deciding factor for Wilkins is whether First Utility can differentiate in some way. It has its own modern technology platform that uses very few third party technology players and therefore has a very low cost of ownership associated with it, but there are solutions that First Utility looks to external partners for. Wilkins adds: “Typically, if it’s a generic requirement and we can access it at a decent price and we think the price scales reasonably with our business model then we will buy. We don’t want to build for the sake of building.”

Building something bespoke together with carefully selected partners is also an option, and is

“We invest quite heavily in building our own solutions rather than buying shrinkwrapped products from the marketplace” what Wilkins decided to do with the customer billing platform when its own system was no longer able to cope with the company’s growth.

“We scanned the market and we found a multi-product billing platform in Israel from a company called LogNet Systems. We had fewer than 50,000 customers at the time and LogNet was willing to work with us at our relatively small scale and treat us like a very important customer. So we then embarked on a three-year project to jointly develop a UK energy billing system - the system we’re on today - and one that we’re very confident will get us way up into the Big Six territories.”

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The Big Six he is referring to, of course, are the major players in the UK’s energy market including British Gas and EDF. So what does Wilkins think sets First Utility apart from these giants? From a business perspective, he says, it is the technology platform. “The economics of our technology platform is far superior because it’s more modern and with that comes cost advantage. Also, it follows that it is much more agile, much more nimble. Agile technical platforms enable agile businesses.”

My Energy

The customer-facing My Energy platform, which was introduced in 2014, is another critical differentiator. It enables customers to understand their energy use in a way that can actually lead to savings. Wilkins says: “It shows you things like how you’re consuming energy versus people in your neighbourhood. Whether you’re more efficient or less efficient. It shows you how you might want

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to save energy through energysaving calculators. It customises hints and tips for you. It shows you how your bill will change over the next six months based on your individual tariffs and individual consumption levels.”

It provides our customers tailored information that typically leads to a five percent reduction in energy use of those who sign up for it. Great for the customer and the planet – but also great for First Utility, as it is a popular tool. “It’s very clear from our analytics that the more time people spend on our digital platforms, the longer they stay with us and the happier they are with our service. Many companies would look at investing in something like My Energy, which is completely outside of the required for what you need to operate in the energy space, as a luxury, maybe not an appropriate use of investment.

Actually, it’s turned out to be as we believed it would be: a very good business investment.”

In 2015, video meter reading

capability was added, which means a customer can simply hold the camera to the meter to submit a reading through the mobile app.

“Although we led the introduction of residential smart meters, we are pragmatic and realise that not every UK household will have one soon,” adds Wilkins.

Another important area of focus for First Utility is optimising its business model. Wilkins explains: “Technology plays a lead role here, as you would expect. A less conventional approach is to risk using emerging technologies to reduce the footprint of expensive commercial software. An example here is the use of Cassandra and DataStaxx to upgrade our meter data management store – improving our scalability, performance whilst slashing our vendor costs.”

First Utility also makes use of a cloud-based voice platform from LiveOps by Unify Communications.

“Not owning a large data centre allows us to focus on our business and allow other professional organisations use their economies

TECHNOLOGY

of scale to improve our efficiency.

We have gone beyond using services like Amazon and Google for compute power and storage and use cloud-platforms for one of our most critical applications – supporting the voice channel for our customer contact centre.”

Collaborative working

Wilkins also made the decision to put Google Apps inside First Utility, firstly because as CIO, he didn’t want to manage the email infrastructure. He explains: “In the same way I don’t want to manage the data centre or air conditioning or power supplies, as those things don’t differentiate us and there are experts out there already. Amazon is a great example: it knows more about how to do efficient data centre management than I ever will. And Google knows more about email and delivering a web-scale infrastructure for collaboration.”

And Wilkins has witnessed a real transformation thanks to Google Apps, with staff working together,

real-time on shared documents, making use of Google Hangouts and even creating live broadcasts – Hangouts on Air – to run “townhalls” that update the business community on new innovations in data. It has also freed the company from what Wilkins calls ‘attachment hell’, which is an added bonus.

The issue of scale comes up once again when the subject turns to the future of First Utility which, Wilkins says, includes the continual optimisation of its business model.

“We have quite a large percentage of our resources analysing the data that comes out of our contact centre and our business process to see where the squeaky wheels are and see how we can automate better. To make us a more efficient machine.”

The Business Technology Group will continue to focus on product development, particularly around mobile and My Energy, looking at what it can offer to First Utility’s growing number of customers.

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Headline for an company report Written by xxxxx Produced by xxxxx

Building homes and strong communities

through digital innovation Written by Catherine Rowell Produced by Andy Lloyd

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David Redpath, CIO and Director of Information Services for Home Group discusses how a ‘digital first’ approach has provided efficient technological solutions which have successfully put their customers back in control

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f you are to build a successful business, you not only need a successful product and a strong team, but an innovative technological resilience in order to remain at the forefront of modern competitive markets.

Back in 1998 when the internet was still in its infancy, Home Group’s Director of Information Services David Redpath was undertaking a degree at the University of Sunderland whilst working for an industrial company for his placement year. Longing for the company to provide integrated IT systems which would benefit both staff and clientele, the Managing Director requested that Redpath return once his degree

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was completed and implement the necessary systems. From here, Redpath’s passion to deliver business change through the use of digital technology came into fruition.

Home Group is currently one of the largest housing associations within the country and is the largest adult social care company in the world, accommodating homes for around 120,000 people. Redpath is passionate about the services in which the company is set to deliver: “In the sector we are one of the leading innovators – we will invest money in the right things to make our colleagues, customers and clients daily lives better,” he says. “The fact that it isn’t about making profit

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Enabling Digital

As many as 70% of digital business initiatives will have failed to deliver this year.

Why, when digital offers huge potential to drive competitive advantage, has it continued to disappoint?

And why, when the potential to engage customers throughout their buying journey is so great, has digital failed to deliver?

The answer is a lack of joined up thinking. In an attempt to inject greater innovations and agility into their businesses, many departments have pushed ahead with their own programs, leading to a bi-modal approach to IT investment. This has created a complex web of applications and solutions, across multiple and disparate platforms.

Fujitsu can help organisations bridge the digital disconnect with an integrated, end-to-end approach to digital business transformation. Discover how by clicking HERE.

TECHNOLOGY

for the shareholders, it’s actually about making surplus so you can reinvest and buy more and more of the services that we’re good at.”

Despite being “at the right place at the right time”, previously working within Australian and UK offices to develop businesses from an IT systems point of view has enabled Redpath to be a significant force towards utilising technology and creating a flourishing business model within Home Group, instigating efficient digital systems and essential business ethics in order for employees to deliver a personable and innovative service.

“My role as CIO is to identify where technology can help, but ensure it is not technology for technologies sake because it’s whizzy and new,” he explains. “It’s got to have some business value and some efficiencies.

It’s got to be innovative, or it’s got to make us stand out from our competition. I am then responsible for delivering that change – identifying and driving it through, bringing the business at the same time.”

Investment power Large investments with Leighton, Technology Services Group (TSG) and international giant CISCO via infrastructure and hosting specialists, ITPS have cemented the company’s transition from a commercial model to one which makes surplus which is used to reinvest, transform, develop and install services which Home Group’s customers value. For Redpath, this provides “a much more powerful statement than just trying to make some money”, and enables the business to build more houses and provide essential services for people within the community that need them.

Redpath adds: “When you think of how many people are in our houses, we have about 30,000 clients at any one time, so we have quite a significant reach into the community. We are very much about building the community, building people and helping people enter difficult parts of their lives and also provide affordable housing, which is obviously what our remit is.”

With the company’s move towards

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what Redpath calls a “digital first approach”, a new website and app, built in collaboration with Leighton, effectively puts the client back in control, with the sole focus to increase customer engagement and client independence.

Art of communication Communication is a key factor that ensures the success of Home Group’s current position. The company’s personalised outlook is shaped through listening to customers’ experiences, alongside feedback received from internal teams. For Redpath it’s crucial to “put the customer back in control and for them to determine how the company interacts with them”.

The new Knowledge Management system, built in collaboration with TSG, is accessible to both staff and customers through the newly implemented intranet platform, providing essential information for clients who would alternately had to undertake a lengthy phone call.

It has provided numerous benefits to customers, which Redpath explains: “The Knowledge Management is available to the customer, so it helps customers find answers to things without having to talk to anybody, but it also helps our agents in the contact centre because we now track all of the interactions so we’re able to understand their journeys a little bit more. When the agent is talking to them, we have the history so you can see what has been previously asked and the answers given, which drives that knowledge.”

The system has won numerous awards. Furthermore, the company has utilised SharePoint with the support of TSG for employees to connect and work together, share data and

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save important documents online. schedule to enable teams to visit It is increasingly vital for Home him with any queries, concerns or Group to build positive relationships suggestions that they may have. with customers and clients, but Maintaining approachability is also to install essential IT systems in highly important for Redpath; in spite order to drive these crucial changes. of his accomplishments and position In the last 12-18 months, there has within the company, he strongly been a substantial rise in employee reminds employees that “people engagement at the company, should be able to ask any question as a result of the investment that they like and get an answer” in various technologies within the organisation, and developments, whether in the moment or which Redpath whether he will have to acknowledges find out the answer that “new and feed back computer to the particular Home Group is based equipment individual or team. in Newcastle, UK and systems has Even with its current contributed to this.” success and stability To maintain such within the housing market, encouraging results, monthly Redpath makes clear that this internal meetings are held to is not without its challenges. With ensure staff remain aware of the an increased need to protect strategic directive and impending company income and deliver developments. However, to services that are sustainable, remain in line with Home Group’s efficient yet financially viable is a innovative and personable business continuing complex balance. approach, Redpath ensures an Redpath highlights how Home hour a week is taken out of his Group is different: “When you’re

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“

As an organisation it is about building somebody’s home, but also helping to build their independence and their aspirations

“

HOME IMPROVEMENT

EXPERTS

We’re proud to be working in partnership with Nintex to support Home Group across a variety of information and data requirements.

Most significantly, we’re delighted that the solutions built by TSG’s experts using Microsoft SharePoint are delivering hugely impressive and genuinely transformational results.

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Home Group - On course to save £220,000 in the first year

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Home Group - Error rate in service call dispatch reduced to less than 3%

TRAIN EMPLOYEES FASTER

Home Group - New employee training reduced from 1 month to 10 days

To find out more download the case study at tsg.com/homegroup

ISO 9001

ISO 9001

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TECHNOLOGY

driving efficiency through it’s usually about the bottom line. When you run the efficiency through here, you know that actually what you’re doing is reinvesting that back into the community.”

Future proof In the midst of regular external political and economic shifts, the move towards commissioned services in healthcare, alongside changes to welfare reform – these factors impact on the level of social care funding provided by local governments. All of these factors have a ‘knock on effect’ and link with the possible reduction of universal credit, which can universally affect IT services and the ability to build affordable housing as a result of a reduced company income.

However, the company is aiming to implement a new

strategy towards constructing more housing for outright sale, funded through Home Group’s house building programme. “It’s not just about us sticking some bricks in the ground and there’s a house - as an organisation it is about building somebody’s home, but also helping to build their independence and their aspirations,” Redpath adds.

The company has grown significantly throughout the last 12 months and has successfully delivered what they set out to deliver in spite of significant internal and external business change. Redpath’s passion to drive continual high standards within a personable sphere and continual transforming IT services is clear to see. Wishing to remain leading innovators, with positive feedback received both internally and externally regarding its extensive services and an award winning customer contact centre, Home Group is set to go from strength to strength.

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Surveying assets

Written by Nye Longman Produced by James Pepper

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MISTRAS GROUP

MISTRAS Group brings decades of asset protection experience combined with the latest technological solutions, backed up by highly skilled technical staff

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ISTRAS Group has grown to become the go-to company for asset protection solutions, having developed industry-leading technology, solutions and skills that have been deployed across a number of key projects around the world. Supply Chain Digital speaks to Phil Cole, International Vice President about how the company can provide the assurance to clients from a range of sectors that their assets are safe, productive and compliant.

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Operations MISTRAS Group’s main offerings are heavily technology-focused, and enable a degree of asset protection that is not only world-leading and proactive, but is also adaptable to meet a diverse range of client needs including those coming from industrial sectors, energy companies, and those in charge of infrastructure assets.

Using acoustic emission, vibration analysis, advanced ultrasonics, and a portfolio of unique conventional and advanced NDT products and

ENERGY

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M I S T R A S G R O U P LT D

Services • NDT Consultancy • Procedure Development Forth Inspection Service Ltd Enterprise Business Centre Admiral Court Poynernook Road Aberdeen AB11 5QX

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& Approval • Advanced NDT Validations • Specialized Witness • Technical Auditing

Tel: +44 1224 289751 Mobile: +44 7827 406627 Email: darren@forthinspectionservice.com www.forthinspectionservice.com

ENERGY

services, the company monitors mechanical integrity and can deliver both destructive and nondestructive testing. It can achieve all this while supplying customers with customised wireless data analytics.

“Our ability to do turbine blade inspections comes from our expertise in the aerospace sector in composites” Phil Cole says: “We routinely inspect oil and gas assets and civil structures such as bridges. Many of today’s offshore platforms that are operated in the UKCS are at their stage in life where life extension programmes are required. The skills and expertise of Mistras to perform RBI and NII is key to the success of these programmes to ensure operational and structural integrity safety.

“We are market leaders in technological advances in NDT with specialist systems for the inspection of areas of known concern in today’s environment such as CUI, trunnions, pipe supports, vessel saddles, and valves. Utilising technologies normally regarded as difficult to access or to interpret results from with our highly skilled personnel places Mistras in the position of being able to offer solutions which many others can’t.”

All told, MISTRAS Group is present in 100 locations across the globe giving it coverage of the UK, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Its ability to adapt to the nuanced requirements of the industries in providing its services is impressive, whether this be oil and gas, nuclear, petrochemical maritime, paper manufacturing, automotive, or buildings.

Renewables Manager Nicola Mcglynn says: “MISTRAS Renewables Services offer a full and complete suite of inspection, repair and monitoring services.

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These range from structural monitoring of composite blades where our expertise was born from our extensive experience in the aerospace sector, condition monitoring of Nacelle and Monopile structures, to visual, photographic and video.

“Our experienced Renewables Team has worked alongside the world’s largest energy providers on some of the world’s largest projects such as the London Array, Gwynt y Mor, Whitelee, West of Duddon Sands, and Riffgrund.”

Cole adds: “Renewables is a great new area because people come to us with their problems, and we have provided solutions for them. For example, in the last couple of years we have invested heavily in advanced technologies, much of which is developed and manufactured in-house in our extensive R&D facility. We have also invested in excess of £1 million in our bespoke rope access training facilities ensuring that we have the capability and capacity to continue developing our skill set to service this growing area.”

Talent management The work that MISTRAS Group undertakes necessitates a well-

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ENERGY

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ENERGY

educated, thoroughly trained and, similarly, there’s a large workforce with industry-specific number of people who have skillsets. With around 7,000 global been here for 20 plus years.” employees on its books (1,500 The company has solidly of which are based in Europe) invested in both practical and the resources and time that the theoretical training. Its rope access company dedicates to training capabilities are supported by a and employee development dedicated training centre certified cannot be overstated. by the Global Wind Organisation; Cole highlights that MISTRAS Group also investing in talent utilises a variety of development does online materials a lot more than for both training simply ensuring testing purposes a skilled in line with its workforce: “On global presence.

Number of employees some offshore “Within the oil at Mistras Group projects, our & gas services employees might division we believe have had £20,000 strongly in training for into £30,000 spent on service inspection and regular training in the previous 12 months trade testing to ensure that not to get them to the level at which only are the technicians formally they are required to operate. certified but that they are also “Most of the people who work competent for the tasks that they for MISTRAS are very long term will be undertaking,” adds Cole. employees. We don’t tend to have a high staff turnover in Technology fact it is well below the industry Cole is keen to stress that the norms. I’ve been here since 1979 technology-intensive solutions

6,000

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MISTRAS Group offers can save clients millions. He says: “If you look at the history of failures in process equipment, whether it’s power or oil and gas, there are far fewer catastrophic accidents today as a result of a more proactive approach to monitoring, inspection, and maintenance.

“Go back 20-30 years and it was not uncommon for boilers to blow up; that never happens now because you will know when you have a leak early enough to take action. It’s the same if you’re doing structural monitoring - the advanced notice allows you to plan what you do and to mitigate the occurrence of further damage.”

As a services-based company, Phil says, MISTRAS Group spares no expense when acquiring the latest technology in order to meet and exceed the evolving demands of the market but “if it doesn’t exist but we know what’s required” then

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the company’s engineers have the expertise and creativity to develop bespoke technological solutions.

He adds: “If you can perform an operation non-invasively using automation that of course saves countless millions for the client.

On the Gabbard wind farm we ran substantial tests and trials on five turbines in the first year as a sort of trial demonstration, to make sure the technology was working properly. We then made the necessary changes and expanded it to close to half of the current wind farm in the following years.”

Having accrued nearly 40 years of experience, MISTRAS Group has grown to become a world leader in technology-driven asset protection solutions. The company’s expansion into the renewable energy sector – particularly offshore wind – has enabled it to weather the fluctuating oil price while strengthening its skills base and business offering.

ENERGY

“MISTRAS Group spares no expense when acquiring the latest technology in order to meet and exceed the evolving demands of the market”

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Banking on a bright future Written by Nell Walker Produced by George Tweed

Paul Johnson Aldermore’s Chief Information Officer

ALDERMORE BANK

Paul Johnson, CIO of Aldermore Bank, explains how the company has become one of Europe’s leading alternative banks, and how technology will continue to change the industry

W

hile ordinarily it would be rare at best to praise a bank for its customer-focussed personal touch, Aldermore stands out as a trusted champion of the small-and-medium enterprise.

The business began in 2009, led by CEO Phillip Monks, and supported by AnaCap Financial Partners. It provides its products and solutions to consumers as well as SMEs, including asset finance, invoice finance, commercial,

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residential mortgages and savings, predominately online and via its network of regional offices. This diverse selection is a breath of fresh air amongst a sea of incumbent banks, ensuring Aldermore’s status as a leading alternative.

Business Review Europe met with Paul Johnson, Chief Information Officer of Aldermore Bank, at the company’s London offices to discuss its operations and how it maintains such a positive reputation.

“As CIO, my responsibilities revolve around ensuring the technology systems that we have are sustainable, reliable, ensuring all customer data is secure and used in the right way, that we’re regulatory compliant in those areas, deliver innovation, and provide the company with more product capabilities for the customer,” Johnson says of his role at Aldermore.

He began in the Royal Navy as an electronics and computer engineer, which aided in developing

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his leadership skills, before undertaking various technology jobs, leading to more project and customer-focussed roles.

“I joined GMAC, an auto finances company, as their CIO for Europe,” Johnson explains. “I moved to Lloyds Banking Group where I held two senior IT roles; however, after several years in large established organisations, I wanted a change – to build and develop something sustainable and exciting, which led to me moving to Aldermore Bank. I took the opportunity to help grow a new bank, which I couldn’t resist.”

Customer service As a bank without any branches, most of Aldermore’s business

Gemma Donnelly Aldermore Mortgage Advisor

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is conducted online, through intermediators or directly to the customer. This makes technology fundamental to everything the company does, especially regarding the interface itself and the back-end security required.

Intermediaries drive a lot of Aldermore’s mortgage products and asset finance products, making relationships with them significant.

“What’s key is the relationship

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between Aldermore and the broker, and the broker and the customer,” says Johnson. “Once the product is originated, the relationship shifts to one that’s between the customer and us. We need to have great information going into the marketplace to show the benefits of doing business with Aldermore, and what people can expect from us.

“The fact that we don’t have any branches does mean that the channels to the customer are pretty broad – either via a basic SMS type of messenger, through electronic medium, internet channels, or mobile apps.”

Aldermore’s ongoing focus on the customer and their needs means flexibility and a dynamic approach as customers’ needs change over time.

“It wasn’t long ago that we spoke about digital marketing, which was pretty much an origination of a first point of contact interface,” Johnson explains. “Now, the customer wants their whole lifetime managed through the digital experience where they can self-manage and self-serve.”

When asked what makes the company stand out, Johnson hands the issue over to the point of view of Aldermore’s customers, stating that “other people decide why we’re different and tell us in the reviews they leave us”. The key, he says, is transparency to the customer, ensuring that what they see is what they get, and that

2009

The year that Aldermore Bank was founded

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SECURE UK HOSTING YOU CAN BANK ON. With ultra-secure and resilient UK data centres, PCI v3.2 compliant cloud platforms and our own 24x7 Security Operations Centre, ServerChoice are the secure hosting experts.

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How Aldermore put security at the centre of their hosted services with ServerChoice.

A long-term, trusted partner, ServerChoice provide Aldermore’s primary data centre hosting, with full replication of their environment at our secondary data centre.

In addition, we manage the connectivity between each site and secure Aldermore’s internet connectivity through the use of our advanced Intrusion Prevention Systems and DDoS Mitigation service.

As secure hosting specialists, ServerChoice added even more value and reassurance to Aldermore through our additional cyber security services. Aldermore now benefit from a complete monitoring solution for all their key internal and external infrastructure.

This is delivered through ServerChoice’s custom-built SIEM software, which is monitored 24/7 from our very own Security Operations Centre in the UK.

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Paul Johnson, Chief Information Officer, Aldermore Bank Plc

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ALDERMORE BANK

the rules won’t change later on.

“We let them know everything well in advance, and they can decide if it’s appropriate for them,” he explains. “We are very customer-focussed. Lots of companies say that, but as a relatively new organisation, our development is really concentrated on that direct channel, our relationships, communication into the marketplace, and making sure that what we

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promote all those benefits.

Aldermore has an entirely open ratings and review system where any customer can leave feedback.

If a bad service is given, it will be on Aldermore’s website for all to see, and this feature drives a great deal of engagement: “Transparency equals trust. If we’re transparent, they can trust us – and vice versa.”

Supplier relationships Alongside relationships with

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customers, Aldermore’s relationships with suppliers are just as essential to its success.

“We can plan strategically what we want for the future, and the closer suppliers can get to companies like Aldermore Bank, the more they understand the customer,” says Johnson.

Aldermore chose a handful of key suppliers to build its capability through: “We haven’t got the legacy of lots of people working within the IT area of Aldermore, and therefore some of the skills that may have been relevant five, 10, or 15 years ago are less relevant now,” Johnson says.

“Where we’ve got specific intellectual property, we use trusted partners to help us develop that capability. Those might be

“We need to have great information going into the marketplace to show the benefits of doing business with Aldermore, and what people can expect from us” – Paul Johnson, Chief Information Officer of Aldermore Bank

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short-term, because we want to build some of that intellectual property and capability in-house, but only at the right point in time.

Most of our relationships are quite flexible, and very collaborative.”

Business development While Aldermore’s revenues and profits enjoyed a sizeable leap last year, Johnson states that this

David Ray Aldermore Business Development Manager

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growth has been entirely organic based upon a continued focus on what the company does best.

What has driven the company’s growth thus far is simply customers learning more about the company, which by its very nature increases levels of interest, spurring the company to ensure its products are fit for purpose.

“Our really impressive increase

CASE STUDY

ELITE TELE.COM AND SWYX

Elite Tele.com and Swyx provide resilient cloud-based unified communications for Aldermore Bank Background In 2011 Aldermore decided to review its telephony system. A number of vendors including Cisco, Mitel, Avaya were considered, but after a detailed tender process, due to its flexibility and functionality-rich capabilities, Aldermore selected software based unified communications platform Swyx, recommended by UC specialist Elite Tele.com.

A move to centralised communications The transition to the new system, began with Elite creating a tailored design and architecture proposal that would suit Aldermore’s need to provide both robust and centralised communications for its staff, intermediaries and customers. The project began with a pilot for 30 staff at one of its sites and has since been rolled out to over 900 employees including 60 contact centre staff.

The system is hosted centrally across Aldermore’s own datacentres with built-in stand-by servers for business continuity. Elite is available 24/7 to help with any necessary support requests.

Cost-savings, enhanced service and security As a result of installing Swyx, the Bank has been able to streamline its communications leading to reduced costs, more personalised services for customers and easier IT management. With built-in conferencing and call recording, Swyx provides additional functionality that saves significant monthly costs. Elite recommended combining Swyx with MCC (MyContactCentre) to support Aldermore’s contact centres with skills based routing, wallboards and detailed reporting.

Elite has also introduced other innovations that enable Aldermore to create highly personalised communications for customers. One example involves capturing cookies on the website that can gather information on their browsing history. In turn, interested customers are able to click on a number which is given a unique ID and the call is then automatically directed to the right advisor. In real-time Aldermore can then provide advice based on what products or services the customer has just been viewing on the site.

Further information

www.elitetele.com

According to Aldermore, hosting Swyx centrally in its datacentres is much easier and cost-effective to manage its telephony and it can provide secure and resilient customer communications.

Elite has delivered a full working and flexible system on time and on budget and continues to act as a strategic partner than can advise us on how communications can support the bank’s future growth.

Swyx supports ‘anywhere’ workers to communicate on any device.

Key benefits: • Resilient telephony for staff, intermediaries and customers • Enhanced service with personalised communications • Quick return on investment • Reduced costs including saving 5k per month on conference charges • Easy to manage and maintain • Scalable telephony supports growth • Employees can access phone system at any location or device • Expensive ISDN lines replaced with robust SIP trunking

www.swyx.com

www.aldermorebank.co.uk

ALDERMORE BANK

ALDERMORE’S PARTNERS Aldermore’s partners are extremely important to the business; Johnson explains who and why the relationships are so strong.

Cassiopae – “Our relationship with Cassiopae is much more about supporting the asset finance business, and helping us through the re-digitisation of the asset finance facility to enable improved customer engagement and customer experience.”

Six Degrees Group – “They’re a very engaged supplier, working closely with us to try and improve the performance and reliability of our networks and our internet access. They pretty much keep the ship afloat, making sure we maintain our ability to have internally effective operations.”

DPR Consulting – “They’ve really worked with us over the years to provide additional functionality and ability to deliver new products to our customer base, to continue to grow our mortgage book, they support us on including new product ranges, property development loans, and continue to work with us on our portfolio and expanding our product offerings.”

Newcastle Strategic Solutions (Part of Newcastle Building Society) – “This is a whole service and a trusted partner providing reliable savings products for our customers. They’re a market leader. They do the call centres, the business process elements, and they provide the technology provision itself. “

stuck in any one process and that helps us evolve our proposition and work with them on our evolution.

They are very responsive to issues we may have, and help us meet regulatory data requirements.”

NetSol Technologies - “NetSol is much more back office. They work very well with us; we have a strong relationship with them in developing capability and products within the asset finance arena. They are willing to come to us with ideas and work with us on how best to improve operational efficiency and bringing products to market quickly.”

Server Choice – “They are the ‘steady eddy’ guys.

They provide really reliable data centre capabilities for us, as well as monitoring for our infrastructure, and have worked with us to help us grow the organisation over the past five-to-six years.”

Rack Space – “This relationship is really strategic. We’re collaborating with them directly to identify new hosting opportunities, efficiencies in provisions, how we provide our infrastructure, and working closely on how we maintain and continuously review our security framework.”

Elite Telecom – “A lot of focus has been on building a proactive relationship to investigate increased opportunities to develop and deliver ITC Infotech – “ITC is a very flexible organisation. internal and external telephony facilities, and They are willing to work collaboratively and flex with work with us a lot on how we improve the a business to try and get the right results. They aren’t reliability and service to our customers.”

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“Transparency equals trust. If we’re transparent, they can trust us – and vice versa” – Paul Johnson

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Software to power a new generation of finance

Cassiopae, a Sopra Banking Software company, is a global leader in finance and asset management software, with 500 customer sites on 5 continents.

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NetSol Technologies - Partners with Aldermore Bank since 2009

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in revenue and profitability has been due to continued focus on the customer,” explains Johnson. “We listen to them through the ratings and review process, which allows them to come back to us and tell us exactly what they do and don’t like. As we review that process we can ensure that what we’re providing is what they expect, and the overall brand becomes more and more known within the marketplace.”

As a mostly-digital business, any continuous improvement in the CIO and digital arena reflects directly upon that of the business in general: “There’s no point in us building something which is totally separate from the company’s behaviours and vision,” he says.

2015 The year that Aldermore Bank started trading on the London Stock Exchange

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Alive with technology We are the UK’s leading mid-market converged technology provider, delivering business efficiency, productivity, value and people empowerment.

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Six Degrees Group

Any improvement revolves around the concepts of: speed of service, quality of service, the breadth of product offered to the customer, ensuring the customer feels their data is secure, and that when they are engaging with Aldermore, there won’t be any issues regarding their personal information.

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Number of staff working for Aldermore Bank

875

“Within the CIO realm, what does that mean? It means that we review the technology continuously. It means we ensure that the reliability of the systems is continuously improving, the performance is continuously improving, and with some of our

partners we negotiate a deal whereby as demand grows, the capability grows, and if it drops off in any area, the actual facility drops again so our cost profile goes back down. How cost relates to our original issues and our growth; that’s how we

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“Transparency equals trust. If we’re transparent, they can trust us – and vice versa” – Paul Johnson

Savings management from the experts Outstanding outsourcing for financial services At Newcastle Strategic Solutions, we’re industry experts in outsourcing for a range of leading financial institutions.

We have a long history and a solid reputation for delivering successful financial solutions, specialising in the key areas of retail savings management and systems.

To find out how we can help you, contact us on: 0191 244 2490 solutions@newcastle.co.uk newcastlesolutions.co.uk

Jacques Alard Aldermore

Part of the Newcastle Building Society Group.

Relationship Manager

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maintain flexibility and help the company keep reinventing itself.”

Whilst planning for the future in a technological sector is difficult – potentially treacherous, even – Aldermore Bank has a vision for the future to become a onestop shop where customers can acquire the services they need with just a click. How will it achieve that? By moving increasingly into a cloud-based infrastructure.

“I definitely see, as the world becomes more digitised, that

technology will move into an on-demand type of model,” Johnson concludes. “That brings up some challenges, but it’s definitely the way things are going.

It would be foolhardy not to take advantage of some of the services offered by our partnerships. I think it’s fair to say that in the future, there will be very few services that companies have on-site; we’ll move more and more into the cloud.”

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