Business Chief North America - February 2021

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FEBRUARY 2021

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: 2021 AND BEYOND

FASTEST GROWING STARTUPS

HYBRID CLOUD ON THE UP Kirk Compton, discusses continuity, compliance, security with business-critical applications in the hybrid cloud

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SAP

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FOREWORD

W

elcome to the February 2021 edition

Elsewhere in the magazine, we speak to

of Business Chief North America.

James Lewis, Managing Director, Africa

This month’s cover features Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd., who details how NTT is helping CIO/VP’S and CFO’s achieve business continuity, compliance, and security with the delivery of businesscritical applications in the Hybrid Cloud.

“As hybrid cloud and digital transformation become a top priority for companies, we’ve got the automation and the capabilities to help them really drive growth and transform.”

Other leaders that feature in the magazine include Bao-Viet Lê, partner (Middle East)

and Middle East at Knight Frank, Aditi Gouri, Head of Strategic Consulting and Research, Cavendish Maxwell, and Robin Davies, Business Development Director at Freespace on the corporate real estate landscape. As well as GE Digital’s Matthew Wells on why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy and how organisations can get the most value.

“As with any change, the challenges are training, partnerships with knowledgeable vendors that can assist with implementation and identifying champions within the organisation to make sure the strategy is implemented completely and effectively.”

at Bain and Company, Tony Harris, global

Finally our top 10 looks at the Top 10

vice president, Business Network Solutions,

startups most likely to become unicorns.

SAP, and CIPS on how organisations can be effective with their IT procurement strategies in 2021 and beyond.

“The need to build stronger, more resilient businesses and supply chains is uppermost in everyone’s minds as the effects of the

Do you have a story to share? If you would like to be featured in an upcoming issue of Business Chief North America, please get in touch at: georgia.wilson@bizclikmedia.com

pandemic are still being felt and IT systems

Enjoy the issue!

play an integral role,” says CIPS.

Georgia Wilson b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m

03

Between hope and possible there’s a bridge.

There from the beginning to where we stand today. And to where we will go from here. One company. One promise.

If you can imagine it, we will build the bridge to get you there.

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PUBLISHED BY

VIDEO PRODUCTION MANAGER

Kieran Waite DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Georgia Wilson EDITORAL DIRECTOR

Scott Birch CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Sophia Forte Sophie-Ann Pinnell Hector Penrose Sam Hubbard Mimi Gunn PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianicková PRODUCTION MANAGERS

Owen Martin Philline Vicente

Sam Kemp Evelyn Huang Matthew Evans DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVES

Andrew Stubbings Kayleigh Shooter Daisy Slater Eve Howat MANAGING DIRECTOR

Lewis Vaughan EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT

Kris Palmer Mike Sadr Ryan Hall Ben Maltby Tom Venturo Stuart Irving Craig Killingback James Berry MEDIA SALES DIRECTORS

James White Richard Turner Mark Cawston SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Jordan Hubbard

Stacy Norman

PROJECT MANAGERS

PRESIDENT & CEO

Karl Green Thomas Livermore James Richardson Michael Banyard Joe Pallister Jake Megeary

Glen White

b u s i n e s s c h i e f. c o m

CONTENTS

WHY 5G MATTERS: SAP’S 5G COUNCIL EXPLORES THE OPPORTUNITY

32

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: 2021 AND BEYOND

12

48

40

GLOBAL CORPORATE

REAL ESTATE TRENDS IN

GE Digital: why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy

2021

68 IT Procurement in 2021 and Beyond: How to be Effective

78 62

FAST GROWING STARTUPS

96 NTT Ltd.

116 Tab Bank

138

Bell Inc (Canada)

156

176

HCL Technologies

T–Mobile US, Inc.

216

196 MSU Federal Credit Union

City of Hamilton

230 Dallas College

260 SUN BASKET

246 Talley Inc.

280 SERVICEMAX

296

310

Star2Star

Jewish General Hospital

348 322 CORE Data Centres

334

SILVERCORP METALS INC

Memorial Health System

12

WHY 5G MATTERS: SAP’S 5G COUNCIL EXPLORES THE OPPORTUNITY WRITTEN BY

SCOTT BIRCH PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

FEBRUARY 2021

13

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

SAP SE

Frank Wilde, VP of the SAP 5G Council, examines the incredible opportunity that 5G brings for network providers, their customers, and end users

S

itting in his Palo Alto, California office at the height of the latest COVID-19 lockdown, Frank Wilde, VP of the Global Center of

Excellence at SAP, could be less than enthusiastic about the state of the world as we enter 2021.

However, nothing could be further from the truth.

14

Wilde is here to discuss SAP’s 5G Council, the innovative role it is playing around the world in the deployment of the technology, and the opportunities that 5G brings – which have been only heightened as COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for digital transformation.

“We launched the 5G Council with the intent to pull together a unified value chain,” says Wilde. “We feel the power of 5G, as well as edge computing is really taking much more of a consortium approach – realizing that no single organization provides the core capabilities. It’s really interlocking capabilities that brings 5G to life.”

The 5G Council includes leading technology partners from around the world, covering all aspects of 5G implementation and opportunity. That includes the likes of Verizon providing connectivity, hardware FEBRUARY 2021

15

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

SAP SE

SAP 5G | Frank Wilde | 5G CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:15

16

from telco hardware providers, and

“We’ve got 440,000 customers,”

device strategy from device manufactur-

he says. “So for us to move the needle,

ers. As we said, it really is the great and

to move beyond our core, our legacy,

the good of the 5G universe. Or as Wilde

we see that we have an exciting oppor-

puts it, “Distinct organizations that can

tunity to help our customers innovate

look left, look right, and really see where

in terms of how they operate their

their value proposition fits across the

business, as well as how they engage

entire value chain.”

with their consumers or their custom-

SAP launched the 5G Council in June of 2018, and the members get together

ers moving forward.”

“So whether it’s in retail or manu-

around twice a year. The agenda is how

facturing or healthcare, we are

to affect change and drive innovation.

uniquely positioned because SAP’s

Wilde says it is important for SAP to be

strength is serving as that core

seen as leading this charge.

within the organization.”

FEBRUARY 2021

What SAP has done with the 5G

leads to discussions on new operating

Council is take corporate strategy, prod-

models and new monetization strate-

uct strategy, and partner strategy, and

gies. It is complex yet exciting to look at

look at those in a unified manner. This

5G solutions through a new lens.

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Frank Wilde Title: Vice President Industry: Computer Software Location: San Francisco Bay Area Frank Wilde leads data and data science innovation focused on public and private sector customers as the vice president for SAP’s Global Center of Excellence. In this role, Frank partners with data scientists and platform architects to spark innovative thinking with SAP’s customers through a combination of data science and design thinking. In addition, Frank leads SAP’s 5G innovation strategy with global telecom providers.

Frank is a seasoned executive with a track record of success in product and sales innovation. Before joining SAP, Frank led software development and sales innovation teams at Apple, Dell, and HPE. In addition, Frank spent 9 years with Deloitte Consulting leading digital transformations with public and private sector customers. Also, he began his career as a software engineer building CRM and supply chain applications before transitioning into management consulting.

Frank attended UCLA for college, earned an MBA from Duke University, and served as an officer in the Navy. He is based in Palo Alto, and his email is f.wilde@sap.com busi ne ssc hi ef . com

17

Connected Everything We can help you tap into the power of 5G and edge computing.

Connected Everything Connected Everything Connected Everything

Let’s make the world faster, We can help you tap into thesmarter, power We can help you tap We cancomputing. helpinto youthe tappower into the power and more connected. of 5G and edge of 5G andofedge computing.

5G and edge computing.

Together.

Let’s make the world faster, smarter, Let’s make themake worldthe faster, smarter, Let’s world faster, smarter, and more connected. and moreand connected. more connected.

Together.

Together. Together.

Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2020 2021 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. LLC. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development

Deloitte prepares for the 5G revolution Advanced connectivity – and 5G in particular – is about to transform industries and companies. A panel from Deloitte explains why.

5G represents a turning point for enterprise technology and digital transformation.

A panel of communications and technology experts from Deloitte has come together to explain why advanced connectivity is a game changer.

Rob Kasegrande is a managing director in Deloitte’s Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) practice and leads Deloitte’s 5G and Edge Computing practice. “Our clients are looking at advanced connectivity solutions as a way to gain advantage, whether it’s by creating new revenue models or creating innovative efficiencies in their operations, or just operating with a more agile and digital infrastructure.”

Jack Fritz is a principal in Deloitte’s TMT practice and also leads the 5G and Edge Computing practice. He adds, “We work with clients to help them understand the opportunities and potential risks associated with 5G and edge computing.

And then we help them design, build and operate their solutions, including the underlying infrastructure with our ecosystem partners, and ultimately realize value for their business.”

Deloitte is working with SAP to bring frictionless ecosystems to businesses.

Jerry Hoberman, Principal and Americas SAP practice leader at Deloitte, says, “We’re spending a lot of time with SAP to both architect and engineer industry cloud solutions. The success of those solutions is really dependent on having a clean ERP and, more importantly, being able to unlock industry-specific edge solutions and microservices to where the value is.”

“It’s a tectonic shift,” says Kasegrande.

“5G is going to connect billions of devices using an advanced network and be able to consume massive amounts of data at Connected higher speeds with Everything higher reliability. With edge, processing the data will be real-time, We can help you tap into the power which will lead to real-time operations of 5G and edge computing. and decisioning across industries. For Let’s make the world faster, smarter, example, in manufacturing you can and more connected. automate quality sensing and preventative Together. In retail, you can have realmaintenance. time personalization and pricing while your customer is standing in an aisle.”

Copyright © 2020 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved.

For Fritz, it’s this use case diversity that presents opportunities. “The way that 5G is architected is far more modular than in the past. Some organizations will need massive device density, some will need low latency, and the way in which you architect, design and deploy the network to meet these needs may vary. ” Frictionless, is Hoberman’s keyword for the 5G revolution. “Frictionless commerce results in faster results and greater value through speed, reliability, edge, modularity, and security.”

SAP SE

“ We’re helping our customers think differently and be much more aggressive around how they think about innovation” 20

— Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP

Wilde says one of the most exciting aspects of 5G is being able to guarantee a connection to critical devices, whether it’s a robotic arm for remote surgery or an unmanned vehicle. But on top of that, because you can guarantee that network slice in that level of connectivity, you can charge for that as a service.

“Whether you’re doing remote equipment maintenance in an oil field in Kazakhstan or engaging with a customer that may be 1,000 miles from a service center, we now can create a level of experience and monetize FEBRUARY 2021

1972

Year founded

$28bn+ Revenue in US dollars

101,150 Number of employees

SAP 5G | Frank Wilde | Innovation CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:11

21

those interactions to open up new rev-

hardware provider per region but of

enue streams, like never before,” says

course there are some overlaps.

Wilde enthusiastically.

“Cisco, for example, does a very nice

“So that is where we are helping our

job of both competing with the channel,

customers think differently. The 5G

as well as sparking their channels mov-

Council, for us, is serving as that steering

ing forward,” says Wilde. “So we realize

committee or that hub for how we drive

that there is going to be some level

the next level of innovation across a

of engagement where there is some

number of industries.”

overlap in terms of the products or the

To form the Council, SAP has pulled

services these players are going to be

in leaders that are distinct in each of their

providing, but we wanted to effectively

regions – in order to prevent any kind of

have an open forum where the council

competition. For example, SAP focused

members felt that they could be open

on having one telco per region, and one

and collaborative in terms of how we busi ne ssc hi ef . com

This is 5G built right for business.

Verizon 5G is here and it’s bringing new possibilities to businesses of all sizes. It’s the coverage of 5G Nationwide for over 230 million people in more than 2,700 cities and the unprecedented performance of 5G Ultra Wideband—the fastest 5G in the world—in more and more cities.

This is 5G from the network businesses rely on.

Learn more at verizon.com/5g/business

5G Ultra Wideband available only in part of select cities. “Fastest 5G in the world” claim from May 2020, based on Opensignal independent analysis of mobile measurements recorded during the period January 31 – April 30, 2020 © 2020 Opensignal Limited. © 2021 Verizon.

Verizon MEC: 5G’s new frontier

Cyan,

Arleen Cauchi, Managing Director, Partnership Innovation & GTM at Verizon, explains edge computing and Verizon’s new 5G service.

T:11.75"

As the Managing Director for Partnership Innovation, Cauchi’s role involves bringing new ideas to life. In November 2020, Verizon became the first company in the world to launch a Mobile Edge Compute service (MEC) with AWS called Verizon 5G Edge.

Edge computing is a network architectural model that brings technology resources, including compute and related infrastructure, closer to the end user or to where the data is generated.

“Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) is a type of edge computing that extends the functionality of networks, including 5G networks, with enhanced capabilities.

It’s a transformational complement to 5G, as it provides both an IT service environment and cloudcomputing capabilities at the edge of the mobile network, within the radio access network (RAN) and in close proximity to mobile subscribers,” Cauchi explains.

The benefits of MEC include: • Ultralow latency. MEC reduces the latency that comes with compute/storage residing at faraway data centers, opening doors to a whole new generation of possibilities.

• Localized data. Data can be gathered and acted on right where it’s created—which can result in greater

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SWATCHES IN DOC

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NOTES

performance, contextually aware applications and improved security.

• Expanded IoT potential. MEC is ideally suited to facilitate the rapid growth of IoT, and it can even address IoT challenges such as energy use and battery life.

“We are helping our customers bring these ideas to life, and with the SAP partnership we can help our customers innovate and leverage their existing SAP applications,” explains Cauchi.

With SAP Edge Services running on the Verizon MEC, they can provide near real-time alerts and actions.

Cauchi adds that 5G is only as good as the network it’s built on, which makes Verizon’s 5G unique.

“Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network combines end-to-end fiber resources throughout the network, a large deployment of small cells and significant spectrum holdings, particularly in the millimeter wave bands. We believe you can’t have a great 5G network without a great 4G LTE network, and we have been acknowledged as the best LTE network according to numerous independent third party tests and consumer studies – and the largest LTE network, covering 2.56 million square miles.” verizon.com/5g/business

SAP SE

ideate together, look at new solutions, and brainstorm new operating and revenue models.”

SAP is uniquely positioned because it serves as the technical foundation to bring these solutions to life. So whether it’s in terms of a data platform, supply chain software or the analytics and experience management work, SAP is able to help from a platform approach, and really bring these solutions to life.

Verizon was very much a founding 24

member of the 5G Council and SAP has also worked with global customers

SAP 5G | Frank Wilde | Verizon CLICK TO WATCH

FEBRUARY 2021

|

1:08

“ The 5G Council is serving as that hub for how we drive the next level of innovation across a number of industries” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP forum where CTOs, as well as directors and VPs in marketing and sales and operations are interested in joining.”

While interest is clearly high, and growing, one of the core challenges facing Wilde and the 5G Council is that and partners, while also adding telcos

customers are not aware of what this

from EMEA and APAC into the mix.

next generation of network provides.

“We have Asian and European telcos

Wilde says he believes SAP custom-

working with us, so we have worked to

ers still do not fully understand what a

broaden the exposure as well as creat-

5G network can do and he feels it will

ing diverse perspectives,” says Wilde.

be another two, three, or even four-year

“The Council has grown over the course

process to get customers comfortable

of the last two-and-a-half years, so it’s

with its capabilities.

interesting to see that we’ve got customers also coming to us that want to join.”

“So it’s moved very much beyond

Part of that educational process is working with the likes of Verizon and Deloitte to put together a 5G Playbook

just a pure telco conversation and con-

to make it easier to understand both

nectivity conversation, and really moved

the technology and specific use cases

much more into an open innovation

that SAP can partner on. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

25

SAP SE

“SAP can serve as the data platform and provide the analytics, the AI, and the machine learning to bring these solutions

link that doesn’t exist today.

SAP has been leading this under-

to life,” says Wilde. “So, if we think about

standing, working with CTOs, CMOs

these as puzzle pieces, you’ve got the

and COOs, and even running a CTO

connectivity, you’ve got the device strat-

Forum. Wilde recalls that in that forum,

egy, you’ve got the consulting, you’ve got

of a dozen CTOs present, only one was

our data platform and business process

really familiar with the 5G opportunity.

support. We’re providing the glue and

26

if it was a wired connection. That’s the

“To be honest with you, I was very sur-

the 5G Council was very much the start

prised because I would have thought

of that glue at a senior level, and to have

a much larger segment, if not everyone

that trickle through to our 440,000 cus-

in that room, would have been familiar

tomers moving forward.”

with the technology, at least in a position

One of the key challenges around 5G is the fact that both consumers and leaders around the world have been

to be able to speak to it and understand the core components,” says Wilde.

“That’s what we’re very excited about

conditioned, over the last 20 to 25 years,

– 5G and edge computing – because it

to associate a new network generation

can do so much. And it’s going to start

simply by speed. 5G is much more a

what we refer to as a ‘data tsunami’. We

question of how do you link a software

are expecting a six, seven, eight times

defined network into your connectivity

increase in data usage per device. Now

and provide additional services just as

think about the number of devices that

“ SAP can serve as the data platform and provide the analytics, the AI, and the machine learning to bring 5G solutions to life” — Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP FEBRUARY 2021

are going to be coming to market – IoT, sensors, iPad, iPhones, autonomous vehicles. You’re now going to have much more data flowing across that network.”

“SAP is uniquely positioned with its SAP HANA Data Management Suite to support that additional data in a fluid manner.”

WI L D E A B O U T T HE I N N O VAT I O N FACT O RY

“So the innovation factory is essentially a series of workshops that we’ve pulled together to be able to make it easy for customers to digest. What is 5G? How does it impact their industry? What are the use cases?

Essentially this lays out a framework for how we can pull that innovation or that new set of services into their organization.

So we’re very excited about the fact that we’ve laid quite a bit of the groundwork to bring these innovation factory sessions to life across industry. We started in October of last year and it’s

something we’ve actually designed over the course of the last two years.”

“We’re in a unique position as we get out of COVID-19, that we can accelerate this innovative thinking with CTOs and CMOs using a four to six-week sprint approach that we’ve laid out with these innovation factory workshops. This is going to build on the reference architecture that we’ve laid out on the use cases that we’ve defined in 5G and edge and really take the 5G conversation to the next level.” busi ne ssc hi ef . com

27

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How can you ensure accurate billing and partner settlements in complex B2B2X business models?

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We can handle the high data volumes and complexity that 5G partnerships will bring.

We already do it today. Together with SAP, we enable usage-based billing for the world’s biggest brands.

Learn more at: www.digitalroute.com

Wilde talks at length about the innovations coming out of SAP and the 5G Council and why, as the company celebrates 50 years in business, it is important for it to be seen at the leading edge of technology.

“We’re fundamentally changing how we’re going to market and how our customers go to market and innovate

“We really feel that it’s not just a ques-

together,” he says. “So rather than

tion of incremental improvements or

thinking about sequential innovation

enhancements to how you’re operating,

or step-by-step improvements to a

you know, another 10% or 20% more in

given platform, one of the benefits of

sales or improving your bottom line by a

5G is that you can think differently.”

few percentage points in terms of opera-

Wilde cites Tesla, Lyft, and Uber

tional efficiency. There’s the question

as examples of companies that have

of will you be able to survive a key chal-

disrupted their markets in a short

lenger in your market. So we’re helping

space of time, taking leadership posi-

our customers think differently and be

tions in established industries, by

much more aggressive around how they

thinking differently.

think about innovation.”

“It’s not just a question of improv-

With public 5G networks rolling out

ing your revenue or improving your

globally, and private networks being

profitability. Really the key question

implemented in large sites for manu-

is around survival, right? If you could

facturing and retail, for example, 5G

easily be disrupted by a 5G and

is making progress, but when are we

edge solution – whether it’s in retail,

going to realize its full potential? In a

manufacturing, transportation, enter-

previous interview with us, Wilde talked

tainment – there’s a number of new

about a watershed moment, but when

capabilities that can come to life,”

does he think that will be, and what will

says Wilde.

it look like? busi ne ssc hi ef . com

29

SAP SE

“ We’re fundamentally changing how we’re going to market and how our customers go to market and innovate together” 30

— Frank Wilde, Vice President, SAP He says there are two work streams in

and develop a roadmap for execution.

flight, one of which is the public network

We are scaling the approach through

around 5G and the other is the private

a collaboration with Deloitte, Verizon,

network. SAP has been working for the

and SAP.”

last two years in the private 5G and edge

“It very quickly begs the question, is

computing space, deploying proof of

the infrastructure poised to support that

concepts that are specific to 5G.

additional bandwidth? So when you

“Together with Deloitte, we put

think about Verizon, for example, in the

together an innovation methodology

US they have done a beautiful job of not

around 5G. The methodology helps

only deploying 5G to provide coverage in

customers first learn about the potential

specific markets for the public network,

of 5G and edge services, then ideate

but they’ve also taken a multi-pronged

on where and how these technologies

approach. They realized that that’s

can impact revenue and operations

just one element of the equation. The

FEBRUARY 2021

been a focal point for the company, enabling SAP to serve as an incubator of new ideas.

“The 5G Lab allows us to pull together our portfolio,” says Wilde.

“We get customers to see that there’s very much a business impact to 5G. Imagine if a consumer is walking through a store, picks up a product, and they have a question about that product. Imagine a 3D chat bot popping up off their phone to answer questions. You don’t need additional store staff, you could be just-in-time and personalized for that consumer.”

“Then imagine picking up a box of additional backbone infrastructure

cereal and having your phone create a

to be able to support a full 5G deploy-

3D immersive experience to see what

ment is then going to be the next

the product contents look like, or look

tipping point.”

for food allergies. If you can personal-

SAP has a close partnership with

ize that experience down to a market

Verizon which has been strengthened

of one, that becomes very powerful.”

with the opening of a 5G Lab in Palo

“Those are the type of experiences

Alto in December 2020. It is designed

that we can showcase within the

to showcase the power of 5G or how

Lab. There’s an opportunity for new

to monetize 5G connections and cre-

revenue streams, which we’re just

ate new revenue streams.

scratching the surface on.”

The 5G Lab sits alongside the existing SAP Labs that have been operating since the early 1990s and have busi ne ssc hi ef . com

31

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: 2021 AND BEYOND WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

32

Business Chief North America reflects on the impact of COVID-19 for executive compensation and how organisations can prepare for 2021 and beyond

C

OVID-19 is causing “unprecedented, negative economic impacts in an accelerated fashion,” comments Alvarez &

Marsal. “Many experts, furthermore, believe that the coronavirus crisis is just getting started, and that the countermeasures that are causing such negative economic impacts may last not for weeks, but for months or longer. Whether engaged in the airline, hotel, restaurant, physical fitness, cruise line, retail, oil and gas, or any other industry, significant impacts will flow through all sectors, with few, if any, insulated from the downturn.”

With this in mind, Business Chief North America takes a look at insights from Joseph E. Bachelder, Special Counsel at McCarter & English LLP, the Corporate Governance Research Initiative at the FEBRUARY 2021

33

busi ne ssc hief. com

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34

Learn More

“ The scope and extent of the current crisis is unknown” — Alvarez & Marsal

to COVID-19?’, the report identified three actions taken by 2,980 Russell 3,000 companies in response to the impact of COVID-19: 1. A ltered CEO salaries: among those that altered CEO salaries, 424 companies reduced their salary rate, while 17 deferred the payments, and 21 exchanged salary for equity.

Stanford Graduate School of business,

2. C hanges to annual bonus: less

and the Rock Center for Corporate

frequent than altered salaries,

Governance at Stanford University,

92 companies made changes

on the impact of COVID-19 for execu-

to annual bonuses. Of those 92,

tive compensation in 2020, as well

44 companies reduced the cur-

as actions that could be taken in

rent or previous years payments,

response going forward.

17 deferred the payments, and 10 exchanged cash for equity.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION: COVID-19’S IMPACT IN 2020

3. A mended long term incentive programs (LTIPs): few of the Russell 3,000 companies (33)

Employer actions

made changes to their LTIPs. Of

In a study conducted by the Corporate

those 33, nine reduced the target

Governance Research Initiative at the

value, nine adjusted award vehi-

Stanford Graduate School of business

cles, eight changed the metrics

and the Rock Center for Corporate

to award LTIPs, seven changed

Governance at Stanford University,

LTIPs to a retention award, and

titled ‘Sharing the Pain: How Did

one changed LTIPs to a discre-

Boards Adjust CEO Pay in Response

tionary award. busi ne ssc hief. com

35

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

Executive Compensation and COVID-19: What’s Happening?

CLICK TO WATCH

|

27:43

36

Stock markets

With this in mind, Bachelder reflects

Suffering one of its largest negative

on executive compensation in the form

closing milestones, the S&P 500 index

of company stocks. “A question may

recorded a 30.75% decrease on the lev-

be asked whether these losses should

els at the end of 2019, totalling 2237.40

be borne by the executive holding the

points following the outbreak of COVID-

employer stock without some form of

19 in March.

mitigation [...] This in turn raises the

Whilst the S&P 500 index has begun

question whether executives holding

to recover – currently sitting at 3,733.24

shares of employer stock are really

points – many organisations continue

‘in the same shoes’ as non-employee

to be impacted by the pandemic, with

investors (the latter can invest or sell

stock price in many sectors including

off their interests in company stock as

energy, consumer discretionary, finance

and when they see fit). An executive’s

and real estate struggling to recover

interest in the employer stock is in

and suffering losses or reduced profits.

large measure employment-related

FEBRUARY 2021

and not exclusively an investment

need for revisions. If so, Alvarez & Marsal

choice. In a sense the executive is a

adds that “companies may wish to adopt

‘captive investor’.”

a ‘wait and see’ approach as opposed to taking swift action to adjust performance

FORWARD LOOKING RESPONSE TO THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 IN 2021 AND BEYOND

metrics too quickly and avoid the need for multiple revisions to the performance criteria, which would undoubtedly be viewed negatively by shareholders and

Annual incentive plans

shareholder advisory firms alike.”

When it comes to executive compensation programs, Alvarez & Marsal explains

Equity compensation

the importance of taking into account

Similar to annual incentive plans, equity

the impact of the COVID-19 crisis going

compensation – in particular stock –

forward. With the virus continuing to

have experienced negative outcomes as

have significant impact around the world

a result of COVID-19, due to the outbreak

for organisations and economies, “the

causing significant value decreases for

scope and extent of the current crisis is unknown.” While organisations will have set targets for 2021, the continued evolution of the virus may result in the

“ The coronavirus crisis is causing unprecedented, negative economic impacts in an accelerated fashion” — Alvarez & Marsal busi ne ssc hief. com

37

L E A D E R S H I P & S T R AT E G Y

company stocks. “Companies will need to consider measures to create value for executives, and to realign their interests with those of shareholders generally,” comments Alvarez & Marsal, which identifies three approaches going forward: • Resetting awards based on the lower current stock value • Issue new awards based on current share prices • Issue additional awards to maintain a view that the intended long38

term incentive (“LTI”) value will be achieved However, Alvarez & Marsal does note that whether a company decides to reset existing awards or issue additional awards, each approach

Factors to consider when modifying performance criteria • SEC disclosure requirements • The accounting impact • How the change in performance metrics will be perceived by the public, employees and investors Alvarez & Marsal FEBRUARY 2021

comes with its own potential challenges that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Look at the year ahead and beyond While the end of 2020 brought about approved vaccines and rapid distribution at scale, it has also brought new variants and increasing cases. As a result, expectations for the year ahead for executive compensation – like many

“ If the economy continues to improve, executives who are performing satisfactorily or better will be rewarded with appropriate compensation increases”

— Joseph E. Bachelder, Special Counsel at McCarter & English LLP

other functions – are continuing to look

to adjust executive compensation

uncertain. Should the S&P 500 index

and awards.” While it may be hard to

continue to improve despite fluctuations

definitely predict one way or another

caused by ongoing events? Bachelder

what 2021 will look like when it comes

expects that “executives who are per-

to executive compensation, there are

forming satisfactorily or better will be

clear approaches that organisations

rewarded with appropriate compensa-

can make in response to economic

tion increases.” However should “the

changes to mitigate the impact. As a

economy dip again due to the pandemic

result understanding them and being

or other circumstances, tougher stances

agile to adopt new methods will be vital

may need to be taken by employers

to the success of any organisation. busi ne ssc hief. com

39

H U M A N C A P I TA L

Ramkumar Chandrasekaran

40

FEBRUARY 2021

WORKPLACE TRANSFORMATION:

BEFORE & AFTER COVID-19 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

Ramkumar Chandrasekaran, HR Director at TCS UK & Ireland speaks to Business Chief on global workplace transformation following the impact of COVID-19

A

lready one month into 2021, it is

support business operations,” com-

certainly clear that discussions

ments KPMG.

centred around employee

With this in mind, Business Chief

experience and digital tools have

asks Ramkumar Chandrasekaran, HR

increased and intensified in response

Director at TCS UK & Ireland six ques-

to the outbreak of COVID-19 back in

tions on the topic of global workplace

March 2020. Discussions have moved

transformation following the impact

“beyond attracting and retaining tal-

of COVID-19.

remote workforce with capabilities and technologies that are now deemed mission-critical. Organisations that

BEFORE

ent to enabling and supporting a fully

WHAT WAS THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT LIKE PRIOR TO THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19 IN 2020?

succeed in the new remote workplace

Before the pandemic, TCS – like most

will plan for the entire workplace

businesses – mainly operated from

ecosystem and equip employees to

offices all across the world. busi ne ssc hief. com

41

43

odology which enables work to be

WHAT WERE THE CORE FOCUSES FOR HR FUNCTIONS WHEN IT CAME TO THEIR WORKPLACE STRATEGY?

carried out in approved facilities any-

One of our important strategic priori-

where in the world. We have therefore

ties has been digital transformation.

been investing in becoming increas-

We have been focusing on building

ingly agile for some time now.

digital competencies and roles,

Over the years, TCS has functioned on a Location Independent Agile meth-

That being said, the vast majority

adapting a new mindset across our

of our work was carried out on-site,

450,000 strong employees world-

either at our own or our custom-

wide. We have been helping our

ers’ – particularly when it comes to our

employees to not only acquire new

FCA-regulated customers who have

skills but also leverage their existing

strict regulations when it comes to

deep contextual knowledge of our

equipment being taken off-site.

customers and industry domain. busi ne ssc hief. com

H U M A N C A P I TA L

WHAT WERE THE TOP THREE EMERGING TRENDS FOR THE WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT PRIOR TO COVID-19?

With the rise in the working from home trend, workplaces have had to rapidly adapt to life from home. Here

• Increasingly agile

at TCS we have so far enabled remote

• Campus-based, Location

working for 95 per cent of our global

Independent Agile

workforce and established cloud-

• Led by technology

based governance of over 23,000

AFTER

projects, enabling high volumes of

44

SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19, HOW HAS THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT CHANGED IN 2021 COMPARED TO 2020?

digital collaboration – 35,000 online meetings, 406,000 calls, and over three million messages.

This was made possible by the

As you’d expect, our key priority has

Secure Borderless Workspaces model

been keeping our staff safe while

which enables remote access for

ensuring our global customer base

employees, sets up a suitable cyber-

continues to receive the service they

security framework and all project

have come to expect and the tools

management practices and systems

they need to adapt.

needed to ensure that work allocation, monitoring and reporting continues as

“ Before the pandemic, TCS – like most businesses – mainly operated from offices all across the world” Ramkumar Chandrasekaran, HR Director, TCS UK & Ireland

FEBRUARY 2021

normal. In this way, the SBWS model ensured that neither the quality nor the timeliness of client deliveries was ever compromised.

All of our employees are under different pressures while they are working from home and that is something that all businesses need to be mindful of.

Protecting our staff’s mental and physical health is a real priority for TCS – and is of course particularly important

at the moment. We have put extensive

access to the appropriate channels to

guidance in place to support balancing

seek the support they need. Pastoral

childcare and have even regularly run

care and support must, and does, con-

virtual events for children to tune into,

tinue in our remote working model.

such as art and fitness sessions.

to their families. Our employee net-

HOW HAVE WORKPLACE STRATEGIES EVOLVED SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF COVID-19, HOW HAVE THEIR FOCUSES SHIFTED?

works have also done an incredible job

As we look to the future, we will

in providing community support and

continue to make the most of this

further fostering our culture of helping

new hybrid way of working with our

one another.

25 by 25 model. Whereby only 25

All of the initiatives to benefit physical and mental health have been offered not just to our employees but also

Fundamentally, it is really important to ensure staff have an awareness of and

per cent of TCS workforce will work out of TCS facilities at any time, with

Executive Compensation and COVID-19: What’s Happening?

CLICK TO WATCH

|

27:43

busi ne ssc hief. com

45

H U M A N C A P I TA L

46

associates spending only 25 per cent

throughput that is expected to result

of their time in the office. And within

from it. But there are clear longer-term

project teams, only 25 |per cent of

benefits as well, such as the ability of

employees can be co-located.

organizations to provide more equitable

One clear benefit of this move will

job opportunities – which will not only

be the 25 per cent increase in velocity

make a positive impact on the company,

FEBRUARY 2021

but also on the wider society. It also provides employees with a choice on how to craft their workplace.

We also now have access to a global ‘talent cloud’, beyond the boundaries defined by the brick and mortar offices. As workplaces are getting reimagined, our global employees can work from anywhere and deliver services to any client.

We already have cohesive teams

“ As we look to the future, we will continue to make the most of this new hybrid way of working” Ramkumar Chandrasekaran, HR Director, TCS UK & Ireland

working in 20 different locations delivering one project.

The working environment will

WITHIN THAT BUDGET, THE TOP THREE AREAS OF SPEND ARE:

continue to embrace agility, with employees spending increasingly

• Collaborative technology

less time in the office as they have

• Cybersecurity

adapted to new ways of working.

• Cloud native technologies

WHAT ARE THE TOP THREE TRENDS THAT YOU SEE GAINING TRACTION IN 2021?

It is clear that enabling employees to work effectively and securely from home

Last month we carried out extensive

is becoming increasingly important

research into what areas businesses

and companies are making long lasting

were looking to focus their budgets

changes to support that.

on following the fallout from the pan-

Coronavirus will have a lasting impact

demic. Interestingly, despite budgets

on business in many ways meaning we

shrinking across the board, investment

must continue to adapt and redefine the

in digital transformation is growing

meaning of the workplace with more

as companies seek to support their

agility, resilience and flexibility to create

employees working remotely.

opportunities and a brighter future. busi ne ssc hief. com

47

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

GLOBAL CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TRENDS IN WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

48

FEBRUARY 2021

2021

Those participating in the roundtable include:

JAMES LEWIS Managing Director, Africa and Middle East, Knight Frank

49

ADITI GOURI

R O B I N D AV I S

Head of Strategic Consulting and Research, Cavendish Maxwell

Business Development Director, Freespace

busi ne ssc hief. com

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

Business Chief speaks with corporate real estate leaders from North America and the EMEA region to discuss the current landscape and global 2021 trends AFTER ONE MONTH OF 2021, COULD YOU DISCUSS THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE WHEN IT COMES TO CORPORATE REAL ESTATE? JL: The current landscape in corporate real estate 50

across the majority of markets continues to be that of uncertainty – with the pandemic greatly impacting market activity and transactions. In Knight Frank’s Africa Market Pulse Survey, which was conducted at the onset of the pandemic, office landlords indicated that only 20% of office leasing deals were proceeding normally, while a majority (40%) were experiencing delays.

Overall, however, market performance has continued to be influenced by a range of factors beyond COVID-19. These have included low commodity prices in oil dependent economies, currency devaluation, ongoing recession in countries such as South Africa and hyperinflation in markets such as Harare, which are adversely impacting demand and returns.

FEBRUARY 2021

51

busi ne ssc hief. com

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

52

As such, we have noted that approxi-

increased number of cheques and,

mately 60% of the 28 cities in the prime

in some cases, lower headline rents

office market we track have recorded

to existing lessees. Extended rent-free

rental declines in the period to Q3 2020.

periods, increased CapEx contributions

AG: The social distancing and

towards fit-out, reductions in notice

movement restrictions brought on by

periods and early break penalties are

COVID-19 interfered with supply chains

also becoming more common. Sellers

and services in the UAE and around the

and landlords are expected to realign

world. With many business activities

asking prices towards the offer levels

interrupted in H1 2020, the office mar-

of purchasers and occupiers in the near

ket came under pressure. Businesses

term. Poorer quality assets are likely

reacted to the sudden change in market

to experience the largest decrease

conditions and vacancies began to

whereas premium stock will see a more

increase, leading to occupiers finding

evenly balanced duel between negotiat-

newfound leverage to negotiate. Now,

ing parties.

landlords are more commonly offering

However, Dubai’s non-oil private

incentives including deferrals, waivers,

sector continued to show improvement

FEBRUARY 2021

“ The current landscape in corporate real estate across the majority of markets continues to be that of uncertainty” — James Lewis, Managing Director, Africa & Middle East, Knight Frank desk space as a result of social distancing rules. Despite promising news of an effective vaccine, it is not yet approved, in business conditions as evidenced

and even when experts predict it may

by an increase from 50.9 in August

take many months before we can expect

to 51.5 in September of the seasonally

social distancing to become a thing of

adjusted IHS Markit Dubai Purchasing

the past. And so occupancy levels will be

Managers’ Index (PMI). A reading above

reduced for sometime.

50 indicates expansion. The office sec-

As a result of strict quarantine meas-

tor is likewise expected to improve in the

ures and lockdowns around the world,

quarters ahead as companies return

organisations have been granted time

to full capacity in 2021.

to take a step back and to assess how

RD: The current corporate real estate

demic even when it is time to return to

landscape is challenging owners and

the office. Workplace technology exists

occupiers in unimaginable ways. As

to help provide comfort and assur-

a result, organisations have a dilemma

ances. There are solutions in the market

on their hands. Workplaces are close

that offer the ability to sense and learn

to empty and there’s too much costly

when and where spaces are in use in

unused office space going to waste:

order to keep them clean and compli-

many offices are reporting 50% less

ant. Occupancy-based data can ensure busi ne ssc hief. com

53

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

“ Changes in the way that companies carry out day-to-day operations have been underway for years,COVID-19 has fast-tracked the adoption of technologies as social distancing and remote working have become more prevalent”

54

— Aditi Gouri, Head of Strategic Consulting and Research, Cavendish Maxwell

heads of HR, facilities and corporate real estate (CRE) are aware of individual and collective behaviors, allowing them to make educated decisions on optimising real estate space while reducing the risk of transmission. Technology like this can do everything from providing the usage and cleaning history of a given desk so employees know when it was last used and when it was sanitised ahead of their arrival, to helping staff plan their day at work so they are assigned a safe space with the colleagues they need to collaborate with.

FEBRUARY 2021

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE INDUSTRY EVOLVE DUE TO THE PANDEMIC? JL: The pandemic has introduced a new dynamic for all types of occupiers in Africa. Hospitality, student housing and regional shopping centres are some of the sectors that have been negatively impacted so far. The office sector has also recorded reduced demand as a result of the shift toward remote working. While we are unlikely to witness an extreme shift to remote working, we anticipate that flexibility and collaboration are going to prove core values to any organisation going forward.

In the short to medium term, we will probably see a change in office layouts and design, as the overall employee density remains low, and in response to pandemic containment measures across different countries. In the longrun, office premises are likely to be utilised as collaborative spaces, where talent retention and health and wellness for employees will be a key aspect of the new office-as-a-service for corporates.

In a bid to attract and retain tenants, the majority of the landlords are also proving more willing to grant lease concessions and, in some cases, renegotiate existing lease terms. busi ne ssc hief. com

55

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

Overall, In the longer term, we expect the majority of sectors to recover. For instance, sectors that span the entire human life cycle such as agriculture and healthcare continue to be in high demand. Niche differentiation in sectors such as office spaces and residential into grade A will also be critical, while the increasing need for connectivity will lead to high demand for data centres.

AG: Dubai’s office market witnessed a paradigm shift in workplace practices to adapt to social distancing precautions.

56

The widespread deployment of virtual

“ There has been much exaggerated talk of the ‘death of the office’.

In reality, we have seen a relatively small number of organisations looking to reduce their office footprint” — Robin Davies, Business Development Director, Freespace

conferencing has helped many companies remain competitive and contactless,

as the professional services sectors

especially in the professional services

experienced modest demand compared

industries. The effectiveness of these

to previous quarters. The technology

tools may vary by company and industry,

sector made up approximately 15% of

but some companies will reconsider the

enquiries, and with the UAE announcing

need for traditional, or pre-pandemic,

plans to prioritise digital economies post

office space going forward.

COVID-19, demand is expected to fur-

Currently, the market situation has

ther increase in the future.

fuelled growth of the technology and

RD: There has been much exagger-

digital sectors, underscoring the stra-

ated talk of the ‘death of the office’. In

tegic goals of Smart Dubai 2021. As

reality, we have seen a relatively small

of Q3 2020, many of the enquiries for

number of organisations looking to

office space continue to come from the

reduce their office footprint, despite the

construction and related sectors while

currently low occupancy levels. Instead,

healthcare, beauty and pharma as well

they are looking at creative ways to

FEBRUARY 2021

best optimise that space to support the

business objectives are met. As such,

return to work – and real-time data from

they are likely to work closely with HR

occupancy based sensors is fuelling

and risk departments as organisations

and enabling that creative approach to

tackle the challenges of infection control

space optimisation.

along with the health and wellbeing of

However, some organisations are now accepting that the home office

their people.

What technology and/or approaches

environment will be a permanent exten-

have you seen emerge in the industry

sion of their corporate estate portfolios

due to COVID-19, and how do these

and have been taking steps to ensure

compare to before the outbreak?

their staff are supported, comfortable

JL: Remote access has been the most

and productive for the long-term. One

prevalent technological shift as a result

of the key challenges for CRE heads

of the pandemic. Corporate real estate

entering 2021 will be to balance blended

has evolved, such as through the adop-

‘home and office work’ in such a way that

tion of online management platforms, to

busi ne ssc hief. com

57

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

aid in client and property management during the pandemic. For instance, in the context of agency, technology adoption has evolved from online listings to virtual reality. As a result of movement restrictions imposed during lockdown, virtual viewings in the majority of markets have surged. Knight Frank Kenya’s website, for example, registered a 47% increase in users over the months of May and June compared to the previous year. Virtual tours have effectively allowed potential tenants and buyers 58

to have realistic ‘walkthrough’ tours

viewing and conferencing. However,

of the properties.

COVID-19 has fast-tracked the adoption

We have also witnessed an increased

of these technologies as social distanc-

focus on data and analytics in the corpo-

ing and remote working have become

rate real estate sector, effectively aiding

more prevalent. To facilitate transparent

decision makers to predict market per-

communication amid restrictions and

formance and plan accordingly.

social distancing, various property listing

While the transformation of real estate

platforms have launched interactive vir-

technology was already taking place

tual tours of properties without the need

pre-COVID, the pandemic has certainly

to physically visit them.

accelerated this trend, underpinning its

In terms of new approaches, the

importance, and we only expect these

Dubai government has introduced

trends to continue.

a virtual working programme that allows

AG: Changes in the way that compa-

professionals to work overseas

nies carry out day-to-day operations

while residing in Dubai. On an annual

have been underway for years with

basis, the programme costs AED1,054

disruptive technologies such as virtual

plus medical insurance with valid UAE

FEBRUARY 2021

business needs. To this end, two strategies are proving popular: • The ‘split group’ strategy involves separating employees into different weekly groups to support business continuity in the event that one group becomes infected • The ‘split desk’ strategy enables the alternating usage of desks between days, creating maximum usage of the space overall and more time for cleaning teams to react to the demand. coverage and a processing fee for each

Strategies like this require live data to

person. In addition, the Dubai govern-

be effective. Programs which monitor

ment recently declared an economic

occupancy rates will play a central role

stimulus package of AED500 million,

in enabling the most appropriate meas-

taking the total stimulus extended to

ures to be put in place at any one time.

AED6.8 billion, to support individuals

Organisations must understand their

and businesses in response to the

occupancy threshold for safe practice

pandemic. Many of these incentives

and to keep track of when that threshold

will benefit small and medium-sized

is neared.

enterprises (SMEs) and the likely

When it comes to technology, it can

trend to emerge from this will be rep-

help on all fronts. Employers will keep

resented by the increasing demand for

workplaces hygienic and allay people’s

smaller office requirements.

fears if they communicate the right infor-

RD: It is looking like the majority of

mation, at the right time and to the right

organisations will turn to a hybrid work-

level of detail – and the most effective

ing model to reduce the spread of the

way to do this is by providing employees

virus and accommodate employee and

with mobile apps and installing digital busi ne ssc hief. com

59

C O R P O R AT E F I N A N C E

“ The repurposing of office space to facilitate collaboration will be a trend for 2021” — Robin Davies, Business Development Director, Freespace

60

signage throughout the workplace.

reminding employees to wash their

While there will always be a place for

hands and avoid touching their face,

static posters, digital platforms allow

though that is effective. Displaying live

for the instant and dynamic delivery of

data on socially distanced spaces to

messages at the exact point they need

use, cleaned space availability and

to be consumed. Research by Intel has

cleaning regimes in place will help to

also found that digital signage captures

guide staff and reduce cross-contam-

400% more views than static signage.

ination. Facilities teams can also use the

Digital signage will encourage

technology to both deliver methodical

employees to adopt and maintain the

cleaning practices and reassure occu-

desired behaviors, including good

pants by highlighting the preventative

hygiene and social distancing. But

infection control measures that they

this isn’t limited to flashing messages

are undertaking.

FEBRUARY 2021

pre-COVID, will continue to influence the market. These include market resilience, innovation and health and wellness trends.

Gardens and outdoor spaces featured at the top of home buyers wish-list in their homes of choice of at least 66% of the respondents in our Global Buyer Survey.

Closer to home, we have observed buyer preference towards gated communities or developments that avail open spaces.

RD: The repurposing of office space to facilitate collaboration will be a trend for 2021 because it has been proven that, for many, home working supports individual focussed work but less so for social activities. CRE heads will need to ‘sell’ the office to those who have had a positive home working experience to

WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR THE INDUSTRY IN 2021 AND BEYOND?

willingly get them back and maximise

JL: We anticipate that in the near-term,

carefully consider the experiences peo-

influences such as global tensions

ple have had whilst working at home.

between the US and China, the

attendance. Any office redesign must

Offices will likely be carved into crea-

Government’s abilities to effectively

tive spaces for collaboration, innovation,

tackle the pandemic, currency changes,

and will also be a place to simply wind

cost of capital and the shift to the ‘new

down and socialise. It will be important

normal’ will continue to impact per-

to ensure that the workforce is made

formance in the corporate real estate

aware of these investments now so they

sector in Africa.

feel confident that they will be kept safe

However, in the long term we anticipate that ‘big picture trends’ that existed

and supported when they return to the office. busi ne ssc hief. com

61

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

GE Digital: why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

62

FEBRUARY 2021

GE Digital’s Matthew Wells on why mobile apps matter in a digital strategy and how organisations can get the most value THE ROLE OF MOBILE APPS IN A DIGITAL STRATEGY: WHY DO THEY MATTER? With the latest acceleration in digital technology adoption – driven by the impact of COVID-19 – the fundamental ways in which both customers and businesses interact with each other have significantly changed. A simple smartphone can act as not only a phone but a camera, entertainment, wallet, health monitor, social enhancer and shop.

When looking to implement a successful mobile app strategy, it is important for organisations to understand that a company’s mobile app strategy is not a separate entity, a business’s “mobile app strategies can play a critical role in a company’s overall digital strategy,” comments Matthew Wells, Vice President, Digital Product Management at GE Digital.

“Mobility enables information sharing across multiple locations in minutes, not days and weeks, while simultaneously reducing costs through optimisation.

It can also reduce operational challenges by eliminating administration of some manual processes, enabling a smoother and faster path to efficiency.”

busi ne ssc hief. com

63

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“ Mobile app strategies can play a critical role in a company’s overall digital strategy” Matthew Wells Vice President, Digital Product Management, GE Digital For organisations looking to incorporate a mobile app strategy into its digital strategy Wells explains For organisations looking to incorporate a mobile app strategy into its digital strategy Wells explains that, “as

WHY PEOPLE DOWNLOAD MOBILE APPS

71% to earn loyalty or rewards points for downloading

67% to receive in app only coupons or discount

64% to receive a discount on the first order

59% they are a frequent purchaser from the company

with any change, the challenges are training, partnerships with

controls. In addition, they can facilitate

knowledgeable vendors that can assist

worker location flexibility, support

with implementation, and identifying

external monitoring and contingency

champions within the organisation to

operations, and depending on their

make sure the strategy is implemented

industry, weather-proof operations.”

completely and effectively.”

While “a mobile solution provides

However, organisations that can

industrial companies with the ability

address these challenges, those in

to support remote and mobile worker

the industrial companies for example,

access to plant monitoring and control

stand to benefit from the ability

systems as well as the long-term

to “extend operations to the field,

flexibility and cost reduction benefits,”

enabling flexibility and increasing

reflects Wells, in order to experience

productivity and efficiency, as

such benefits “they should, identify

well as ensure worker safety and

and take multiple key considerations

operations continuity with secure

into account when implementing a busi ne ssc hief. com

65

D I G I TA L S T R AT E G Y

66

mobile strategy: Security, compliance

best approach is to focus on reducing

and reliability, access to controls and

downtime by enabling the process and

monitoring of user access, interactive

technical experts with data on mobile

permissioning, user capabilities, safety,

devices so they can effectively field

and equipment compatibility.”

questions from the workforce. More mature organisations should focus

GETTING THE MOST VALUE OUT OF A MOBILE APP STRATEGY

on leaning out their processes by eliminating fixed screens on the shop

When it comes to the best strategy

floor and enabling their workers to

and approach for digital mobile apps,

make control decisions anywhere.”

Wells identifies that it depends on the

Core aspects of a successful mobile

maturity of an organisation. “For those

app strategy include “focusing on

organisations new to mobile apps, the

optimising specific metrics like process

FEBRUARY 2021

“ With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets today, a mobile app is a critical component of many digital strategies” John Zink Former consultant at Centric Consulting downtime, as well as having a good UX to reduce the training requirements.”

It is also important to “keep pace with regulatory requirements, increase 67

capacity, and improve reliability when implementing an effective mobile strategy, and maintaining high levels of security and customer service, which can all have an impact on bottom line and operations continuity,” comments Wells.

Ultimately to get the most value out of a mobile app strategy, Wells concludes that “transformation of any sort requires a clear understanding of your current limitations, a vision of what the future

FIVE ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS TO CONSIDER WHEN DEVELOPING A M O B I L E A P P S T R AT E G Y

1. Enterprise planning integration 2. Customer journey mapping 3. Valuable capabilities 4. Google mobile usability scoring 5. Back-end readiness

organisation looks like, executive buy-in, financial support, new organisation models, and an understanding of the

organisation, training, and prioritisation

outcomes you want to achieve by

are key to getting the most out of a

implementing this strategy. Planning,

digital mobile strategy.” busi ne ssc hief. com

IT PROCUREMENT

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IT Procurement in 2021 and Beyond: How to be Effective WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

FEBRUARY 2021

Business Chief looks at how organisations can be effective in their IT procurement strategies in 2021 and beyond

D

efined by The Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) as “the processes and procedures inherent

in good, responsible procurement to acquire

technological products and services that meet the needs of business and supply chains,” the day-to-day tasks of an IT procurement executive may include market research, pricing negotiation, terms and conditions agreement for services and status of purchase communication with internal customers. “With an effective IT procurement policy in place, any business can execute its projects seamlessly,” adds Bao-Viet Lê, partner (Middle East) at Bain and Company.

BREAKING DOWN THE CURRENT TRENDS IN IT PROCUREMENT Currently in the world of IT procurement there are four key trends emerging: cognitive computing, cybersecurity, automation and the biggest being cloud. “Organisations around the world are moving away from legacy, on-premise, company-owned

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“ The need to build stronger, more resilient businesses and supply chains is uppermost in everyone’s minds as the effects of the pandemic are still being felt and IT systems play an integral role” — The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS)

data centres to leveraging the massive computing power of hyperscalers,” comments Tony Harris, global vice president, Business Network Solutions, SAP. “With businesses having to store large amounts of data, cloud computing assists not only in storing but also in processing and seamlessly transferring data without the use of external devices,” adds Lê.

When it comes to cognitive computing, Harris comments that “the second is a focus on cognitive computing, inclusive of big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning busi ne ssc hief. com

IT PROCUREMENT

How an effective Procurement Strategy can deliver real business value CLICK TO WATCH

|

5:10

72 (ML) and robotic process automation

technology (60 per cent); robots (52

(RPA), given the enormous benefits

per cent); augmented reality (47 per

it can yield when done right. These

cent) and 3D printing (44 per cent)

technologies can help discover busi-

making this new digital business world

ness insights that might otherwise not

very exciting.”

be possible due to the huge volumes of

Finally, cybersecurity and risk. “As

data they can analyse quickly. These

more of our lives go online, and more

are also increasingly being used to

business processes extend beyond

automate repetitive tasks, enabling

the four walls of the organisation,

more staff to be freed-up to focus on

there becomes a heightened level of IT

strategic, value-added work.” Adding

risk. Organisations must do everything

to Harris’s comments, CIPS states that

they can to protect and defend against

“recent research highlighted that in the

cyber-attacks and data theft as this is

next five years businesses are looking

not only extremely damaging to their

at implementing autonomous vehicle

brand reputation, but can also be very

FEBRUARY 2021

“ Organisations around the world are moving away from legacy, on-premise, company-owned data centres to leveraging the massive computing power of hyperscalers” — Tony Harris, Global Vice President, Business Network Solutions, SAP expensive as a result of government and industry body fines,” states Harris.

CURRENT CHALLENGES FACED BY IT PROCUREMENT EXECUTIVES When it comes to the challenges faced

by IT procurement executives CIPS explains that “the market is in a state of constant flux, in which hundreds of products are launched each day. As a result prices can fluctuate widely.

We’ve seen changes of 66 per cent in a day. It’s a time-consuming task to keep on top of such trends. Sometimes ‘good deals’ go quickly and there may not be enough stock to satisfy your particular need which is frustrating.”

Other challenges highlighted by Lê include manual, operational activity and the capability to keep on top of

COVID-19 COVID-19 has increased the necessity to transform IT procurement. There are four key imperatives to conduct effective, f lexible and resilient operations: • Shift focus to more value-add activities: automate reporting, focusing on deep insights • Better responsiveness/speed to ‘market’: reduce timeline for contract negotiation • Improved compliance and risk monitoring: avoid overpayment or purchasing errors

• Stronger collaboration: share data in real-time with customers/ suppliers

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IT PROCUREMENT

TOP TIPS FOR BETTER IT PROCUREMENT PRACTICES Tony Harris Global Vice President, Business Network Solutions, SAP 1. E nsure business cases focus on total cost of ownership (TCO).

IT procurement can often have ‘hidden’ costs.

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2. A lign the solution with the needs of the business. Projects that require minimal people and process change carry less risk and tend to be more successful than those that aim for significant transformation. Where projects require substantial transformation, this is best done in phases to help ensure that each phase is successfully completed before introducing the next.

3. C hoose solutions that can easily adapt. Businesses must now be more agile than ever before and any technology solution underpinning the business needs to be capable of the same.

4. I nclude IT experts and other relevant business stakeholders early in the process. Too often the business line makes a selection on a piece of technology and then brings IT into the process at the end only to find that the technology does not meet corporate technical standards in some

FEBRUARY 2021

way. Likewise, having IT drive the process with no early involvement from the business stakeholders can result in a solution that is a perfect technical fit but doesn’t address the needs of the business.

IT procurement must be a marriage of IT and business to achieve optimal outcomes.

5. W here possible, seek to build strategic relationships with the supplier. This will provide potential co-innovation opportunities and help accelerate issue resolution should any arise.

Bao-Viet Lê Partner (Middle East), Bain & Company 1. R ecognise IT procurement as important source of competitive advantage.

2. C lear understanding of spend profile – transparency on past and future demand, characteristics.

3. D emand for real-time personalisation leads to product customisation, requiring supply base with higher risk profile.

4. L everaging latest technology to support analytics, supplier connectivity and business collaboration.

5. E ffective process to implement strategies, allowing for crossfunctional decision-making.

The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) Partner (Middle East) at Bain & Company 1. L ook at the lifecycle of the products and their total value, not just cost.

2. I nvolve all key stakeholders in product specification for not only buy-in when systems are launched, but a deeper understanding of the problem the IT system is designed to solve.

3. U se the insights available from Value Added Resellers and business to business marketplaces so you don’t have to start from scratch.

4. B e as clear as you can about specifications from the start but be prepared to move and re-think strategy if important information comes to light.

5. K eep ethical and responsible sourcing in mind. The tech industry has been caught out before by using suppliers paying meagre wages or the use of slaves in the supply chain.

“ With an effective IT procurement policy in place, any business can execute its projects seamlessly” — Bao-Viet Lê, Partner (Middle East), Bain & Company

digital IT Procurement transformation. “Typical challenges faced by IT procurement include a lot of manual, operational activity that take a lot of resources, large quantities of data across disparate sources; inconsistent taxonomies and KPIs, and increased need for collaboration across business partners and suppliers. In addition, many functions are advancing quickly in their digital capabilities, IT procurement will need to keep up, particularly when it comes to P2P suites, automated spend compliance tools, supplier portals for increased data sharing, and artificial Intelligence (AI) to inform decision and ID spend opportunities.” busi ne ssc hief. com

75

IT PROCUREMENT

76

Adding to the challenges outlined

tiers, suppliers and teams, potential

by Lê, CIPS reflects on the effects

weak points will remain hidden and

of challenges created by COVID-19.

no amount of digitalisation can solve

“The need to build stronger, more

the problem of ignorance of slavery,

resilient businesses and supply

turning a blind-eye to fraud and cor-

chains is uppermost in everyone’s

ruption or not achieving sustainability

minds as the effects of the pandemic

goals. Any digital programme must

are still being felt and IT systems

encompass the core values and

play an integral role. But without

needs of the business and align

end-to-end-transparency across all

to responsible business practice,

FEBRUARY 2021

organisations are striving to be “faster, better and cheaper, but still limit risks, with no additional funding,” while externally, “the supplier landscape is changing, sourcing of solutions not products and new ways of working are emerging.”

To address this evolution, Lê adds that “A dependable procurement system is one created to improve accuracy, efficiency and speed. To ensure that the IT procurement is effective, it is essential to ensure that everything functions competently as well as cost effectively. Additionally, unclear details and specifications, lack of transparency, inflexible suppliers and team, inaccurate date, collectively, could hamper the procurement process.”

Adding to Harris’s five best pracotherwise the benefits from IT systems

tices, Lê concludes that “three key

will not fully justify the investment.”

themes emerge: smarter procurement with advanced optimisation of

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF IT PROCUREMENT: THE BEST PRACTICES AND APPROACHES

faster processes, fewer errors, better

“The traditional role of IT procure-

controls and stronger risk monitoring;

ment is evolving, driven by both

and frictionless collaboration, enabling

internal and external forces,” says

increased collaboration (and agile),

Lê, who explains that internally

enhanced stakeholder experience.”

procurement spend; automation and agility, enabling greater efficiency,

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T O P 10

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Top 10 fast growing startups in the US Business Chief North America ranks Forbes’ top 10 startups most likely to become unicorns based on their equity raised WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON

FEBRUARY 2021

79

busi ne ssc hief. com

T O P 10

10

Capsule CEO: Eric Kinariwala

Founded by Eric Kinariwala in 2015, Capsule has set its ambitions high, with a mission to rebuild “the US$425bn pharmacy industry from the inside out with an emotionally resonant brand and 80

technology that enables customized outcomes for doctors, hospitals, insurers, and manufacturers.” With Capsule’s philosophy of “more ‘I love you’. Less ‘next please’,” the organisation strives to be a pharmacy of the future, by harnessing technology to help people live a healthier and better life. Capsule harness technology such as predictive inventory to make its entire fulfillment process smarter, safer and nicer to ensure that it can take better care of its customers.

“Our team makes the same promise to each other as the one we’ve made to our customers, doctors, and partners: everybody needs some looking after sometimes. We’ll never lose sight of the fact that behind all the craziness of the healthcare system, we’re just people looking after other people,” states Capsule.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2015 US$270mn

FEBRUARY 2021

09

Acorns CEO: Noah Kener

Co-founded by Walter Cruttenden and Jeffrey Cruttenden in 2012, Acorns was built on a mission to “look after the financial best interests of the up-and-coming, beginning with the empowering step of microinvesting.” Acorns is ‘the first company’ to offer micro investing in the world. Its proprietary financial engine allows its customers to collect change from everyday purchases and invest it into a professionally managed portfolio of index funds “Simply connect any credit or debit card and a checking account, then spend money like you normally do to watch your portfolio grow with the market. It’s easy to get started when you can invest any amount, any time with no commissions or minimums,” 81

comments Acorns.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2012 US$257mn

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6 Ways Inventory Management Fuels Supply Chain Explore How Inventory Management Enables Supply Chain to Reach Its Fullest Potential For most businesses, the supply chain is not only the primary cost centre but one of the most challenging aspects of running a profitable operation.

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08

Cockroach Labs

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CEO: Noah Kener

Cockroach Labs, founded in 2015 was co-founded by Benjamin Darnell, Spencer Kimball, and Peter Mattis. Cockroach Labs is the company behind CockroachDB, a cloud-native, distributed SQL Database that provides organisations such as Comcast, Lush and Bose with next-level consistency, ultra-resilience, data locality, and massive scale to modern cloud applications.

“Cockroach Labs was founded by a team of engineers dedicated to building cutting edge systems infrastructure, and has investments from Benchmark, G/V, Index Ventures, and Redpoint.”

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2015 US$195mn busi ne ssc hief. com

T O P 10

07

Algolia CEO: Bernadette Nixon

Founded in 2012 by Nicolas Dessaigne and Julien Lemoine Algolia’s mission is to “empower every company to create delightful search and discovery experiences.” Algolia is the search-as-a-service platform that enables its customers to deliver fast and relevant digital experiences to drive real results. Algolia helps customers to easily find and discover what they want across web, mobile, and voice, as well as allowing developers to build and optimise search and discovery experiences to increase online engagement, conversion rates and revenue.

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“One platform, endless possibilities. No matter the use case, we aim to solve our customers’ toughest challenges and help them create meaningful digital experiences,” states Algolia.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2012 US$184mn

FEBRUARY 2021

06

Andela CEO: Jeremy Johnson

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Co-founded in 2014 by Jeremy Johnson, Andela is an engineeringas-a-service company that helps its customers to build remote teams quickly and cost-effectively. Headquartered in New York, Andela is backed by multiple investors, including Spark Capital, Generation Investment Management, Serena Ventures, Chan Zuckerberg Education, and Omidyar Network, with its engineers working from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt and Ghana.

Andela’s mission is to solve the global tech talent shortage. “Doing remote well is hard. We’ve helped hundreds of companies build and manage high performing teams,” states Andela.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2014 US$181mn busi ne ssc hief. com

Pack the essentials for your business trip: Laptop Charger Business insights Payment solutions

From T&E expertise to business insights to payment solutions, the American Express Corporate Program gives you all the tools and services you need, so you’re fully prepared for business wherever you are.

To learn more about the American Express Corporate Program, visit www.americanexpress.com.

05

Lyra Health David Ebersman

Co-founded in 2015 by David Ebersman, Lyra Health strives to transform behavioural health ‘from start to finish’ with the help of technology and a human touch. With 50 million people suffering from mental health issues every year in the US, “the biggest hurdle isn’t treatment – it’s access.”

Ebersman left Facebook in 2014 to help bridge the gap when it comes to access to treatment, as well as harnessing technology to make it smarter, more personalised, and effective. Since its founding Lyra health has partnered with over 40 companies to offer Lyra’s mental health benefits to their employees, including Facebook, Pinterest and Starbucks, giving more than a million people access to life-changing care.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2015 US$176mn busi ne ssc hief. com

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T O P 10

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04

Weave CEO: Roy Banks

Founded in 2011 by Jared Rodman and Clint Berry, Weave has a mission “to bring local businesses and the people they serve closer together.” The company strives to achieve this by modernising the interactions between businesses and customers, unifying their data and all channels of communication onto a single smart platform.

“We are deeply invested in the people around us and the work we do with and for them. We strive to be deeply caring human beings, respected for our humanity as much as our business success,” comments Weave.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2011 US$152mn FEBRUARY 2021

03

Expanse CEO: Dr. Tim Junio

Co-founded by Dr. Tim Junio and Dr. Matt Kraning in 2012, Expanse was founded on a mission to “ensure the Internet could fulfill its promise of unfettered innovation, empowering digital pioneers to experiment with confidence.” Expanse helps organisations to better manage, control, and protect their internet assets in order to embrace digital transformation.

“We are a company filled with inspired people who follow through.

We’re technology optimists who are curious and push the boundaries of what is possible every day,” states Expanse.

FOUNDED:

89

EQUITY RAISED:

2012 US$136mn

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The Website and Magazine for Global Procurement Executives Join now for notifications about the upcoming launch and never miss an issue...

LAUNCHES:

March 2021 JOIN THE COMMUNITY

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DIGITAL MAGAZINE / NEWSLETTER / WHITEPAPERS WEBINARS / ROUNDTABLE SERIES / VIDEOS PODCASTS / VIRTUAL EVENTS / DIGITAL REPORTS

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T O P 10

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FEBRUARY 2021

02

Gong CEO: Amit Bendov

Co-founded by Amit Bendov and Eilon Reshef in 2015, Gong created the Revenue intelligence category, allowing revenue teams “to realise their fullest potential by unveiling customer reality.” The category enables teams to get ‘unfiltered truths’ about their customer interactions and deals, to transform the way they go to market.

Gong’s Revenue Intelligence provides insights on three key areas: deal intelligence, people intelligence and market intelligence. The solution captures customer interactions, understands the interactions, and delivers real-time insights.

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2015 US$133mn

busi ne ssc hief. com

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T O P 10

01

Coalition CEO: Joshua Motta

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Founded in 2017, Coalition is a cyber insurance and security company that combines comprehensive insurance and proactive cybersecurity tools to help manage and mitigate cyber risk for its customers.

After several years of experience being at “the intersection of technology, intelligence, and cybersecurity,” Joshua Motta cofounded Coalition on the realisation that “traditional approaches to cybersecurity were broken.” Reaching out to John Hering the two agreed that by “combining cybersecurity software and services to prevent and mitigate risks, with insurance to transfer them, they could help solve one of the most pervasive risks facing organizations.”

FOUNDED:

EQUITY RAISED:

2017 US$125mn FEBRUARY 2021

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Moving up to the hybrid cloud WRITTEN BY

DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

FEBRUARY 2021

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NTT LTD.

How NTT Ltd. is helping CIO/VPs and CFOs achieve business continuity, compliance, and security with the delivery of business-critical applications in the hybrid cloud

NTT Ltd. is an integral part of the global growth story of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT) – one of the largest telcos and ICT companies in the world. In the Americas, NTT Ltd. employs more than 7,500 people 98

in a diverse and dynamic workplace. As part of a larger global organization, they have a footprint that spans 57 countries while delivering services in over 200 countries and regions.

“Being the number three data center provider with one of the largest networks in the world, and providing over 50% of global internet traffic, puts us in a unique position to provide our clients with an unparalleled solution set of infrastructure, network, and security allied to application expertise,” explains Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd. “Being a global SAP and Oracle partner, allows us to provide full-stack services for our clients connected globally with all of our low latency networks from marine cables linking Asia to the US market.”

FEBRUARY 2021

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Do More With Data MSP Solutions to Accelerate Your Cloud Services Everyone knows that an organization’s success is driven by its data. Pure Storage delivers a modern data experience supporting businesses Data Transformation projects.

Our solutions empowers your business to drive differentiation,reduce complexity, and enable your hybrid cloud.

NTT Managed Services and Pure Storage partner together for providing world-class storage solutions and enable managed IT operations, application hosting, security, cloud and comprehensive managed multicloud services to enterprises worldwide.

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Pure Storage: Data delivered at scale anywhere, everywhere

Jack Hogan @ Pure Storage

Discover a better way to interact with your data through storage that’s modern, easy to manage and offers flexible ways to consume Pure Storage is driving the simplicity and disruption of access to storage. Futureproofing its capabilities of simplicity, performance and ease of use allows users to be ready for the next generation of technology consumption in the cloud.

“Companies are accelerating their digital transformation journeys, but lack the skills to achieve the best outcome,” warns Jack Hogan, Pure’s Vice President of Technology Strategy.

“NTT is where that expertise is; they can help companies get to those faster outcomes by leveraging solutions like Pure Storage where we’re seeing shutdowns around the world.

A partner like NTT is critical to both provide the venue and the expertise to accelerate transformation, and allow companies the ability to be flexible in these challenging times.”

Pure offers a utility consumption model, supported by its partnership with NTT, to deliver services and solutions to joint customers focused on driving better outcomes rather than just selling products says Hogan.

“Underpinning everything we do is an all-flash technology layer that allows us to achieve sub-millisecond level response times to better manage ERP workloads down from hours to minutes.”

A Modern Data Experience In today’s world, data is the new fuel, the growth engine. However, being able to effectively access and leverage insights from that data is one of the biggest challenges companies now face. “At Pure we’re focused on creating a modern data experience,” reveals Hogan. “As much as 75% of a company’s data is never unutilized, so it’s vital to get a centralized view. Our suite of solutions and services extends both to the on-premise data centre and all the way to the edge via the cloud, offering a centralized storage platform and storage plane.”

Pure & Simple The Purity operating system operates across all of Pure’s platforms which are controlled via SaaS with Pure1. “Companies can see where their data is in all venues; whether different tiers of storage in an individual data center, or across different data centers, or even across different clouds,” pledges Hogan. “Pure is creating that interconnected tissue of how those different data points can come together as one central data hub.”

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NTT LTD.

“ One of the biggest issues in the market today is data latency. We start at ground level making sure your network is secure and your data is not disrupted.”

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

Client Centricity Compton credits the successful disruption of companies like Uber for ushering in a business climate where if you’re not digitally transforming you could get left behind.

“We’ve had to adjust how we support our clients so we can help them with their design of the future,” he responds, noting that NTT’s clients today are looking for more than servers, storage and network capacity. “Our clients want business outcomes. They’re looking for ways to be nimble, and really execute against their

102

digital transformation strategies… Whether it’s growth within the US market, growth globally, or being able to interact with a more client-centric offering shifting from what used to be B2B2C to a more B2C approach as supply chains are disrupted.”

Banking, retail and manufacturing, to name just a few, are all sectors responding to, and ripe for, disruption following the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Compton believes this very pressure is expediting the kind of business transformations a purpose-led organisation like NTT excels at. “In current circumstances, it’s a more powerful change than ever, being able to manage your workforce, whether it’s working from home or managing them FEBRUARY 2021

103

5G & IOT Over the last four years, NTT has been in joint venture with Dell Technologies for the city of Las Vegas looking at 5G and IoT solutions for Smart Cities and remains at the forefront of these technologies through its Japanese market leading mobile operator DoCoMo. “What we’re starting to look at with 5G is how to bring siloed data platforms together.

How are cities utilizing all of the data that’s available to them to be

able to help first responders; to help with city services, provide data to city planners for smart building initiatives and to other organisations that need data to help their citizens?

A lot of our work has been around artificial intelligence and machine learning. They become successful when IoT and 5G and other technologies are aligned to the extent that they can provide data at the right time to the right people to make the right decisions.”

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

NTT LTD.

safely in a manufacturing facility,” he says.

application workloads are structured –

“In supporting those points of contact

whether they’re on premise, inside their

we’ve become the number one cyber-

four walls, co-located in another data

security company in the world capable of

center, or if they’re using Software-as-

adapting to meet our clients’ needs.”

a-Service applications (SaaS) – the data is spread across a multitude of

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Continuity, Compliance & Security

networks along with the users,” he

The fundamental elements of connectivity

the market today is data latency. We

are network and security Compton says.

start at ground level making sure your

“At every organization, the way their

network is secure and your data is not

notes. “One of the biggest issues in

Executive Profile:

Kirk Compton Title: VP Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd. Industry: Information Technology & Services

Kirk Compton has a proven track record of continued success in delivering growth in global and regional leadership roles. A market leader in client focused solution development, delivery and management, Compton drives enterprise growth by aligning corporate strategy ahead of market conditions and ever-changing technology solutions. He has held expansive roles at NTT Ltd. providing global, regional, and vertical leadership across multiple technology platforms – including ERP, hyperscalers, private cloud and most recently Smart Solutions.

Together we do great things CLICK TO WATCH | 1:32

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“ What we’re starting to look at with 5G is how to bring siloed data platforms together. How are cities utilizing all of the data that’s available to them to be able to help first responders; to help with city services, provide data to city planners for smart building initiatives and to other organizations that need data to help their citizens?”

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

disrupted. SaaS is a great opportunity for most organizations to transform, but being able to utilize data effectively and make sure our clients are performing at an optimal level really starts at the data center and the network.”

To deliver this continuity, NTT has experts on hand across the Americas working to the highest-level certifications across multiple verticals “whether it be Federal government, PCI or HIPAA” to guarantee a reliable infrastructure for its clients.

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No other SAP global partner offers Cisco’s breadth of innovations designed to power SAP environments.

Cisco SAP portfolio includes: Cisco UCS and HyperFlex integrates compute, storage, and network for cloud-like flexibility.

Cisco Tetration offers comprehensive workloadprotection capability across multicloud Cisco Intersight cloud-based manager simplifies SAP environments, making them more efficient.

Cisco Workload Optimization Manager (CWOM) scales resources up or down assuring workload performance.

AppDynamics® SAP Monitoring Agent provides ABAP level visibility to diagnose root-cause failure and overall application performance Thousand Eyes offers a 360-degree view of your hybrid SAP deployment across cloud, SaaS, and the Internet to SAP end-users

Cisco: The leading global partner for SAP innovation Cisco offers the broadest portfolio of solutions designed to modernise on-premise and hybrid cloud SAP landscapes.

SAP is the critical operational backbone of most enterprises and often their largest IT investment.

Enterprise line of business managers demand agility to meet evolving customer requirements without compromising on security or reliability.

How do SAP enterprises protect that investment while modernising their infrastructure without disrupting established business processes?

Cisco’s tried and tested suite of SAP solutions can add new functionality to existing investments and improve performance while reducing TCO with an end-to-end modernisation approach.

Compute, Network & Software “We have the complete portfolio for SAP customers so they don’t have to deal with multiple vendors,” assures Cisco’s Saroj Mohapatra. “Cisco takes investment protection very seriously. From the beginning, our solutions have been built to provide excellent value with scalability and agility. Cisco’s flexibility allows customers to start small and incrementally grow their suite of solutions, investing only when they need to with an approach that saves on CapEx and reduces OpEx.” Cisco modernises SAP HANA and SAP legacy ERP application environments with solutions for

on-premise and multi-cloud platforms offering unified management and monitoring, multi-layered data protection, cybersecurity and policy-based automation. “Compared to our competitors we shine because we look after the network for you; resolving any issues with latency to guarantee the response time needed for best practice with SAP, both today and in the future as customers migrate to HANA,” adds Mohapatra.

Cisco is also working closely with SAP to leverage the power of AI and IoT. Elsewhere, recent acquisitions, such as AppDynamics, work seamlessly with existing solutions to detect performance issues with mission critical applications like SAP. ThousandEyes, another addition to the Cisco arsenal, offers SaaS flexibility to enhance Cisco’s network performance and monitoring capabilities across the enterprise and into the cloud.

Together, NTT, with its SAP consulting expertise, and Cisco deliver a modern and resilient solution to identify SAP customers’ needs to fuel success with competitive value.

Learn more about a robust portfolio of end-to-end SAP solutions here

NTT LTD.

“ As hybrid cloud and digital transformation become a top priority for companies, we’ve got the automation and the capabilities to help them really drive growth and transformation.”

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— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

data centers,” reveals Compton. “This creates a unique opportunity for us to provide our clients with a dedicated private environment in the same data center where we’re providing hyperscaled services.” Compton explains that being able to cross connect the environments inside the same facilities provides an optimal performance platform where digital latency is significantly reduced.

“Having this network acumen and expertise really puts us in the forefront of hybrid cloud,” he adds. “We can bring all of our other services – whether it be application workload, security, wide area

Hybrid Cloud

network or network-as-a-service – in a

“Traditionally, you had to buy the infra-

combination that’s unique in the market

structure to be able to grow your data

via a platform our clients can trust.”

platforms,” remembers Compton. “And now you can get those on demand.

Partnering for Success

When we look at hybrid cloud… we’re

A key component in NTT’s global

a data center company. We’ve got pri-

success and building that trust over

vate clouds for our clients, but we also

the past 23 years has been the com-

support the hyperscalers.”

pany’s alliance with Cisco. “We have

NTT recently announced a strategic

enjoyed an extensive partnership over

relationship with Microsoft with the

the years,” confirms Compton. “What’s

company moving much of its internal

been really exciting is how we’ve

workloads to the Azure cloud. “As part

grown together. My experience with

of that agreement, Azure is inside our

Cisco began when we were building

FEBRUARY 2021

WHAT THE STACK! Any organization’s needs can be met with one NTT Ltd. solution covering Enterprise Application Services; Managed Services and Managed Cloud, Data Center Network, Infrastructure and physical kit: • Digital Advisory services • Project implementation services • Application managed services • Administration services • Database managed services •O perating system managed services • Infrastructure managed services • Hardware managed services • Data Center managed services busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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NTT LTD.

Our best advice for 2021 CLICK TO WATCH | 1:21

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our cloud platforms for SAP workloads.

They helped us design and build the cloud infrastructure for our Africa and Asia operations. And then as the market matured, and the shift in digital transformation occurred, Cisco has been a great partner in regards to how they build their networking services, and

1952

Year NTT founded

USD11bn NTT Ltd. global revenue

how we’ve been able to leverage their IoT capabilities.”

Cisco’s solutions, including recent acquisitions AppDynamics and ThousandEyes, are helping NTT FEBRUARY 2021

40,000

Number of NTT Ltd. employees globally

111

manage workloads from a top to bottom

2021 and beyond…

perspective with their networking capa-

NTT remains focused on maintain-

bilities and monitoring prowess. “With

ing secure networks and giving its

our stack we provide the network and

clients the ability to scale to support

security around Cisco’s UCS (Unified

increased demand. While organiza-

Computing System) infrastructure which,

tions look to meet the challenges of

in tandem with offerings from the likes

the ‘new normal’ triggered by a global

of Pure Storage and Cohesity, creates a

pandemic leaving millions working

unique opportunity where we can really

from home, NTT are on hand to deliver

drive a lot of these solutions together

the right collaboration tools to allow

paired with ERP applications to realize

them to thrive. Looking beyond to a

the outcomes our clients are looking for,”

post-COVID world, the company is

assures Compton.

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The CollaboraTive Power of The eCosysTem Delivering suCCess As an industry leader with the purpose to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth, Intel has been and is at the forefront of technology growth and development, catering for all business solution needs.

Through a broad ecosystem, Intel is focused on delivering an end-to-end data portfolio that stretches from the edge to the cloud, powered by artificial intelligence all while being more secure.

All of this is enabled and achieved through the strong collaboration of the ecosystem mentioned.

An often overlooked though integral part of the ecosystem is the Service Integrators (SI), also known as Solution Integrators, like NTT Limited, who have a global alliance with Intel, where together they solve difficult challenges and deliver business outcomes.

The role of said Service / Solution Integrators is to influence IT decisions, recommend on the architectural designs and deployment across on-premise and cloud, and ultimately deliver complete end-to-end hardware and software solutions together with the broader ecosystem of OEM & ISV partners like SAP and Cisco.

With enterprises embracing artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data analytics, the solutions are required to access and handle large data sets faster, which can be addressed

by Intel® Optane™ Persistent Memory (PMem) which removes I/O bottlenecks to maximize CPU utilization.

Intel & SAP have collaborated to bring Intel® Optane™ Persistent Memory support to SAP HANA and Intel and the OEMs, like Cisco, have collaborated on system designs that support Intel® Optane™ Persistent Memory modules allowing for a variety of configurations to suit all customer needs.

Intel and NTT Limited have collaborated for a number of years, designing solutions that meet customer needs in industries such as enterprise, manufacturing, agriculture, automotive, financial, and more all around the world, with great success being realized when forces are combined with the greater ecosystem.

It is through insights gained while working through these relationships that Intel is able to create technologies like Intel® Software Guard Extensions (SGX). SGX enhances the last part of the data journey by securing data-in-use, enabling for example AI workloads to be performed on otherwise untapped data sources. In fact, 2nd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors are the only mainstream data center CPU with built-in AI acceleration enabling organizations to deploy highly performant applications without using complex and expensive new hardware.

By collaborating with Intel, along with Service / System Integrators like NTT Limited and the technology ecosystem clients can feel comfortable in the knowledge that their business challenges can be addressed, delivering the best possible outcomes.

This is your DaTa on inTel Intel technologies may require enabled hardware, software or service activation. No product or component can be absolutely secure. Your costs and results may vary. © Intel Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, and other Intel marks are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

NTT LTD.

114 IOWN “We’re working on a new network called IOWN (Innovative Optical & Wireless Network) that is going to be very powerful in the industry,” reveals Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas for NTT Ltd. in the Americas. “It’s an initiative for networks and information processing infrastructure that can provide high-speed, highcapacity communication utilizing innovative technology focused on

FEBRUARY 2021

optics, as well as tremendous computational resources. With IOWN we’ve got platform services that now connect multiple clouds together and allow you to manage the network, as well as the security across those cloud platforms. When we start looking at our clients’ needs, but again more importantly, how the industry is trending, having that connectivity and creation across platforms becomes crucial.”

to migrate its clients to the new S/4 HANA solutions.

“As hybrid cloud and digital transformation become a top priority for companies, we’ve got the automation and the capabilities to help them really drive growth and transform,” pledges Compton. “We’ve been developing the security and migration automation tools for our clients. I think we’re at a time of transition where the maturity in the market – and the way Cisco has matured through application performance – allows us to bring a full solution; it’s the client journey we’re focused on.

Infrastructure isn’t the critical question now, it’s how your applications perform, how your revenue strategies are grow-

“ With IOWN we’ve got platform services that now connect multiple clouds together and allow you to manage the network, as well as the security across those cloud platforms.”

ing and how you’re transforming your own organization. We’re now in a unique position to be able to drive all that for our clients and execute like never before.”

— Kirk Compton, Vice President Cloud & Enterprise Application Managed Services, Sales, Americas, NTT Ltd.

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116

Driving the Future of Open Banking WRITTEN BY

RHYS THOMAS PRODUCED BY

MICHAEL BANYARD

FEBRUARY 2021

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TAB BANK

Mike Palmer illustrates how digital transformation is powering TAB Bank to make major contributions to the financial well-being of its customers

T 118

ransporting vital goods to consumers and connecting businesses that are sometimes thousands of miles apart,

trucking is the lifeblood of the United States.

For those who have never driven a semi-truck and trailer, the industry evokes iconic images of impressive chrome-tipped cabs, and of hardworking men and women glued from dusk till dawn to the painted lines of the nation’s highways. But the day-to-day reality is, of course, more nuanced; it is an industry brimming with unique financial complexity. How do truckers, forever on the move, receive their hard-earned paycheques? How do they access funds to fuel their trucks or acquire loans to buy their semi-trucks and trailers in the first place? And more importantly, how do they find a bank that understands them and their distinct needs?

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1998

Year founded

274

Number of employees

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The Future of Alternative Payments is Here.

Our mission is clear: to help non-prime consumers shop where, when, and how they want while increasing retailers’ sales. Our leading edge omni-channel solutions were developed to serve both with our lease-to-own marketplace, payment method for ecommerce, and mobile app for in-store point of sale commerce. We are proud to introduce FlexLending, in partnership with TAB Bank, which broadens our reach with consumer installment loans. When it comes to alternative payment options, we have a solution.

Financing offered is made by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc., dba TAB Bank.

FLEXSHOPPER: FLEXIBLE PAYMENT SOLUTIONS Kelly Arduz, Vice President of Marketing, FlexShopper explores the firm’s exciting new lending product launched in partnership with TAB Bank FlexShopper offers alternative payment solutions for non-prime consumers, allowing them greater freedom to shop the branded goods they need and desire, from appliances and consumer electronics to furniture and auto tires.

Already a leader in lease-to-own, the firm is expanding its offering through a partnership with TAB Bank, and the subsequent launch of a new lending product called FlexLending.

The solution bestows a broader spectrum of US consumers with greater choice in how to finance their purchases, and helps retailers increase their sales with this core consumer base.

“We’re really excited to be able to serve more consumers and partner with new retailers as a result of this collaboration,” says Kelly Arduz, Vice President of Marketing at FlexShopper. “We’ve had significant success in the lease-to-own space and sought to broaden our verticals beyond just durable goods, which in turn enables us to serve more consumers and partner with more retailers. TAB Bank has expertise in originating consumer loans, and FlexShopper specializes in marketing non-prime payment solutions to consumers and retailers.”

FlexShopper is moving to meet market demand and adapt to best serve consumers, allowing them to shop how and where they choose. “Point of sale finance with retailers has been a growing industry,” Arduz says.

“And through our partnership with TAB, we’ve taken advantage of a significant opportunity in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) space that ultimately benefits all parties.”

FlexShopper’s partnership with TAB Bank is “a synergy of expertise,” Arduz says, a symbiotic relationship combining the incisive capabilities of both organisations.

“We’re coupling our abilities,” Arduz continues.

“We can now solicit additional retailers and expand into states where installment loans are preferred over lease-to-own, and a customer who previously signed a lease for tires with FlexShopper can now get their car serviced or repaired through installment loans with our new product FlexLending, thanks to our partnership with TAB.”

TAB BANK

“WHEN YOU’RE DEALING WITH PEOPLE’S MONEY AND THEIR FINANCIAL LIVES, IT’S EMOTIONAL”

Founded in 1998, TAB Bank set out to answer those questions. Known in the early days as the Transportation Alliance Bank, its suite of financial services for businesses and individuals were tailored to truckers from day one, earning it an impressive reputation and loyal customer base within the industry and beyond. That the bank remains a

— Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank

small financial organisation by definition belies the scale of its ambition and the enormous positive impact it has on the lives of its customers.

122

FEBRUARY 2021

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Michael Palmer Title: Chief Operating Officer

Company: TAB Bank

As TAB Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, Mike oversees the operational and customer support teams that assist TAB’s clients with their deposit relationships with the bank. Additionally, his teams securely process all the bank’s electronic funds transfers, apply for invoice specific payments across the factoring portfolio, and process thousands of lockbox and other checks per week.

Mike is a Certified Regulatory Compliance Manager.

Prior to his experience at TAB Bank, he spent 13 years at Wells Fargo, the last ten being spent in regulatory compliance roles focusing on international BSA/AML compliance as well as mortgage and consumer lending regulations. Mike holds a Bachelor of Science degrees in Finance and Marketing from Utah State University and a Master of Business Administration from Brigham Young University. He is a graduate from the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin –Madison where he completed courses necessary to achieve the Executive Leadership Certificate from the Wisconsin School of Business.

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123

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TAB BANK

126

Flanked on either side by model

Doing it right for a relatively niche

trucks in his office in Ogden, Utah

customer base such as truckers

– TAB Bank’s central and only loca-

means understanding the realities

tion – Chief Operating Officer Mike

of their lives and their financial situ-

Palmer strives everyday to uphold

ations. To highlight the point, Palmer

that original vision. “When you’re

points to the ‘guaranteed check’, a

dealing with people’s money and

form of one-off payment run by third

their financial lives, it’s emotional,”

parties that is generally used to pay

Palmer says. “It has a huge impact

truckers performing a single job for a

on everything that they do, how they

different company. TAB works with

live, and even how they see the world.

these third parties to ensure their

And so doing that well, doing it right,

customers can deposit these cheques

is very important to me and the peo-

directly into their TAB account – a

ple that I work with.”

seemingly small service that in fact

FEBRUARY 2021

“WE WILL DRIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH TAB BANK, AND CUSTOMERS WILL REALISE, ‘THIS IS WHERE I CAN REALLY LIVE MY FINANCIAL LIFE’” — Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank

We Are TAB Bank CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:03

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127

Technology services designed for banking and lending firms ValueMomentum is at the forefront of helping Banks and Lending companies in their digitalization journey across Retail & Commercial Banking, Core System modernization, and Lending lifecycle automation/optimization.

We are supporting TAB Bank as a strategic partner in their Open Banking, BaaS, Integration (internal and partner ecosystem), DevOps, Analytics, Data, RPA, Development, Test Automation and Digital Banking initiatives.

Visit our website

129

has a major positive impact on the

bank is undergoing a dramatic digital

lives of its customers. “They haven’t

transformation to bring ‘EU-style’

got this guaranteed cheque having

mobile banking to its customers

around that they’ve got to wait to

across the US and expand its cus-

deposit at their hometown bank when

tomer base beyond transportation,

they get home,” Palmer says. “We can

an initiative that has been in the works

get money in their account. They can

for some time.

fuel their truck again and keep moving goods across America.”

“I would say we’re right at the cusp of being able to take advantage of

TAB’s deep ties to the trucking

the investments we’ve made over the

industry stretch back more than two

last several years,” says Palmer. Led

decades, but much has changed in the

by TAB’s president Curt Queyrouze,

intervening years both in trucking and

described by Palmer as a “brilliant

the wider financial landscape. Now the

banker and futurist”, the executive busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Customer financing made EASY - Approvals up to $5,000 - Good credit to NO credit - ZERO down payment required - 90-Day No Interest Promotion* - Affordable monthly payments *With up to a $40 processing fee

Visit our website All loans made by Transportation Alliance Bank, Inc. dba TAB Bank, which determines qualifications for and terms of credit, excluding AK, AZ, CA, DE, ID, KS, KY, ND, NH, NM, NV, OR, PA, UT, VA, WA, and WI. Financing in these states is administered by EasyPay Finance.

team took a step back to reassess how best to organise data, how that data can enhance the customer experience, and what underlying hardware and resource investment would be vital to realising their grand vision.

These are lessons TAB learned from the European Union, which Palmer believes picked up the data-driven baton from the US and ran it in the

“I’M VERY EXCITED ABOUT WHAT WE’RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO DELIVER TO THE MARKET HERE IN THE FIRST QUARTER” — Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank

right direction.

“In the United States we were famous for using data to retain and 131

control our power in the marketplace – and I don’t think that we really even did a really great job of it,” he says. “Then organisations in the European Union came through and began opening this data up, and allowing people access to it within the banking system. I think what we’ve learned in the States is that there is a way to make this work and be profitable, provide a great customer experience, and make everybody better off.

“What that means is making all the information that you have directly available to customers, and giving them access to it in the way that they want. A lot of the legacy online busi ne ssc hi ef . com

TAB BANK

and mobile banking platforms in the United States are very inflexible,” Palmer says.

Using open banking has empowered TAB to fine tune and tailor its new platform, as well as partner with market leaders to expedite the process of bringing it to market.

“We’re headed to that real open platform, with functionality that even allows customers to drop and drag widgets and other useful things like that,” Palmer continues. “If I’m a 132

small business owner and I want to see all the cheques that are clearing that day, or the transactions that are going to post, I can move that to the top. Or maybe I’m a consumer, and I am always worried about my balance because I’m living paycheque to paycheque, so I want that to flash to the top of mind. That’s efficient and effective for our customers, whether they are consumers or small business, and our hope is that by introducing these new services – and more in the future – we will drive engagement with TAB Bank, and customers will realise, ‘This is where I can really live my financial life’.”

FEBRUARY 2021

133

“WE’RE HEADED TO THAT REAL OPEN PLATFORM” — Mike Palmer, Chief Operating Officer, TAB Bank

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Partners have been vital to realis-

UX specialists who work to tie all these

ing TAB’s ambitions. On the backend,

things together. I’m very excited about

partners including MuleSoft and

what we’re going to be able to deliver

ValueMomentum worked with TAB’s

to the market here in the first quarter.”

internal teams to build the robust mid-

Developing this open banking plat-

layers that bridge the gap between

form will allow TAB to partner with

customers, their information and

fintechs to provide banking services to

TAB’s suite of services. On the fron-

their customers in a way fintechs want

tend, TAB leveraged Technisys’ Cyber

to. “Providing everything from a cus-

Bank platform.

tomisable customer interface to the

“These are tremendous partners

back-end core system was a goal from

that we’ve had tremendous success

the beginning,” Palmer explains. The

with,” Palmer says. “And then we have

way everything ties together allows

some very, very talented people here

partners to decide which pieces they

at TAB Bank, from developers to UI/

need to go to market.

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135

TAB BANK

136

For Palmer, however, TAB Bank

and debt. He paints the picture of a

remains an organisation concerned

customer that banks with TAB Bank,

with people and making lives better.

but who took advantage of a good

Setting technology and digital trans-

car loan at a dealership in Kentucky,

formation to one side for a moment,

and whose mortgage is with a major

he says the overarching aim is to give

national lender. TAB’s new platform

customers a “more complete finan-

aims to unify all this data in order to

cial picture”, tying in all the disparate

understand each individual and begin

strands of their incomings, outgoings

offering recommendations on

FEBRUARY 2021

137

everything from insurance to mort-

is,” Mike says. “That’s really where I

gage rates or investment.

hope we are in 18 to 24 months. It’s

“We will be able to say, ‘Here are

a Herculean effort to try to get there,

some steps you can take to make your

and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but

family more secure, what your upcom-

I’m cautiously optimistic.”

ing business expenses are, make your financial picture better, and head in the right direction to get to where you want to be, wherever that busi ne ssc hi ef . com

138

Enabling AI/ML Powered Networks WRITTEN BY

PADDY SMITH PRODUCED BY

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

FEBRUARY 2021

139

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BELL INC (CANADA)

George Iskenderian, director of Big Data and AI/ML at Bell Canada, is putting data and AI/ML at the heart of telecoms. He explains why it’s the right decision

140

F

or someone working in the transformative and often speculative world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning

(ML), George Iskenderian is remarkably pragmatic.

But that doesn’t stop him from being ambitious and, more to the point, successful. His data and AI/ML team at Bell Canada has two patents pending and one being filed after only five years, and has grown from a single person team into more than 100 data scientists and engineers. Iskenderian is very appreciative of his position, “A big factor to my success is the support and empowerment I received at Bell to establish this world class team especially from Stephen Howe, Bell CTO, Petri Lyytikainen, Network VP and of course every single person on the team.”

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5G Velocity, Meet Ultra HD Visibility.

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VISIBILITY WITHOUT BORDERS

NETSCOUT and Bell Canada:

Long-Term Success on a World Class Network

NETSCOUT’s Matt Demeusy talks about their successful partnership with Bell and why 5G implementation is an exciting time for communication solution providers.

Written by: Paddy Smith NETSCOUT is a leading provider of service assurance, security, and business analytics for communication service providers and enterprises. “We provide pervasive visibility across all areas of a business network, regardless of the technologies being deployed,” explains Matthew Demeusy, CTO Office at NETSCOUT. “These services might be entirely on premises, cloud services, or hybrid – we call this ‘Visibility Without Borders’.

What does Demeusy believe is driving innovation in the telecoms sector? “There are two things, and they’re somewhat related.

One is the digital transformation to cloud, and that’s an ongoing process; and the second is 5G technology. As service providers drive toward these new technologies, these networks will often go through several phases of evolution. And each phase requires assuring that the services are performing as expected. Any anomalies are detected and still the target initiatives are being achieved.

With NETSCOUT, we provide that visibility across those borders to ensure service performance through every phase of that evolution.”

One of NETSCOUT’s long-term customers is Bell. Demeusy got involved around the time big data and analytics were climbing the Bell agenda; at the time NETSCOUT was developing its nGenius Business Analytics solution. He’s been working with them ever since. “I really enjoy working with Bell. I find that we are easily able to get to the heart of their objectives and that Bell is getting the maximum amount of value out of the products.”

For instance, Bell utilizes NETSCOUT’s insights and tools on a daily basis for supporting their marketing monetization program and ensuring customer experience through user analytics.

“Our relationship is mutually beneficial. We gain a deeper understanding of common challenges service providers face. We benefit from being able to understand what the customer is trying to accomplish and deliver solutions to get there as effectively as possible, as well as meet the challenges we see across various industries. Bell benefits by gaining deeper customer insights and by extracting the maximum amount of value from their investments – with their tools and within their network.”

And the future? “When it comes to the key trends and technologies, 5G is the big trend.

The transition to 5G from 4G LTE is significant and wide reaching. This is not an overnight migration; it requires long-term planning, built-in visibility, and insights into new 5G services to become fully realised. It’s critical that service providers’ existing services remain at optimal performance levels with full visibility at all times, even while the delivery mechanisms for the services are changing.

NETSCOUT provides service providers the confidence to innovate with the ability to future proof their next-generation technology with 5G/IoT, Cloud, and beyond.”

BELL INC (CANADA)

“ The paradigm is shifting from detecting issues to looking at the bigger picture and understanding why anomalies are happening” 144

— George Iskenderian, Director, Big Data & AI Bell Inc (Canada) “When we integrate the data folks with the domain teams, they start thinking about the art of the possible,”

expertise come together. When we

he says. “So I need to understand my

say we build with use cases in mind,

network, how my traffic patterns are.

we do have a strategic view as well.

And the data scientist is saying, ‘I can

Certain things we do such as anticipat-

give you that, but actually I can predict

ing problems or needs might not be

the traffic pattern for you a week in

very high priority today but they will be

advance and I can introduce seasonal-

in a year or two.”

ity so that when you’re looking at the traffic pattern you’re not looking at that

AI VS ML: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

based on historical data. You’re actu-

AI and ML are often conflated in

ally predicting the future.’”

technology circles, with many people

“So that’s where the value of the domain expertise and data and AI FEBRUARY 2021

describing machine learning functions as AI, and others pointedly

145

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

George Iskenderian Title: Director, Big Data & AI Company: Bell Inc Industry: Telecommunications Location: Canada George Iskenderian leads the network Big Data & AI organization at Bell, he created a high performance team of data experts developing advanced data platforms and executing network planning, engineering and operations use cases.

Iskenderian started his career at Bell planning and architecting OSS systems including multiple data solutions. He played a key role in setting the network transformation and data and AI/ML strategy and enabling Bell’s AI powered networks.

Prior to joining Bell, Iskenderian assumed various hands-on and leadership roles at Nortel as well as a position in Europe initiating one of the first GSM SMS deployments.

Iskenderian holds a graduate degree in Electrical Engineering and is a licensed professional engineer in Ontario, Canada.

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Enterprise-class, multi-cloud to edge database with the robust capabilities required for business-critical applications on a highly scalable and available distributed platform.

Couchbase is a powerful database platform combining the best of NoSQL systems with the power and familiarity of SQL, to simplify the transition from mainframe and relational databases into the cloud and to the edge.

Dealing with data

Couchbase serves content to over 100M cable boxes, over 500M tablets, 100M smart watches through DirectTV, Sky, Comcast, Verizon and other media providers.

“The Couchbase Server is a sophisticated platform and our flagship product working alongside Couchbase Mobile for our edge offering,” explains Ravi Mayuram, SVP Engineering, CTO. “Our Kubernetes Autonomous Operator orchestrates cluster deployments in a programmable manner. The ambition is to convert a set of data-oriented technologies - for which enterprises previously had to use multiple-point solutions, hence complicating the landscape. We can help them navigate and simplify this data sprawl.”

Couchbase converges a suite of NoSQL capabilities across one platform to simplify development and deployment. “The performance caching capability of our database is combined with our SQL-like query language; N1QL offers unparalleled flexibility along with search and analytics stitched together with an eventing system supporting fast transactional workloads,” says Mayuram.

“That same data can be transported with equivalent functionality at the edge via our mobile product. Converging multiple technology stacks into a single platform allows application developers to carry out many tasks in one place, thereby accelerating forward development.”

Modernising your stack Couchbase are ideologically aligned with key partners like Bell Canada; both are keen to promote a philosophy of operational data visibility. “Our platform brings data from the edge to near real time in the cloud; from here analytical logic, via AI and ML technologies, can be applied for key insights,” says Mayuram of the capability to use data from anywhere to feed into available intelligence.

Performance at scale “One of the biggest advantages of Couchbase is its performance at scale,” maintains Mayuram. “We are built for the next generation of scaling that will happen. A platform that can withstand the growing demand from a volume and variety of data in a new order of magnitude. Data growth is exponential be it from the edge IoT devices, machines generating data, or spamming and anomaly detection. These are all based on the volume of data that’s actually flowing through in real time - something Couchbase is primed to handle.

www.couchbase.com

BELL INC (CANADA)

148

suggesting that AI – in its truest

sure that we focus specifically on AI/

sense – is not really available yet.

ML expertise development, but also

Iskenderian is happy to explain his

how we create value using AI/ML, so

view. “I’ll give it an analogy: if artifi-

it’s very important to the organization.

cial intelligence is mathematic, then

We talked about network operations

machine learning would be algebra.

and performance, failure detection: all

So machine learning is a discipline

those concepts can be solved with

within the bigger umbrella of artificial

AI/ML.

intelligence. And then deep learning would be linear algebra.

“We realize that AI and ML are of par-

“I’ll give you an example: spam filtering. When millions and millions of emails are going through some serv-

amount importance and it’s going to

ers, it would be cost prohibitive for any

play a significant role going forwards.

decision logic to look at that and say

And we have various initiatives to make

‘this is spam, this is not spam’. Machine

FEBRUARY 2021

Bell Canada’s key partners Couchbase We were interested in augmenting our data ecosystem with a distributed database that can address a variety of use cases especially for transactional workloads. As we move towards more real time workflows, a data solution supporting fast transactional workloads is critical.

Couchbase is successfully providing us the solution for such workloads.

Couchbase is now the backend for multiple realtime transactional applications.

enabling real-time monitoring, troubleshooting and automation actions for log events from network devices and applications. The Elastic stack will provide an integrated and user-friendly framework to ingest and store log data and then perform log analytics at scale.

MicroStrategy Microstrategy is one of our initial partners, it is widely used for enterprise grade operational dashboards. A key to using Microstrategy for us is the richness in enterprise features.

NETSCOUT Network performance characterization is a key component of network operations and ultimately understanding customer experience. Netscout is used to support our network operations and understand the impact of network performance on user experience.

Elastic We were looking at augmenting our big data ecosystem with an industry leading log/search analytics solution. Log analytics is key for network and service operations by

Cloudera Our core on-premises enterprise grade big data ecosystem is based on Cloudera providing an integrated solution of open source data components augmented with enterprise grade features. Cloudera is used for a variety of use cases spanning network planning, build and operations. Our Cloudera deployment is one of the largest in Canada and since inception in 2016, we’ve executed 1,500 use cases with each use case having concrete quantifiable business benefits.

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149

learning is very well suited to this task because the algorithm learns based on behaviours, based on patterns, what constitutes spam. Anomaly detection in general, silent failure detections… we are developing an advanced expertise in anomaly detection because lots of our use cases are about network availability and anomalies.

“Historically, when equipment misbehaved or failed, an alarm was

“ Network operations and performance, failure detection: all those concepts can be solved with AI/ML” — George Iskenderian, Director, Big Data & AI Bell Inc (Canada)

George Iskenderian: tactics for setting up an AI team Recruit right

Be flexible

When it comes to people, recruiting the right people was crucial to our success. I realized I would start with a very small team, and the quality of that team would determine our success.

My head count profile will change from needing more engineers and fewer data scientists to the reverse.

We don’t have pigeonholing. We don’t have dedicated testers, project managers, analysts. Everyone’s either a data engineer or a data scientist. That’s their core skill but they can occupy various roles, expand and grow professionally.

Focus on expertise We don’t want to be mediocre. We want to be the best at what we do, and we don’t want to dilute our knowledge. We don’t want someone to be doing something else, but then they are doing a bit of data or AI on the side.

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BELL INC (CANADA)

1880

Year founded

$24bn+ Revenue in 2019

52,000 152

Number of employees

generated, and the alarm created

paradigm is shifting from detecting

a ticket and then people started inves-

issues to looking at the bigger picture

tigating. But in the case of anomaly

and understanding why anomalies

detection, you’re not relying on those

are happening.”

alarms. You notice something unusual in the traffic pattern and you might not

EXTERMINATING ROBOCALLS

know exactly what’s wrong but you

Another application for machine

know something isn’t right and you

learning in telecoms is identifying

can investigate. And then, of course,

robocalling and spam calls. “We’ve

you can enhance your algorithms. The

deployed an algorithm that detects

FEBRUARY 2021

153

“ Certain things we do anticipating problems or needs might not be very high priority today but they will be in a year or two” — George Iskenderian, Director, Big Data & AI Bell Inc (Canada)

the likelihood of a call being spam or robocalling. We did a trial and it was very successful. Now the trial is being expanded so that phone calls that go through the Bell network will be exposed to a machine learning algorithm that determines if a call is spam.

And there’s lots of business logic to make sure there aren’t false positives. Especially in business critical busi ne ssc hi ef . com

BELL INC (CANADA)

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“ Some of the ML use cases are not going to move mountains, but they are going to support much better – and faster – insights” — George Iskenderian, Director, Big Data & AI Bell Inc (Canada) 155 applications, you can’t have false posi-

will use AI/ML as a toolset in their

tives, so your threshold is really high.

arsenal.”

“There are use cases that could

“AI is not the goal. It is the means

not be done without ML, and there

to help us reduce operational costs

are lots of those, but there are also

achieve better customer experience

lots of use cases where machine

and develop new solutions and ser-

learning is just going to be a tool

vices. The goal is always addressing

set. They are not going to be mak-

a specific business problem, and the

ing headlines. They are not going to

means could be machine learning.”

move mountains, but they are going to support much better – and faster – insights. It’s not that sexy, and nobody’s going to make too much of a fuss about it, but the data guys who are creating these solutions busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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COVID-19 and Digital Transformation: A HCL PERSPECTIVE WRITTEN BY

OLIVER JAMES FREEMAN PRODUCED BY

THOMAS LIVERMORE

FEBRUARY 2021

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HCL TECHNOLOGIES

Eric Cohan, CPO of HCL Technologies, discusses supply chain resilience and the digital acceleration caused by COVID-19

W

hen COVID-19 came knocking, industry leaders all over the world found themselves both shocked and, in many cases,

slightly puzzled. Never before in their lifetimes had a naturally-occurring event like this cropped 158

up, so the question, “What do we do?” was prevalent across every sector - especially across the global supply chain network that allows modern society to thrive in the way that they do.

The same was true for HCL Technologies, a leading IT services company that assists global enterprises in the reimagination and digital transformation of their business operations and infrastructure. The multinational company uses and sells technological products and services that have been built on four decades of innovation - an innovation that thrives under the watchful eye of a world-renowned management philosophy, a brazen culture of invention and risk-taking, and a relentless focus on customer-centricity.

FEBRUARY 2021

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Curvature, global leader in independent IT maintenance and support, allows forward-thinking leaders of data centres to realize their business ambitions for the digital economy.

Curvature, one of HCL Technologies’ Strategic Partners, works hand in hand with HCL to provide intelligent alternatives to vendor IT maintenance and support, allowing world class organisations to achieve their digital ambitions without compromise.

Learn more

A Curvature and HCL Collaboration - The VP of Sales Perspective Christo Conidaris, VP of Sales for Curvature, sat down to discuss the ongoing partnership between his own company and HCL Technologies, and supply chain.

Christo Conidaris, Vice President of Sales for Curvature, (now a Park Place Technology company), the global leader in independent IT maintenance and support for storage, server, and network hardware, jumped in the Supply Chain Digital hot seat recently to discuss Curvature’s ongoing partnership with HCL Technologies, and his thoughts about the state of global supply chain networks.

The industry-leading Vice President of Sales finds himself overseeing Curvature’s EMEA sales, and rather uniquely, rolling up his sleeves and fostering some of the strongest relationships in the industry today. One such relationship comes in the form of Curvature’s tight-knit partnership with HCL Technologies, an Indian multinational information technology services and consulting firm.

“We have different tiers of salespeople all over the world. I’ve spent a lot of time working alongside them, and we’ve worked very closely with HCL Technologies’ staff to ensure that HCL is always successful as a company with us.

There are two reasons for that. The first: the

Copy will go here

propositions that HCL bring us are always complex - they’re never straightforward and simple, often because they need to make tough decisions very quickly, in order to maintain their competitive edge.”

“The second reason: it’s important for us to achieve a strong partnership together, and my role is really to foster that and make sure that business understanding can flow between the two companies. Ultimately, we can meet the objectives of the company, and HCL can meet the objectives of their campaign. It’s about making sure those two aspects come together.”

On fostering a strong relationship, Christo stated, “One of the things that really gets me excited about working for Curvature is its customercentric approach. And HCL is reassuringly similar.

Let me elaborate. When HCL take on a customer, they put several people on the task, and they push until they’ve provided everything requested.

I think that’s part of the success story. When somebody asks why it works so well between Curvature and HCL, I would say that it’s because we have the same vision for the customer.”

Learn more

HCL TECHNOLOGIES

“ I would say that not a lot of innovation has accelerated.

It was more about accelerating investments in existing technologies” — Eric Cohan, CPO, HCL Technologies 162

FEBRUARY 2021

The company’s prolific, first Chief Procurement Officer (CPO), Eric Cohan, the man in control of HCL’s end-to-end supply chain, took the time to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on HCL Technologies’ year, and his own personal experience of the ‘new norm’. Stating that his team supports both its customers and HCL employees directly, Eric shared that “[HCL] had several major themes of issues to deal with related to COVID. One was

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Eric Cohan Title: Chief Procurement Officer Industry: Information Technology & Services Eric is HCL’s Chief Procurement Officer. In this role, he leads HCL’s global procurement and supply chain organization in delivering Category Management, Sourcing, and Procurement Operations for all external spend categories (Technology, Labor, Facilities, Travel, HR, Marketing, etc.) In addition, Eric sits on the U.S. employee benefits council and chairs the HCL 401k Investment committee.

Prior to joining HCL, Eric worked for Accenture, most recently leading the Americas Procurement organization where he was accountable for Sourcing & Category Management, Procurement Operations, and Payables across the Americas region. Simultaneously, he served as the Global Sourcing & Category Management process lead in addition to the Global IT Category Director.

Prior to these roles, Eric held a variety of leadership positions within Accenture’s Procurement Business Process Outsourcing organization directing global teams of category-specific resources in delivering procurement services to Accenture’s end clients.

Prior to Accenture, Eric spent over 10 years at Dell, most recently as their first Executive Director of IT Procurement.

Preceding this, he held several position in Dell’s IT department, leading both application and engineering teams.

Prior to Dell, Eric spent 8 years in Accenture’s (Andersen Consulting) Supply Chain practice.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research & Industrial Engineering from Cornell University’s College of Engineering.

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YOUR BUSINESS NEVER STOPS. Flexible technology for a scalable world.

DellTechnologies.com

A Dell Technologies and HCL Collaboration: In Conversation with Rod Gardner Rod Gardner, Senior Director at Dell Technologies, discusses the special relationship between Dell and HCL Technologies, and ‘going digital’.

Rod Gardner, Senior Director at Dell Technologies and a pivotal figure in the industry-leading behemoth’s Global Alliances business unit, took the time to sit down with Supply Chain Digital to discuss one of the company’s most critical partnerships with HCL Technologies and the synergies that fuel their powerful collaboration, as well as his thoughts about global supply chain networks and the growing trend of ‘going digital’.

emerging technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence, and data analytics, within their own framework. “At Dell, we’re able to match that methodology head-on through the provision of technological means,” Rod added. In essence, Dell provides HCL Technologies with the infrastructure and technology needed, and HCL then re-wraps it with their own label and deliver it to some of the largest customers in the world.

“I think the most important thing in a business relationship is trust. There’s a lot of trust between our organisations at every level, from the top-down.

The CEO, all the way down to our field account teams, are working together. When I think about the synergies between Dell and HCL, I’m reminded that our mission at Dell is to drive human progress, as the essential infrastructure company. The synergy with HCL is their ability to take what we bring to the market and make it special for their end-users, with their own label and intellectual property.”

With constantly evolving technological capabilities at both companies, the future looks bright for the Dell Technologies and HCL Technologies collaboration. “The unique aspect, when it comes to Dell and HCL, is that HCL is able to have that end-to-end conversation with customers that we’re working on together. Afterwards, Dell can deliver not only the infrastructure needed for the on-prem private cloud component of a multi-cloud world but also the enabling technology that makes even the public cloud hyperscaler-space operate better - and HCL is using all of it.”

“If you look at HCL’s business model, they have the Mode 1-2-3 Strategy,” which allows HCL to help its global clients map and navigate their transformational journeys, fuelling them with

“That’s the biggest trend that will continue to affect how we collaborate.”

Learn more

HCL TECHNOLOGIES

“ Every individual is the CEO of their position” 166

— Eric Cohan, CPO, HCL Technologies

enabling our employees, which was

We had to figure out how to get those

[indirectly an effort to] extend our sup-

machines to the employees’ homes,”

port to customers”. And, just like many

Eric added. Getting those machines

organisations around the world, that

from the office to employees’ homes

led to another question entirely: “How

“only solves one-third of the problem.

do we get our employees the technol-

We had two-thirds of the [workforce]

ogy they need at home. That was the

that didn’t have any technology

big challenge. A lot of our 100k Indian

because we had to choose one person

based employees don’t have their own

to get the desktop. So, we had to go

technology assigned to them.”

and procure a lot of laptops – us and

HCL runs a 24-7 or 24-5 opera-

everybody else in the world. Our cus-

tion, depending on the job role, and

tomers also needed the appropriate

employees “share a desk and [equip-

technology for their employees, which

ment], and they all come in on shifts.

we had to procure on their behalf.”

FEBRUARY 2021

1976

Year founded

$9.95bn Revenue in US dollars

153,085 Number of employees

The rapid adoption of new norms, which many companies collapsed whilst trying to manage, was tough for the greater majority. For HCL though, while there was an obvious strain, their supply chain was already relatively resilient to the effects of the pandemic.

The company successfully procured nearly a hundred thousand laptops and relevant equipment for their own staff as well as their customers’.

“Fortunately, we have a multi-vendor, multi-channel, multi-solution approach to solving a lot of these problems,” Eric told me. “We don’t rely on just one

HCL Microsoft Relationship and Expertise CLICK TO WATCH

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1:31

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Excellence Congratulations HCL Technologies on all of your accomplishments!

We thank you for the great partnership and wish you continued success.

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“ In India, HCL is a huge brand. People know it just as well as CocaCola or Apple. We’re at that level over there - a household name” — Eric Cohan, CPO, HCL Technologies hardware vendor, [nor do we] rely on

they instead choose to streamline the supply chain by finding an all-in-one solution. In hindsight, HCL, through its sophisticated systems, wasn’t overdependent on an individual provider to fuel their business economy.

“All we really needed to do is flex those muscles and leverage all those connections that we’ve already established, in order to put [the correct adjustments] in place.”

one distributor or on one value-added

Not to say that HCL Technologies

reseller. [HCL] has lots of partners

has found the pandemic ‘easy’, but it

globally - be it Dell, HP, Lenovo as

certainly seems to be the case that

OEMs or Insight and Egiss as reseller

the company has acted as a trailblazer

partners, for example.”

and shown organisations across the

We honed in on that particular

globe exactly how they can transform

element; the businesses that have struggled the most in 2020 tend to be those that feature very rigid, robust supply chains of yesteryear - the ones that haven’t yet evolved through the blessings of digital transformation.

HCL had, even prior to COVID-19, a diverse portfolio of suppliers and partners, which allowed them to quickly respond to supply and demand issues.

It’s something that, in many cases, business leaders lament, classing a multi-system as overcomplicated and busi ne ssc hi ef . com

169

HCL TECHNOLOGIES

into agile, resilient stalwarts. Maybe

haven’t.” Organisations were forced to

they’ll release a guidebook one day.

adapt their technological arsenal and

On the question of digital transfor-

adopt new norms and values but “most

mation being accelerated by a decade

of the capabilities that our customers

during 2020, Eric wasn’t so sure. “The

are asking us to develop and accel-

suggestion that we’ve accelerated by

erate are not necessarily, new and

that vast amount of time implies that

innovative; it’s more about how we can

the COVID-19 made us invent futuristic

apply existing technologies to remote-

technologies - in reality, though, we

access purposes. I would say that not

“ HCL had a couple of major themes of issues to deal with, with COVID. One was enabling 170 our employees, which was indirectly an effort to extend our support to customers” — Eric Cohan, CPO, HCL Technologies

FEBRUARY 2021

a lot of innovation has accelerated. It

teams across the globe which allowed

was more about accelerating invest-

them to rapidly respond to the pan-

ments in existing technologies.”

demic, were ultimately beneficial for

Investments can go either way and,

the company. Not just for the ‘boots

in Eric’s case, when HCL released

on the ground’. HCL announced a net

its FY21 second-quarter figures on

income of US$424mn, up 12.7 per cent

the 16th October, it was revealed that

year-on-year - exponential growth in

their prudent financial decisions and

a time period of uncertainty. Naturally,

the nimble mentality he’s instilled in

from an outsider’s perspective, you’d assume that this - alongside the fact that HCL Technologies has been the fastest-growing large technology company globally for four years in a row - would have something to do with the technologies that it has access to.

Speaking of the “technological arsenal”, Eric notioned that it’s neither cloud adoption, digital transformation or next-gen technology that is truly revolutionising the system currently. In response to the suggestion, the CPO stated that “It’s none of those. It’s actually HCL’s business architecture. Our architecture has multiple lines of business - IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-based services, included.” But Eric was quick to clarify that it isn’t the technology itself that is transforming the company - it’s the people in charge of the tech. At HCL Technologies, busi ne ssc hi ef . com

171

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“ We are currently the digital technology partner for both Manchester United and Cricket Australia and have been a highly visible participant at the World Economic Forum, amongst other things. So we get seen, and we’d like to find ways to increase that visibility. That’s the future for us” — Eric Cohan, CPO, HCL Technologies

that they do whatever they think is

there is an ethos that “every individual

wrong; most of the time they go right.

is the CEO of their position”. In a

You have to have a certain amount of

workplace that implements that very

flexibility to find out.

best - which is often the very best for the company too. Sometimes things go

173

modern and unique mindset, there’s

Sinking cash into a diverse and

a degree of freedom within the ranks

dynamic business architecture and

which allows staff to flex their skills in

the subsequent infrastructure is

whichever way they see fit, to ensure

incredibly important in companies of

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

HCL TECHNOLOGIES

the future, especially in an era where employees are heavily focused on development, freedom, and opportunity. “Our business architecture... We have multiple lines of business. So we have all those technologies you mentioned, and we have big bets that we’ve made in those, both organic and inorganic. We’re involved in every industry. If you look at our industry split, it’s not like we’re 80% one industry. Our largest one is less than 25%,” Eric added.

174

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hit, and they were able to put up a very strong, resilient defence against the effects of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. “I don’t think there’s going to be anything massively changing strategically across the next 24-months. However, we will see an increase in our local hiring at both the experienced and entry-level ranks; as such, you’ll see an increase in brand awareness on campuses and other hiring channels.

“In India, HCL is a huge brand.

People know it just as well as CocaWith all of this in mind, it’s clear

Cola or Apple. We’re at that level

that while some industry-leaders are

over there - a household name. In the

focused on implementing certain

Western nations - where most of our

technological elements into their

revenues come from - our custom-

business operations, spreading your

ers and prospects know us, but we

investments across several technolo-

aren’t as well known. We are currently

gies, as well as your human assets

the digital technology partner for

is potentially a wiser move. Create a

both Manchester United and Cricket

wider web and infiltrate all of the mar-

Australia and have been a highly vis-

kets, in other words.

ible participant at the World Economic

Looking to the future, Eric doesn’t

Forum, amongst other things. So we

think that we’ll see HCL Technologies

get seen, and we’d like to find ways

changing its strategies up too much.

to increase that visibility. That’s the

Fortunately, as we now know, the com-

future for us.”

pany had already prepared a diverse supply chain years before COVID-19 busi ne ssc hi ef . com

175

176

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177

Enhancing CX with Digital Supply Chain Solutions WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE busi ne ssc hi ef . com

T–MOBILE US, INC.

Erik LaValle, Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader, explains how digital transformation has helped T–Mobile find innovative market solutions

T

T-Mobile’s presence in the US began in 2002 when Deutsche Telekom (its parent company) acquired and rebranded

VoiceStream Wireless Corporation. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, and currently ranked among the top three largest wireless carriers in the country 178

with over 100 million subscribers, T-Mobile’s dynamic approach to the customer experience is best encapsulated by its ‘un-carrier’ strategy. Officially debuting in 2013, this philosophy saw the company actively seeking to ‘break the rules’ of industry tradition, eliminating everything that has no (or even negative) consequence to the customer, including contracts and international roaming fees.

Far from being an approach siloed in a single aspect of T-Mobile’s business, the spirit of imaginative reinvention permeates every core operational element. Erik LaValle, Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader, explains how the company’s cultural agility has enabled it to address challenging supply requirements during COVID-19 and why delivering a superior customer experience is contingent on flexible digital solutions.

FEBRUARY 2021

179

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Achieve supply chain agility with the experts SCApath is a leader in identifying, designing, and implementing supply chain solutions that enable omnichannel commerce. Our deep expertise connects supply chain strategy with the technology - OMS, WMS, & TMS - required to deliver a seamless, omnichannel customer experience.

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SCApath and T-Mobile: Delivering Omni-Channel Supply Chain Capability Evan McCaig, SCApath President and Managing Principal, explains how it is growing T-Mobile’s digital supply chain platform and supporting its 5G network expansion “We’ve been T-Mobile’s supply chain consulting partner for the last four years, working across multiple supply chain initiatives. The most well-known are the T-Mobile Sprint merger, and T-Mobile 5G network, which is extremely important to the development of IoT and really the supply chain of the future.

Our team of supply chain experts have worked hard to deliver a seamless customer experience, so you can go into a T-Mobile store and buy or return Sprint inventory, and vice versa. We’ve also deployed a highly automated multi-channel distribution center solution for all US mobile devices and accessory fulfilment. We’re currently modernizing their 5G supply chain to drive their network nationwide.

We’re extremely grateful to have been chosen by the T-Mobile team to optimize their supply chain and support their focus on delivering 5G capability.

When I think about our continued partnership with T-Mobile, it’s really about two key strategic elements: supporting their business as they move to a fully digital supply chain platform – from customer experience and enterprise

architecture perspectives – and developing their 5G network supply chain. It’s a perfect example of SCApath’s cross-discipline supply chain expertise, and value of bringing order management, fulfilment and transportation together to build advanced supply chain capability.

The IoT, enabled by 5G, will allow more real time track and trace, and increased visibility from the manufacturer to the end customer enabling more agility than ever before. So, T-Mobile, indirectly, is going to be instrumental in supply chain innovation that we’re going to see in the next five to 10 years.

In today’s complex supply chain and technology environment, you really must understand the trade-offs between speed, cost, quality and agility. It’s critical you understand those relationships to deliver an omni-channel supply chain capability.

The ability to tie together supply chain operations and technology is not only what makes SCApath different but it’s also a necessity for future commerce – and that’s the reason why we’re so bullish and excited about the future.”

T–MOBILE US, INC.

“ We want to be able to do things that no other company can do on behalf of our customers” — Erik LaValle, Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader, T–Mobile Responsible for overseeing an end-to-end technology solutions portfolio across a US$13bn supply chain of more than 8,000 stores for the 182

1994

Year founded

$45.0B+ 2019 Revenue in US dollars

80,000 Number of employees

flagship Magenta brand, over 11,500 stores for the Metro brand, as well as for the build-out of the network itself, LaValle and his team field the techno-

the retail sector, LaValle admits he was

logical requirements associated with

initially unsure why T-Mobile (a telco)

T-Mobile procurement for external

reached out to him. “It was then that

sales and internal consumption. Highly

I learned T-Mobile, in addition to being

experienced both academically and

a telco, really operates as a retailer for the

professionally in his field, LaValle spent

customer experience aspect of obtain-

the first 18 years of his career as an

ing devices and accessories. So much of

industry consultant, which he credits as

the customer experience and the brand

being highly formative, “it’s in my nature

promise comes from its supply chain,

now to look for those big business chal-

and I was very intrigued.” Complimenting

lenges, to understand what the outcome

the company’s “great culture”, which

is intended to be and then to find the

gives employees autonomy, fosters

technology needed to solve that prob-

learning and always offers fun chal-

lem.” Having spent his career primarily in

lenges, LaValle joined in early 2017.

FEBRUARY 2021

183 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Erik LaValle Title: Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader Company: T–Mobile

Industry: Telecommunications

Erik leads Product & Technology for T-Mobile, responsible for the technical solutions as well as the process definition from concept to delivery for device and accessory supply chain, along with procurement, inventory management and distribution and logistics for network supply chain, building out T-Mobile’s 5G network. Erik held similar leadership roles at L Brands and Carter’s OshKosh.

He is a former industry consultant, and approaches challenges balancing the business outcome with appropriate technical solve. Erik is known for his innovative approaches with business partners, and for developing seamless teams with his internal teams and delivery partners busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Telco is going hybrid.

How can you grow a 5G network that’s reliable and fast? With a smarter hybrid cloud approach.

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Delivering the best of IBM Chip Schneider and Glenn Finch from IBM on working with T-Mobile to deliver cognitive process transformation Chip Schneider, partner in IBM Global Business Services (GBS), worked alongside T-Mobile to bring about what he calls a “cognitive process transformation” with data analytics, artificial intelligence and cognitive cloud.

IBM was chosen by T-Mobile as their strategic partner to deliver the programs and projects to propel T-Mobile forward with back-office functions like financing in supply chain.

IBM has been a partner with Sprint for a number of years so when T-Mobile and Sprint merged last year, it was an opportunity for IBM to showcase their expertise.

Schneider is enthused when discussing the working relationship between IBM and T-Mobile, saying there is “always an air of excitement” and “they’re so willing to listen”.

“T-Mobile asked us to make the work we do for them ‘palatable and meaningful’,” says Schneider.

“That means bringing industry leadership, functional leadership in finance, supply chain customer management, and the technical aspects of hybrid cloud, cognitive and machine learning, data intelligent workflows, and blockchain. We had to make sure it’s not just us talking to them, but us working together with them.”

Of course, the benefits of a close, collaborative relationship like this work for both parties, especially when digital transformation is accelerated by a pandemic.

“That changed everything,” adds Glenn Finch, Global Leader Big Data & Analytics at IBM.

“2020 was a matter of survival for most companies with a focus on business continuity and cost reduction. So you saw this radical growth in back office transformation, in front office transformation, and then this this unprecedented growth in data.

We are a hybrid cloud and AI company. That’s exactly what the market wants right now.”

Finch explains how companies were faced with a critical cloud decision and turned to IBM as a trusted, reliable partner.

“When clients were having to bet their careers, they bet on us,” says Finch. “When we go into a process and we drive a bunch of AI into it, we’re shrinking cycle time by 80 to 90%, we’re cutting costs by 50 to 60%, and NPS scores are going up by 10 to 20 points. Sometimes clients think that can’t be right as it sounds too good to be true.”

Schneider emphasises the importance T-Mobile placed on not only transforming the technology but also empowering individuals.

“T-Mobile are hyper focused on ensuring that not only their customers feel the human connection, but also employees,” says Schneider. “And so our job is to take the data – internal and external – and present it back to them and say, ‘Hey, here’s what I found’. It’s really like building a colleague for them to help drive their strategic decisions on their supply chain.” ibm.com/hybridcloud

T–MOBILE US, INC.

“ Digital transformation has been very meaningful to T-Mobile” — Erik LaValle, Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader, T–Mobile Naturally curious and a problem solver, LaValle finds the behind-the-scenes complexities of supply chain to be 186

fascinating. Stating that the importance of logistics to enabling T-Mobile’s high-quality customer experience really resonated with him, he adds that the company’s agile attitude has been key to weathering the substantial changes that supply chains have undergone in recent years. “As US businesses began to do more offshore sourcing and supply chains became longer, the need for facilitated communication and a shared understanding of the intended outcomes was very important. As that shift began to happen, then came the emphasis on product development, which, with the proliferation of the internet, placed the emphasis on product development FEBRUARY 2021

and the creative process.” This also brought technology to the fore, and in this respect, T-Mobile has undergone a significant transformation.

“When I first joined T-Mobile, there was very little in the way of digital solutions.

We were a monolithic,” LaValle explains.

“That made for a very complex environment that really wasn’t flexible or tailored for our business’ needs.” As such, his first challenge was serializing T-Mobile’s inventory over an 18-month period to develop a digital platform. Having subsequently rolled this out to great success, LaValle calls this the “founding element” of the company’s digital strategy. “I see more change at T-Mobile in the short-term. Both the volume and the magnitude of these changes will be significantly greater than I have seen in any other industry,” he states. This is a bold statement, particularly in the wake of COVID-19, which has seen many organizations make years of accelerated development in a remarkably condensed period. Yet, he affirms that T-Mobile’s status as the ‘un-carrier’ will always give it an edge over competitors: “We want to be able to do things that no other company can do on behalf of our customers.” busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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Connecting People “We’re focused on empowering our people and connecting them with the best opportunities; while supporting our customers with staffing and services solutions,” pledges Jessica Calzaretta, the Vice President of Insight’s Global Technology Division. “We support thousands of different customers, spanning every major industry, offering staff augmentation and supply managed services, culture consulting and training ranging from diversity and inclusion to talent optimization. At its core, Insight Global is driven by its consultants who give them purpose, the clients who fuel their drive and the IG family who inspire others every day with their determination, passion and care.”

Digital Transformation Providing staffing for their digital transformation, T-Mobile is one of Insight’s largest customers.

“We deliver a range of technical resources supporting them across all of their locations in North America,” confirms Calzaretta. “The skill sets we staff for companies like T-Mobile range across high-level technical resources supporting agile transformation efforts; project managers, scrum masters, agile coaches, and everything in between.”

Compass In April 2020 Insight Global launched its culture consulting division Compass, responding to the importance of company culture in these difficult times. It was built to help clients get centered on values and align them with their business strategy to create massive trust and connectedness along the way.

“Our culture and shared values have been our true north that have grounded and guided every decision we make, especially when focused on meeting the

Jessica Calzaretta of Insight Global everyday challenges of supporting our people and clients during the global pandemic,” says Calzaretta.

The demand for a flexible workforce capable of pivoting to meet demand has surged dramatically over the past 12 months prompting Insight Global to launch its Global Healthcare division she explains: “We can now better support those industries and customers with everything from different types of patient care resources and the coordinators and support personnel who can step in and provide help to those in need during this difficult time when the demand for a contingent workforce has increased overnight.”

Investing in the Future Allied to its commitment to retaining staff during the pandemic, Insight Global is investing in its employees through training and promotion. “Our shared values are core to who we are as a company,” maintains Calzaretta.

Insight Global’s team is 70% female and the company remains committed to making women “amazing leaders”. Its Women’s Leadership Council creates programs and communities to empower and support women throughout their careers; leading the company to be recognized among the Best Workplaces for Women in 2020 by Fortune & Great Place to Work.

“We help them bring their perspective to the table,” says Calzaretta. “This informs decisions we make across our business to advance the role of women within our organization.” insightglobal.com

T-MOBILE US, INC.

Partnering for success LaValle makes it clear that, in his opinion, who a company chooses to partner with can have a substantial effect on overall success.

Aside from the ‘table stakes’ of technical knowledgea, market success and trust, T-Mobile is looking for collaborators who are willing to challenge and elevate the company’s current standards.

190

Complimenting T-Mobile’s “great ecosystem of partners”, he states that relationships developed with IBM, Rimini Street, Insight Global, and SCA Path, each of which play different (yet interconnected) roles, have been particularly important:

FEBRUARY 2021

IBM: “IBM is our key partner for operations support, as well as development around our core ERP (enterprise resource planning).

The firm fields a very large team, a combination of onshore, nearshore, and offshore professional resources that are helping to advance our operations stance. T-Mobile has a stable performance solution, but with IBM we are really taking it to the next level, moving to a continuous delivery stance, and looking for even more robust performance and stability.”

Rimini Street: “Rimini Street provides our third-party support for SAP and has been helping us in highly challenging areas to keep SAP performance stable.”

Insight Global: “Insight Global is a partner that helps us in our digital spaces. It’s been a fantastic partner in terms of sourcing talent for T-Mobile, both in terms of technical skills and business skills. It’s a flexible and responsive company. We have been so pleased with our partnership; the resources they bring to the table for us are consistent and it’s an integral part of our team.”

SCA Path: “SCA Path has become a very trusted advisor. It’s a boutique consulting firm that focuses on distribution, logistics and order management. Using a stable of extremely experienced and pragmatic professionals, SCA Path helps us solve some of our most challenging problems by leveraging their deep industry experience in the industry. It’s been transformative in changing our relationship with our business partners.” busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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“ It’s in my nature now to look for those big is paramount for T-Mobile and it is business challenges, willing to invest the time, money and talent required to keep it exceptional. to understand what the Recent events have certainly changed outcome is intended to the expectation - from the historically be and then to find the store-focused experience to the digital, technology needed to web-based experience - but success solve that problem” is ultimately measured the same way: This statement gets to the heart of

the matter; the customer experience

providing the customers with the service they want. “Buy online and pick up in-store, same-day delivery, and special delivery options are all components that

— Erik LaValle, Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader, T–Mobile

are powered mostly by supply chain; it’s

Erik Lavalle @ T-Mobile CLICK TO WATCH

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1:03

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T–MOBILE US, INC.

really stepping up to be a partner with digital properties and with retail to be the third major component in the overall customer experience.” COVID has pushed forward T-Mobile’s plans in this regard, including buy online/pick up in-store, contactless and curbside delivery, and same-day delivery. “Customers can now have options to get their product where, when and how they want to get it,” he summarizes.

With such a decisive stance on the issue, LaValle makes it clear that pre194

existing solutions are often not enough to realize T-Mobile’s vision. Instead, the company opts for in-house business process design to bring specificity and relevance to its customers. “Digital

the earliest inception of new initiatives,

transformation enables that flexibility

LaValle says that his team is able to

and ability to achieve exactly what the

gain a deep understanding of desired

business is looking for, instead of some-

business outcomes that helps to define

thing that comes pre-configured from

product options.

a partner vendor.” T-Mobile considers

At the beginning of 2020, no-one

its supply chain solutions to be truly

at T-Mobile could have predicted the

meaningful, an attitude that is integral to

sweeping changes that have affected

producing optimal outcomes. Creating

national and international supply chains.

a bespoke solution might be more chal-

With the March lockdown soon followed

lenging than selecting a ready-made

by the completion of the company’s

option, but by forging strong partner-

merger with Sprint Corporation in April,

ships and “sitting at the table” from

LaValle says that the added challenge

FEBRUARY 2021

“ I see more change at T-Mobile in the short-term. Both the volume and the magnitude of these changes will be significantly greater than I have seen in any other industry” — Erik LaValle, Digital Supply Chain Technology Leader, T–Mobile

of integrating two separate supply

but new technology such as T-Mobile’s

chains into a single ecosystem has

rapidly expanding 5G network will play

been difficult, although nothing has

an essential role in realizing its ambition.

impeded T-Mobile’s quest for a bet-

“Digital transformation has been very

ter customer experience. “Going into

meaningful to T-Mobile. My encour-

2021, I think there are three things we’re

agement to anyone would be to pick

going to focus on: internal transforma-

one of your most challenging areas

tion to become a more unified company,

and just get started.”

transformation around our customer experience, and finally our ongoing digital evolution,” he summarizes. The usual pressures of meeting expectations and delivering value will remain, busi ne ssc hi ef . com

195

196

Experimenting With Technology in The Lab at MSUFCU WRITTEN BY

PADDY SMITH

FEBRUARY 2021

PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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MSU FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

MSU Federal Credit Union has launched The Lab at MSUFCU, a testing program for rapid development of technology solutions. But it’s so much more

F

or Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), The Lab at MSUFCU is a testing ground for future

technologies and a representation of how traditional finance houses are keeping in step with fintechs.

MSUFCU’s venture into an incubator format for proving new technologies goes beyond stuffing a 198

bunch of engineers into a room and hoping they’ll create the next unicorn. In fact, it supports startups who can offer technology partnerships and brings the most successful ones to pilot stage, while training its own team to work with the new technology.

MSUFCU gets to test the product, the partnership and its own team on a journey that goes from inception to implementation. But The Lab was not born overnight.

“The Lab is a combination of years of organic innovation formalized into a place to experiment with different fintechs and innovative companies and talk about those experiments, and get our members involved early on,” says Ben Maxim, assistant vice president of digital strategy and innovation at MSUFCU.

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“ The Lab is a combination of years of organic innovation formalized into a place to experiment with different fintechs and innovative companies and talk about those experiments, and get our members involved early on” — Ben Maxim, Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation at MSUFCU

The idea is that the process is “without fear” and to ensure that, unlike previously, potential partners do not feel pressure to present products that are “fully polished”.

200

“What we’re doing with The Lab is finding fintechs that offer niche services that make sense for a small portion of our membership. We try them out in a small pilot for a couple of months to experiment with and test it from our business perspective, looking at the ROI of what that relationship could be,” adds Maxim.

It also acts as a training ground for employees. “We have some of our experts from IT, including our development team. We have our UX team that helps us build out the prototypes, but then we pull in people identified as forward-thinking in their areas, those who are also looking for FEBRUARY 2021

an opportunity to share their experi-

Not only are employees brought

ences. We have people from our call

into The Lab to contribute ideas and

center from our branch network, from

encourage innovation, they also vote

our accounting team, and several

on which projects should make it to

other departments. The combination

the pilot stage.

of diverse experience helps us look

The desire to innovate, Maxim

at the different solutions holistically.

admits, has been driven by a change in

“We’re also looking to gather and

member behavior. Where once people

nurture employee ideas as well. We

came to the university and felt it made

have an internal program within The

sense to “check out the branch near

Lab called CU Innovate where we

campus”, the rise of fintech super-

solicit ideas from our employees,”

stars, such as Chime or PayPal, has

said Maxim.w

introduced competition, and the large 201

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Ben Maxim Title: Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation Company: Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) Benjamin Maxim joined MSU Federal Credit Union in 2007 and currently serves as Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation.

He is responsible for assessing emerging business trends and technologies, facilitating innovation throughout the Credit Union, and providing strategic direction for existing and future digital channels. Maxim began work initially as a Web Developer and in 2014, he became E-Commerce Manager before moving into roles including Assistant Vice President of Programming and Development and Assistant Vice President of Software Development. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Preventing Online Fraud Dynamic CVV2 for Credit, Debit, and Prepaid Cards Start preventing the majority of online Card Not Present fraud, today. Keyno is dynamic security that can be easily added to all Visa cards. Keyno provides a dynamic CVV2 (CVVkeyTM) on your phone that replaces the static CVV2 on your card.The dynamic CVV2 validates on VisaNet during the transaction and is compatible with your existing card processing.

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Keyno: Advanced Fraud Prevention for Digital Finance Ben Maxim, Assistant Vice President at MSUFCU, outlines why his company chose Keyno’s dynamic CVVkeyTM product to bolster online security While fraudsters have been working overtime during the COVID-19 pandemic developing new and more aggressive ways to hack online merchants and customers, Keyno was collaborating with Visa and perfecting its CVVkey technology. This innovation replaces the static three-digit security code on the back of a credit card with a continually changing code delivered to cardholders’ smartphones, similar to Google Authenticator.

Keyno’s solution is not only easy to implement, it’s also risk-free for banks and credit unions. CVVkey is available as a standalone branded/white-label mobile app, or as a software development kit (SDK) plug-in to a credit union/bank’s mobile app.

Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU), which recently launched its own innovation center, The Lab at MSUFCU, is the first financial institution to trial Keyno’s fraud prevention solution.

Knowing Keyno is collaborating with Visa, Ben Maxim, Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation, moved forward with a pilot, offering CVVkey to an initial group of 1,000 MSUFCU members. The results are very promising. Maxim says MSUFCU plans to widen the pilot, especially since members who were not part of the initial group are asking if they can participate.

“I’m very proud that MSUFCU is the first financial institution to step up and address the growing problem of digital payment fraud with a truly innovative technology that credit unions, banks,

merchants and cardholders can all easily implement and use,” says Maxim. “We think dynamic security codes represent our best bet to drastically reduce CNP fraud, and we’re very encouraged by the results thus far. Keyno’s CVVkey is an effective technology that we can offer to our members quickly, at a time when preventing online fraud is so critically important. We hope other credit unions and banks embrace Keyno’s technology as well.

Keyno is simply an excellent company to work with.”

Adds Maxim: “We see this as an exciting opportunity for both our employees and members to be part of a payments innovation. We want to be on the front end of technology, and it’s important for us to be ahead of the game when it comes to fighting fraud. Every dollar lost to fraud is a dollar less we can spend on improving our programs and helping our members.”

MSU FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

MSU Federal Credit Union: Inspiring Hope CLICK TO WATCH

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1:44

204 national banks (themselves heavily

“We have a couple projects in the

investing in fintech companies and

works that will target people while

developers) promote customer loyalty

they’re still in school, providing educa-

from parent to child.

tion and other related topics, and how

“We’re trying to compete with that

to ensure you have a solid financial

and help consumers understand

footing coming out of school. We want

what we offer them and how we can

to have offerings that are available to

set them up for successful financial

everyone, then also personalize them

futures,” says Maxim.

so they do hit those markets.”

Currently under pilot are Keyno, a

Maxim started in this role at

fraud prevention tool, Pocketnest™,

MSUFCU in January 2020, after 12

a financial wellness dashboard, and

years on the software development

ChangEd, for paying off student

team for the credit union and set out

loans early through a transaction

reading. He read a book by Eric Ries

round up feature.

called The Startup Way, which along

FEBRUARY 2021

with Ries’ The Lean Startup, is core

up being any opportunity – or ROI –

reading for the Silicon Valley set. He

that comes from it.

was captivated by the idea of entre-

“So we’re either getting something

preneurship within organizations, then

out of it or we’re showing ourselves

following the process of getting buy-in

that this isn’t the right thing to do

from internal stakeholders, raising

because our members don’t want it or

funds, recruiting a team and so on.

the ROI is just not there,” added Maxim.

“A lot of [The Lab] is modelled on the

The program has transformed the

principles in those books and really

speed of testing dramatically. POP/io,

trying to avoid what’s been coined as

a video banking company, had been

‘innovation theatre’ where you spend

lurking near MSUFCU’s project board

the money on some fancy room or

for 18 months before being thrust into

fancy building and then come up with

The Lab. “We were up and running in

all these ideas but there doesn’t end

five weeks,” says Maxim.

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MSU FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

“ So we’re either getting something out of it or we’re showing ourselves that this isn’t the right thing to do because our members don’t want it or the ROI is just not there” 206

— Ben Maxim, Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation at MSUFCU Tim Mielak, MSUFCU’s chief informa-

With advances in the complexity of

tion security officer, has also enjoyed

attacks being met by increasing lay-

the organization’s newfound agility. “The

ers of security, is it becoming easier

Lab has really caused us to look at our

to fend off threats, or much harder?

security review process. A traditional,

“It’s getting harder in new ways,” says

classic security review process is really

Mielak, “and easier in the old ways.”

a gate, so we’ve had to develop over the

“It’s the new avenues of security that

past year in anticipation of doing this sort

are going to start challenging us. And

of innovation. We started to build out

I’ll give you a great example which

security systems that could rapidly adapt

is artificial intelligence. AI is the buz-

to the requirements of an innovation

zword. That’s true for products, but

lab.” The new process allows projects to

it’s also true for security. Imagine a

move quickly through the security proto-

future in, let’s say, five years where

cols “without being reckless”.

security is entirely based on artificial

FEBRUARY 2021

207

intelligentence bots combating each

time making sure that we’ve properly

other and trying to outmaneuver

calibrated our security program to the

one another. That’s technology we

threats that we actually face, anywhere

haven’t even really dreamed of yet.

from run of the mill phishing all the way

It’s more conceptual. We have to

up to nation state threat actors.”

embrace it, as a security department, along the same lines as The Lab.

MSUFCU is also embracing digital transformation. “It’s one of our main

“We have to embrace innovation,

focuses right now, coming out of

outside-the-box thinking, and secu-

COVID,” says Maxim, “and as part

rity to try and not just support those

of that we had our business analyst

efforts for our members, but also make

team go through each of our business

sure we stay one step ahead of the

domains and share their ideas for how

threat actors who are evolving in their

we can improve procedures and pro-

own right. And so, we spend a lot of

cesses that were manual. We are also busi ne ssc hi ef . com

The Art of the Nudge Larky turns mobile banking apps into real-time conversions Gregg Hammerman started Larky based on an epiphany: why shouldn’t the organizations we engage with regularly be able to communicate with us at just the right moment?

He recognized that consumer expectations and behavior have evolved, driven not only by the shift to doing things remotely, but also by the strategies of companies that have mastered the digital space— Spotify, Netflix, Amazon.

These platforms provide added value through features like end-of-year reports, movie recommendations based on your watch history, and “like” purchase suggestions, deepening the customer relationship. They sync with your life outside of their platforms.

Larky has taken this idea of blending into a user’s everyday life and run with it. Their functionality easily integrates with mobile banking apps to engage with users at different touch points throughout their day. Using lock screen notifications, Larky can guide people to offers, promotions, local events, and information relevant to their unique needs in that moment.

MSU Federal Credit Union identified a powerful way to use

Larky’s technology to engage with their members: “We have a loyalty program where we work with local merchants who will give you a discount if you use a MSUFCU debit/credit card.

Larky helps us remind people to take advantage of those.” —Ben Maxim, Assistant VP of Digital Strategy & Innovation, MSUFCU People have a lot of options when it comes to banking, and it’s hard to stand out. Larky works with a diverse selection of community financial institutions to help them showcase the unique services they provide. Maxim recognizes the potential for their partnership to expand and innovate, helping them stand apart from the competition: “Beyond the geolocation and personalization, we’re working with Larky to figure out credit card fraud detection and prevention.

Future possibilities are out there.

They have an established product, which is great, but what else can we do with them? For one, we’re looking into gamification of different interactions within our digital accounts. Larky is fully open to that, and I look forward to where we might go.”

MSU FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

“ Imagine a future in, let’s say, five years where security is entirely based on artificial intelligentence bots combating each other and trying to outmaneuver one another” — Tim Mielak, MSUFCU’s Chief Information Security Officer

210

FEBRUARY 2021

looking at how we can improve efficiencies through automation or custom AI solutions from the front line all the way to the back office. We’re also really trying to improve our digital presence.”

The credit union is keenly aware that almost a third of its members live too far away to make regular in-person visits to a branch, notwithstanding another pandemic lockdown or other unforeseen event.

“People have adapted to interacting with us digitally, and they don’t come through the traditional channels with the same frequency as previously. We don’t see as many in the branch every Friday to deposit their paychecks, because they do it with eDeposit; we don’t have as many people calling in to check balances because they do that on the mobile app, and they can get text message alerts,” said Maxim.

This is the bedrock from which MSUFCU hopes to accelerate using The Lab. And that initiative has proven a testing ground not only for technologies but also for partnerships, such as with the fraud prevention tool Keyno.

Maxim explains, “They’ve been working on a product for a couple of years busi ne ssc hi ef . com

211

Conversational AI Built for Credit Unions

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Benjamin Maxim Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation, MSUFCU

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Exceptional customer experience and lightning-fast deployment, with no AI expertise necessary We know that no one understands your members better than you do. That’s why our conversational AI platform is designed from the ground up to put your member services team in the driver’s seat.

We use proprietary self-learning conversational AI to repurpose data from websites, chat logs and chatbots into superior virtual agents that delight members through dynamic self-service interactions.

With the industry’s largest library of credit union-specific content, our no-code solution makes it easy to train and maintain an AI-powered virtual agent that leverages employee expertise without the need for data scientists or external consultants.

Our market-leading Natural Language Understanding (NLU) gives our virtual agents consistent resolution rates of 90% - in 25 languages - making it possible to deliver that ‘personal touch’ your members expect to direct messaging channels.

With boost.ai, you get: A fully-opterational virtual agent, built using self-learning conversational AI, ready to deploy in less than one week Software that’s easy to learn and use, putting the power of automation into the hands of your member services team Unlimited scalability. Handle 10,000+ intents while maintaining a 90% resolution rate thanks to our enterprise-grade NLU

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MSU FEDERAL CREDIT UNION

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“ People have adapted to interacting with us digitally, and they don’t come through the traditional channels with the same frequency as previously” — Ben Maxim, Assistant Vice President of Digital Strategy and Innovation at MSUFCU FEBRUARY 2021

and have made some traction, and they were looking for a first client. We had a call and I instantly knew that this was something we wanted to explore.

Keyno is one of our first pilots as part of The Lab. They had a ready-made pilot program set up where they had the technology built, but they needed some actual cardholders to try it with.”

As testing rolls out to more cardholders, and the fourth quarter crunch for big ticket purchases comes along, MSUFCU is “already looking at how it can reduce fraud

become certified Boost.ai trainers. We were able to build out the content and train the model in 10 days and then test it with a group of 60 individuals.” User satisfaction reached almost 100% over the ensuing four weeks. Through the pilot, we determined we could automate approximately 2,000 employee-toemployee interactions each month.

“We decided this was a company we wanted to move forward with and we’re currently scaling that out. We’re learning AI. Yes, there’s technology involved, but a lot of it has to do with the content, the training, business flow, and business process.” as a way to gain back some of the

The Lab, which only officially launched

revenue we lost during the first few

in autumn 2020, is already creating

months of COVID, and set us up

alchemical results for MSUFCU. As the

moving forward in terms of revenue.”

credit union looks to 2021 and beyond, it

Boost.ai is another key partner, ena-

can look forward to seeing the reaction.

bling the credit union’s chatbot to take over simple inquiries while MSUFCU employees help members with more complex inquiries.

“With the virtual assistant, you get more consistent answers across the board,” says Maxim. “We did a pilot with Boost.ai and we asked individuals from our team with no experience to busi ne ssc hi ef . com

215

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FEBRUARY 2021

City of Hamilton:

Technology for Growth

WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

217

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

CITY OF HAMILTON

Cyrus Tehrani, Chief Digital Officer at the City of Hamilton, on the city’s extensive digital programmes and the benefits they have provided through COVID-19

C

yrus Tehrani is Chief Digital Officer at the City of Hamilton, a role which attracted him due to its unusual speci-

fications. “They were filling a Chief Digital Officer role and looking to do some creative things. Many cities don’t have CDOs yet and the opportunity to 218

help shape the direction of digital transformation was what attracted me to the role. ” Despite the ‘Digital’ in his job title, Tehrani’s influence extends beyond that domain. “It’s a bit of an odd portfolio in the sense of a CDO per se, where my focus isn’t solely on the digital service channel deliveries that the city has.”

Instead, Tehrani oversees a diverse portfolio based around digital transformation as well as being a champion to promote the digital transformation occurring across the wide range of services the city provides. “That involves looking at processes both internally and externally. For instance, our digital communication team is in the midst of a project to completely refresh our website, ensuring it’s multilingual and in-line with new web standards

FEBRUARY 2021

1846

Year founded

8,300 Number of employees

219

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CITY OF HAMILTON

“ My focus isn’t solely on the digital service channel deliveries that the city has” — Cyrus Tehrani, Chief Digital Officer, City of Hamilton

for those with disabilities.” Other initiatives include corporate partnerships and standing up additional digital services to give people the ability to interact with the city across multimodal channels. “We’ve launched a digital online engagement platform where we can put up projects and have people interact with them and give us feedback on those projects - which has been really great due to COVID and the inherent limitations on in-person engagement activities.”

220

A significant part of Tehrani’s role sees him overseeing smart city initiatives, partnerships as well as innovation. The city recently introduced a transit app to make it easier to plan trips thanks to estimated arrival times and trip planning functionality. “Our transit division worked with the software developer that creates our scheduling and transit management systems, which were already pretty advanced. Bus stops have phone number where you could text to get detailed route information, and we have an interactive voice system where you could call in and get information but the new app further FEBRUARY 2021

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Cyrus Tehrani Title: Chief Digital Officer

Company: City of Hamilton

Industry: Government Location: Ontario, Canada Cyrus Tehrani is Chief Digital Officer at the City of Hamilton, a role which attracted him due to its unusual specifications. “They were filling a Chief Digital Officer role and looking to do some creative things. Many cities don’t have CDOs yet and the opportunity to help shape the direction of digital transformation was what attracted me to the role. ” Despite the ‘Digital’ in his job title, Tehrani’s influence extends beyond that domain.

“It’s a bit of an odd portfolio in the sense of a CDO per se, where my focus isn’t solely on the digital service channel deliveries that the city has.”

Instead, Tehrani oversees a diverse portfolio based around digital transformation as well as being a champion to promote the digital transformation occurring across the wide range of services the city provides. “That involves looking at processes both internally and externally. For instance, our digital communication team is in the midst of a project to completely refresh our website, ensuring it’s multilingual and in-line with new web standards for those with disabilities.” Other initiatives include corporate partnerships and standing up additional digital services to give people the ability to interact with the city across multimodal channels. “We’ve launched a digital online engagement platform where we can put up projects and have people interact with them and give us feedback on those projects - which has been really great due to COVID and the inherent limitations on in-person engagement activities.”

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Nokia Future X cities We’re ready to help you take a new and more cohesive approach to realize the full benefits of your smart city initiatives. We put innovative technologies, financing, contracting models and ecosystems at work for a comprehensive and scalable digital transformation, that fuels the city economic and social growth.

We connect your city to its future.

www.nokia.com/networks/future-x-cities

Nokia and the City of Hamilton: smart city innovations Nokia Canada’s Shawn Sparling, VP Enterprise and Public Sector, discusses the company’s smart city work with the City of Hamilton “Our ambition as a company is to create an inclusive, digital world,” says Shawn Sparling, VP Enterprise and Public Sector at Nokia Canada.

Achieving that requires network connectivity, something in which the company is a specialist.

“We look at networks as foundational to bringing that inclusiveness to the world, whether we’re talking about smart cities or rural areas. That’s especially true in today’s world, where our technology is helping communities secure access to healthcare and education.”

different applications. “It was a very siloed world before. Now what we’re doing is really looking at leveraging data into an integrated operations command and control centre. Leveraging those open assets while of course remaining secure.”

Automation is another area growing in importance.

“With that complexity, we need to start to automate so we can react more quickly. We can take information from four or five devices and have the system make a decision or notify an operator as to what might be happening.”

In recent times, Sparling has seen the industry shift towards more efficient and greener solutions, alongside a move towards virtualization. “This creates complexity but also enables a quicker turnaround to new solutions. With technology changing so fast we’re focused on creating cities that are connected and smart, while simultaneously being safer and more efficient.”

Another trend is the move towards operational simplification. “One of the things we’ve done is make it simple enough that with very easy training, you can take a piece of equipment, plug it in, turn it on, bring it up and operate that network within 10 minutes. Something that previously took weeks is now a 10-minute exercise to have a 4G or 5G wireless network fully up and running.

Going forward, the uptake in smart city solutions is only set to accelerate. “It’s an exciting time to be in the industry, and we’ve enjoyed working with the City of Hamilton to bring innovative technology that will serve to make the community a safer and more efficient place.”

It is precisely this impetus that has driven Nokia to partner with the City of Hamilton. “We’re outcome-based, so the question really was: what do they need? What are the issues that they’re facing as the city? Whether it’s air quality, traffic, or responsiveness to health emergencies.”

Sparling anticipates that next generation to be driven by sensors which can be repurposed for

CITY OF HAMILTON

224

enhances the service experience for

engage them with surveys and pro-

our transit riders.” Also implemented

vide them with a timeline and visibility

have been measures to further simplify

of who’s listening to their concerns.”

the experience of citizens, with digital

Another important issue for a city

payment solutions at parking meters

of Hamilton’s size and mix of urban,

and upgraded digital library selections.

suburban and rural environments is

Enhancements to city digital ser-

internet access, especially in the age

vices delivery is prioritized based on

of COVID-19, and it has subsequently

value to citizens as Tehrani explains.

embarked on a broadband survey to

“We’ve launched an online engagement

identify connectivity requirements.

platform, where people can pin places

Tehrani affirms that the ethos behind

on a map, if they’re talking about a park

such initiatives is all about getting

for instance, and tell us what features

people to better interact with the

they do or don’t like. From that, we can

city. “It’s not necessarily about the

FEBRUARY 2021

“ We can provide a timeline and visibility of who’s listening to their concerns” — Cyrus Tehrani, Chief Digital Officer, City of Hamilton

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CITY OF HAMILTON

shiniest technology solutions. It’s more about making sure you improve the processes around how people engage with the city.”

The digital measures and programmes already in place were undoubtedly beneficial in the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including keeping the wheels of democracy turning. “The city was able to move quickly to virtual council meetings, virtual committee meetings,” says Tehrani. “We worked closely with our 226

local network provider, a local cable channel and with our IT group to be able to have all of our counselors meet and vote virtually on a virtual voting platform and conduct meetings via Webex.” Among its other responses to the virus was a partnership between the city, the public library, two school boards and its regional innovation centre. “That involved collecting up all of the 3D printers that were present across those organisations and setting them up at the central library branch. This resulted in a lab of 25

“ We’ve gone from, historically, a mostly manufacturing-based economy to a mix of technology, life sciences, creative industries, goods movement, agribusiness and food processing, tourism and advanced manufacturing” — Cyrus Tehrani, Chief Digital Officer, City of Hamilton

to 30 devices printing PPE face shields, which were then distributed and provided back to the city and then also distributed out to agencies in need.”

The city’s initiatives are supported by the work of trusted partners, including Nokia, which support’s the city’s connected and autonomous vehicle innovation test bed. “That’s a part of our Center for Integrated Transportation and Mobility, which sits on a private LTE network that is supported by Nokia, including the network core itself.”

There is a lot of innovation also occurring in the city including the busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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CITY OF HAMILTON

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“ The city was able to move quickly to virtual council meetings, virtual committee meetings” — Cyrus Tehrani, Chief Digital Officer, City of Hamilton

McMaster Innovation Park. “It’s under

hotel space, and room for a broad mix

development and continues to grow,

of startups, SMBs and more estab-

but in terms of square footage, it will

lished companies. It’s literally an entire

be one of the largest of its kind in

city block.”

North America,” says Tehrani. The

That’s very much in line with the

idea behind the park is in converting

city’s vision for the future, having his-

research projects into commercialisa-

torically been an industrial steel town.

tion. “It will have conference space,

“Hamilton has really diversified its

FEBRUARY 2021

the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of 2020 by the Intelligent Community Forum. “That looks at several economic domains such as connectivity, work and innovation as well as social and cultural growth such as engagement, inclusion and sustainability. It’s with the idea of moving from a view of ‘smart’ cities, which might be a little bit more focused on the technology side of things, to a more holistic view of the programmes that a city and partner institutions deliver.”

Going forwards, Tehrani is focused on continuing to improve digital means of service delivery, as people become accustomed to multimodal delivery common to tech companies.

“Everything we do is underlined with the aim of using technology with the goal of supporting ease of access to service delivery and the economic economy,” says Tehrani. “We’ve gone

growth of the community,“ he says.

from, historically, a mostly heavy manufacturing-based economy to a mix of technology, life sciences, creative industries, goods movement, agribusiness and food processing, tourism and advanced manufacturing.” Hamilton has duly been recognised as among busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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FEBRUARY 2021

TECHNOLOGY FOR STUDENT SUCCESS WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

231

PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

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DALLAS COLLEGE

Timothy J. Marshall, Chief Innovation Officer at Dallas College, discusses its implementation of technologies including blockchain and cloud

T

imothy J. Marshall is Chief Innovation Officer at Dallas County Community College, an educational institution which

teaches over 80,000 students per term. It’s a role that involves more than just managing technology.

“I’m involved with our college’s strategic partnerships with local workforce providers. Dallas is the 232

home of many Fortune 500 Headquarters - in particular American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Texas Instruments and AT&T. We have relationships with those organizations to help train their students, and we also work a lot with local service agencies. Many of our students are below the poverty line, so we help them with access to healthcare, food and transportation. We’ve created a lot of programs that use technology to provide those things - for instance, all of our qualified students now get a free bus and local light rail transportation pass.”

Marshall oversees a staff of around 290 people, and emphasizes that technology is in service of a greater goal. “Our team is working on things like infrastructure or databases or ERP systems. But

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we have to make sure we’re not just

actionable at a college or university.

doing technology for technology’s

Though I don’t have that oversight

sake. That’s why we have very specific

here, I work really closely with that

goals for the institution with regards to

department. We never know when

student services and student success.”

we’re going to need a specific piece

Ensuring that technology does the

of data, so my mindset is to grab hold

most good requires a good grasp

of as much of it as possible. Even if

of data. Thanks to extensive experi-

I’m going to put it aside for a month or

ence in the education sector (and

two months or a year, I’m going to take

having been to community college

advantage of it eventually.”

himself), he understands how vital

The benefits of pursuing that volume

that is. “Institutional Research teams

of data are also felt directly by stu-

are typically where the data becomes

dents, as Marshall explains. “We have

234

FEBRUARY 2021

“ We have to make sure we’re not just doing technology for technology’s sake” — Timothy J. Marshall, Chief Innovation Officer, Dallas County Community College

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Timothy Marshall Title: Chief Innovation Officer

235

Company: Dallas County Community College Timothy J. Marshall is Chief Innovation Officer at Dallas College, an educational institution which teaches over 80,000 students per term.

It’s a role that involves more than just managing technology.

“I’m involved with our college’s strategic partnerships with local workforce providers. Dallas is the home of many Fortune 500 Headquarters - in particular American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, AT&T and Texas Instruments. We have relationships with those organizations to help train their students, and we also work a lot with local service agencies. Many of our students are below the poverty line, so we help them with access to healthcare, food and transportation. We’ve created a lot of programs that use technology to provide those things - for instance, all of our students now get a free bus and local light rail transportation pass.”

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Partnering to solve seemingly impossible challenges.

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College Selects Strategic Partner to Design for Poverty-Free Future Dallas College finds bold synergy with CampusWorks and taps unmatched expertise to drive transformation, think differently, and embrace the possibilities created by change.

Doing what’s best for clients is what motivates CampusWorks.

Since 1999, it’s delivered unmatched leadership expertise to institutions of all shapes and sizes, increasing institutional effectiveness and enhancing the student experience. A relentless drive to solve systemic challenges and create the conditions required for lasting change has earned CampusWorks a reputation for being bold – something that made Dallas College take notice.

College leadership aimed to eradicate poverty in the region. An audacious goal, Chief Innovation Officer Tim Marshall saw an opportunity for transformation as practical requirements came into focus: consolidating the seven institutions, creating the foundation for a single enterprise technology platform, and reimagining ‘student success’. Having found a synergy with CampusWorks, the independent firm was engaged.

Attentively digging in, CampusWorks set out to align the College’s people, processes, information, and technology for the future. But Chief Executive Officer and Board Chair Liz Murphy confirms her team’s work went deeper, “while we used our standard methodologies, we had the blessing of the chancellor to really push the organization to think completely differently about how they would operate as a single institution.” Exploring beyond stated needs CampusWorks’ student-centric approach helped faculty and staff embrace the possibilities created by change.

One such possibility: the nation’s first career connected learner network. “We coined the term

Liz Murphy, CEO & Board Chair

‘enroll in a job’, because that’s what students want and need,” says Marshall. “When CampusWorks came in, discussions became less about functions as opposed to interesting approaches to the students.”

Today that network helps students connect learning to living wages and sustainable careers - moving the College one step closer to its goal of ending systemic poverty. “Colleges and universities have a profound ability to make change,” says Murphy.

The CEO believes Dallas College has set the bar high, but she reports seeing an uptick in the number of institutions setting similarly ambitious goals.

Murphy encourages today’s leaders to think about the ripple-effect they wish to have because it’s not about “where your pebble drops, but where the ripple goes when it reaches the shore – what is it that you’re changing in the world?”

campusworksinc.com

DALLAS COLLEGE

relationships with over 350 hospitals, medical clinics and social services agencies. We share data and databases, which allows for our students to have a quick path to those services without having to retell their stories over and over again. That’s one of the things we’re doing that are driven by technology but also by knocking down barriers.”

In that same spirit, the college instituted the United States’ first blockchain student record system.

“We decided that blockchain was the 238

only technology that could allow us to move our student records into a secure environment that at the same time was not dependent on our institution. Our students have had access to their official transcript records via that system since July of 2019. We’ve now got the records of every student that has ever attended our college - 1.8 million student records in the chain total - and we update it daily.

“ My mindset is to grab hold of as much [data] as possible” — Timothy J. Marshall, Chief Innovation Officer, Dallas County Community College

The system was inspired by the failure of a major, national, private

Chancellor to take these students

for-profit college, who had thousands

on - because we had similar programs

of students in the Dallas area in the

and we had capacity. But when that

middle of degree work. “The Federal

college closed down, their computer

Department of Education asked our

systems also closed down. So these

FEBRUARY 2021

1965

Year founded

$499m+ Revenue in US dollars

6,300 Number of employees

Say Hello to Dallas College (English :15) CLICK TO WATCH

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0:15

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“ We’re migrating the services and applications that we have to a cloud infrastructure”

let the same thing happen to our students in a similar situation.”

The benefits of the technology are again keenly felt by students, not least in potential job opportunities. “We’re now working with local workforce

— Timothy J. Marshall, Chief Innovation Officer, Dallas County Community College

to have access to that information

students had no access to their

student’s name - based on how many

records for almost six months. Our

students have passed a PERL pro-

chancellor said to me that we couldn’t

gramming class in the last two years,

providers, says Marshall. “They want for recruiting purposes. It means they can query it - without knowing the

241

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242

“ We’ve become much more project-oriented than we were in the past” — Timothy J. Marshall, Chief Innovation Officer, Dallas County Community College FEBRUARY 2021

for instance. Then they can directly message the students, anonymously to say: ‘Hey, I might have a job for you.’

A number of trusted partners have been vital to the ongoing transformation. Implementation of a new Workday ERP system is beginning now, with Deloitte serving as the implementation partner. CampusWorks has provided consulting and services based on their expertise in all areas of the higher education space. “Their staff has a wide range of experience in higher education - not only technology professionals, but also as former librarians and former faculty and registrars and admissions and finance people,” says Marshall. “Whenever you embark on a large project, you need to have other, unbiased eyes looking at it. In the last year, they’ve provided us with a very specific service related to making sure our environment and our college was ready to go to a new ERP.” A learning management system from Blackboard has also been introduced, offering students an online platform to gain access to instructional materials, discuss with faculty and complete assignments. That’s busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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DALLAS COLLEGE

been especially important thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “It made it easier for us to transition a lot of students online when the pandemic hit,” says Marshall. “We were in the middle of the semester when we shut down all of our campuses. We had to take 60,000 students in two weeks and move them online. Because of the cloud nature of Blackboard, the platform was able to rather quickly scale up their systems to take on all those extra students.”

244

The pandemic has naturally impacted the organization, as it has with essentially all centers of education worldwide. In this case, it’s brought a number of projects to the front of the line. “One of them is chang-

Marshall is confident in the efficacy of

ing from seven separate colleges into

remote working, provided the technol-

one college, with seven campuses. Up

ogy is in place to support it. “We’ve had

until March of this year, each one of

to condition a lot of software products

those colleges ran their own IT shops.

so that they make sense for every-

When we all came together and we

body. Virtual white boarding for agile

were all working remotely, it was rather

development, for instance. I don’t have

apparent that we should immediately

that physical presence now, so we’ve

centralize - as opposed to waiting for

become much more project oriented

a year or two.”

than we were in the past.”

With years of experience managing global teams in consulting firms, FEBRUARY 2021

Going forward, Marshall sees that remote trend replicated in the

245

College’s infrastructure. “We are

“We’re migrating the services and

moving on from being a department

applications that we have to a cloud

that was primarily responsible for very

infrastructure,” says Marshall. “That’s

physical, tangible assets within our

why we’ve renamed our infrastructure

data center. When March hit, I took a

team to cloud and infrastructure.”

long look at our data center health. In the last year, we’ve had a fire, a flood and a gas leak in our data center. So I decided we’re going to data centeras-a-service.” The College, then, is using the opportunity to modernize its technology for the benefit of students. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

246

FEBRUARY 2021

247

WRITTEN BY

DOMINIC ELLIS PRODUCED BY

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

US Distributor Talley Inc. Builds Intelligence and Connectivity busi ne ssc hi ef . com

TALLEY INC.

Rhys Fernandez, Director 5G Applications, Talley Inc. outlines how it is gearing up for the 5G boom, the importance of key vendors and how more focus on procedural details will be one positive trend from COVID-19

W 248

ith experience gained in the US Navy, Rhys Fernandez developed extensive technical knowledge which was to prove invaluable

for a career in the wireless communications business. Joining Talley Inc. 16 years ago, he started as an Account Executive and, is now Director of 5G Applications at the major US distributor.

“I aspired to be a programmer but kept gravitating back to my strength – wireless, which I felt was the way the industry was heading,” he says.

“I remember attending a Next Generation Mobile Networks conference and hearing how each ‘G’ was on a timeline of about 5 to 10 years, but then from 3G to 4G, it was cut in half. Now it’s apparent it’s happening faster and faster – much like how computers evolved.”

Without doubt, Talley Inc. is at the forefront of digital transformation, providing products and supply chain solutions for organizations involved in Public and Private Wireless Networks. He says the FEBRUARY 2021

249

1983

Year founded

200

Number of employees busi ne ssc hi ef . com

TALLEY INC.

250

“ With the advent of 5G technology, we’re going to be seeing more automation, less interaction with humans and more intelligence nearing the edge of the network” — Rhys Fernandez, Director of 5G Applications, Talley Inc.

FEBRUARY 2021

company’s economic position is “very healthy” with clear growth forecasts based on organic growth of existing customers, and the acquisition of new customers building new networks or expanding existing networks. Talley is focused on providing ease of ordering, product availability, and ‘top-notch’ customer service as a means to achieve its goal of Service Excellence.

“It’s amazing how fast technology advances, Talley is still providing the products and services required for today’s networks, the products have changed and continue to change” he

reflects. “With the advent of 5G tech-

He emphasizes the expansion of

nology, we’re going to be seeing more

spectrum use, highlighting how higher

automation and more intelligence near-

frequency is key to bandwidth in the

ing the edge of the network – think IoT

5G architecture of wireless commu-

and Smart Transportation. As the intel-

nications, continuing to provide better

ligence gets closer to the edge, more

and faster services.

backhaul and mid-haul will be imple-

“Traditionally, our customer base

mented to support the robust nature of

varied broadly, our goal was to get

network edge devices requiring more

more focused. We took a long list of

bandwidth and minimal latency.”

customer types and organized them

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Rhys Fernandez Title: Director of 5G Applications

251 Company: Talley Inc.

Rhys Fernandez is Director of 5G Applications at Talley.

He is responsible for identifying product solutions, integrating vendors into the organization, and managing our product portfolio. Before joining Talley in 2004, Rhys started his career in Wireless while in the United States Navy as a radar operator and electronics technician. Following his military service, Rhys worked in California’s Silicon Valley in manufacturing, wireless system design, and sales for companies associated with internet and data network technology. Rhys earned his B.S. in Business Administration with a Data Telecommunications Option from CSU East Bay. Rhys resides out of Talley’s Dallas Facility.

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TALLEY INC.

“ As a distributor, we’re like the home depots of the wireless application world” — Rhys Fernandez, Director of 5G Applications, Talley Inc.

254 PA N E L : R A P I D - F I R E Q U E S T I O N S What COVID trends do you

Where do you see the business

see remaining?

going in the next 12-18 months?

Remote workers, companies staying leaner and supply chain evolution.

Crossing my fingers, our business is going to be busy. With the effort to reduce costs, IoT is going to be more important, small cells are going to be deployed in mass, macro sites will still be built, and fiber plants to support things at or near the edge will be needed across the board.

What makes Talley different?

We have a focused approach on customer types. We understand a specific number of solutions, operate with profitability in mind, and that streamlines our decision tree.

Removing that ‘noise’ is key to what we’re trying to accomplish.

FEBRUARY 2021

What are the top industry trends?

Faster bandwidth; fiber-optic usage in back- mid- and front-haul; AI; and the deployment of small cells.

into three main groups – carriers, land-

support and how to engage with cus-

mobile radio and specialty group. This

tomers,” he says.

allows us to zero in on applications specific to their needs.”

When it comes to vendor rotations,

Competition has evolved from a fixed set of competitors to a realm that is constantly changing. “We must

Talley carries ‘best of breed’ products,

understand who we are and who we

partnering with great companies that

serve,” he says succinctly.

value integrity and offer support. As a

During our interview, he listens

distributor, we’re like the Home Depot of

intently, smiles constantly and

the wireless application world,” he says.

describes his leadership style as

Value is a key focus, and previously

conscientious, honest and under-

as training director, his mission was

standing. “Mindset is very important

multi-faceted. “I wanted every sales-

to us, he says. We have incorporated

person to understand the customer

a program with the objective to be

and competition, the applications we

the premier wireless distributor in

About Talley CLICK TO WATCH

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1:05

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TALLEY INC.

“ The key to sustaining the vendor relationship is transparency and communication” — Rhys Fernandez, Director of 5G Applications, Talley Inc.

YOU CONNECT THE WORLD. WE MAKE IT EASY.

NOW MEETS NEXT.

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for wired and wireless networks for decades. They provide leading-edge technology and support a variety of applications that are future focused.”

Ceragon, a leading wireless transport vendor, is highlighted as Talley’s identified wireless backhaul solution.

“Wireless backhaul is a great tool to get fiber-like speed from one point to another over distance, in a cost-efficient, fast time and deployable manner – eliminating the dependency on fiber availability and feasibility.”

FreeWave Technologies role is in the USA. Culture is the foundation

the Control Systems space, supporting

of any successful team. Our motto is

SCADA and IoT applications. Looking

‘Empowered Employees Delivering

broadly at our partners, we have a port-

Service Excellence’.”

folio of OEM’s that are best of breed in their respective product sets. Our solu-

KEY PARTNERS

tions address; support structure, signal

Talley represents over 300 vendor

transmission, power and grounding,

manufacturers, one that stands out

the base elements of any network.

for Fernandez is CommScope. With

“It’s paramount to have the right

the acquisition of ARRIS and Ruckus,

vendor, we have a specific and

its combined company provides even

focused number of applications we

greater technology, solutions and

support, and we want to do it profit-

employee talent, with broader access

ably for the Customer, Talley, and the

to new and growing markets.

vendor,” he said. “The key to sustain-

“They’ve done a remarkable job in providing infrastructure components

ing the relationships is transparency and communication.” busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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TALLEY INC.

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FEBRUARY 2021

COVID CHANGES The two main developments in 2020 have been ‘working remotely’ and ‘working in person’ for those in operations, says Fernandez. Fortunately, the US Federal Government recognized Talley as an essential business, enabling it to keep businesses and schools connected.

“All the packing, shipping, receiving still took place. How did we overcome it? Through our IT team, which installed new programs for communication. We’re a big Microsoft house, and IT took it to the next level. Operations made adjust-

“ COVID has shown we can get more done remotely.

For Talley and the industry, another benefit is the attention to detail when it comes to procedures” — Rhys Fernandez, Director of 5G Applications, Talley Inc.

ments to ensure we can get products to customers safely, and HR put standards in place and made resources available.”

He believes the industry is going to get back to normal, but it will be ‘a new normal’. “We talk about vaccines around the corner and more positive testing. The experience has shown we can get more done remotely. I’ve worked remote for some time – but for Talley and the industry, another benefit is the attention to detail necessary, when it comes to procedures. We can become even stronger over time.”

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CUSTOMIZABLE SUSTAINABLE DELICIOUS

WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR

PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

FEBRUARY 2021

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SUN BASKET

Mike Wargocki and Michael Thompson discuss Sun Basket’s unique approach to delivering healthy, customizable, and delicious food

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the way we all live, work, spend money and eat. Forced inside by wide-

spread lockdowns and social distancing measures, people are increasingly turning to online services to secure their basic needs. At a stressful time like this, 262

the value of healthy, convenient, sustainable food is more apparent than ever. For California-based meal kit delivery service Sun Basket, 2020 has been a year of unprecedented challenges and opportunity.

“Our business essentially doubled in three weeks during that initial spike,” says Michael Thompson, Vice President of Supply Chain and Business Integration at Sun Basket. “We basically found ourselves in a position where we suddenly stopped being a convenience and became more of an essential service for a lot of our customers.”

Sun Basket was founded in 2014 by award-winning chef Justine Kelly and Adam Zbar, Tyler MacNiven and George Nachtrieb – a trio of tech entrepreneurs looking to marry the convenience of on-demand, subscription-based food delivery with restaurant-quality cuisine tailored to suit every diet.

FEBRUARY 2021

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Stafni that momov just-in-timo with you We rebuilt temp stafng to reliably yex with your business. With our nationwide network of 600,000 pre-vetted workers, get the labor you need, even on short notice.

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Talent acquisition in trying times: T:e Cnsta9or8 met:oNology ike Bohnett, VP of Sales and Partnerships at Instawork, and Mike Wargocki, VP of Manufacturing at Sun Basket, discuss its staffing partnership.

At a time when workforce reliability, workplace safety and job security are all being afected by COVID-19, companies are starting to feel the pressure. Addressing these problems through technology that is revolutionising talent acquisition, Instawork ofers a centralised platform that connects businesses with proven professionals in real-time.

“Instawork is a yexible stafng solution for warehouse manufacturing, food production, and hospitality-based workers,” explains Mike Bohnett, Vice President of Sales and Partnerships. “At heart, we re a tech company that is aiming to rebuild how stafng works, to better meet the needs of both companies and today s hourly workforce.

Fundamentally, we believe that stafng g and speci+cally temporary stafng is broken. hrough the Instawork platform, workers can easily pick up shifts and get paid quickly afterwards, and they receive reviews from employers, which ups their credibility for any other potential gigs.”

An excellent example of Instawork in action is the company s close collaboration with Sun Basket, the San Francisco-based subscription meal delivery service. hey needed extra warehouse labour and found Instawork. Subsequently, Instawork was able to onboard Sun Basket in a matter of days and provide a 90% +ll rate for its warehouse staf, with an average worker quality score of 97%.

M

Mike Wargocki, VP of Manufacturing at Sun Basket, contextualised that happens then operations teams are understafed and that proolems it can causee “ he frst thing it causes are mistakess hat’s a serious issue oecause, as te’re making orders for our customers, the key is making sure that quality remains as high as possioles. With understafng resulting in employees having to perform several roles simultaneously, people can quickly oecome exhausted and more susceptiole to illness, a core concern that Sun Basket, particularly during the pandemic, is diligent to avoid.

Despite that Wargocki calls the “uneven torkfot. of the company, even as demand in gret, he says that Instatork has alloted Sun Basket to meet its stafng challenges tith aplomos “ he Instatork team has oeen amazing oecause of the quality of torkers, as tell as the consistency of the fll ratess.” “ sing the Instatork platform, Sun Basket has counter intuitively lotered their overall stafng costs,. adds Bohnetts “By using a platform like Instatork, Sun Basket is actively empotering its frontline teams tith tools to make informed decisions, thich aggregates into a high return on investment I/ across the companys&

“Tht Insaawork atam has bttn amazing btcaust of aht qualiay of worktrs, as wtll as aht consisatncy

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of aht fll raatss.”

- Mike Wargocki, VP of Manufacturing at Sun Basket

instawork.com

SUN BASKET

266

“ We have lots of great relationships with the farmers near us, particularly the organic operators, since 99% of the vegetables we buy are organic certified” — Michael Thompson, VP, Supply Chain and Business Integration, Sun Basket

FEBRUARY 2021

“Sun Basket is a delivery-based meal subscription business, and our goal is to provide healthy food options to our customers using that model,” explains Mike Wargocki, Sun Basket’s VP of Manufacturing. “Whether our customers are eating gluten-free or vegan, or are on a Mediterranean diet, we find creative, delicious and healthy solutions for them.”

CREATIVE, DELICIOUS, HEALTHY “We like to think of ourselves as the Whole Foods of the meal kit industry; we’re offering a more specialized,

EX EC UTIV E PROFILE:

Mike Wargocki Title: VP, Manufacturing Company: Sun Basket

higher end and high-quality service,” Wargocki continues. Sun Basket’s premium, health-focused offerings extend across a staggering range of dietary requirements that make for a very broad, highly-customizable menu. Customers can choose from meal plans including Paleo, Carb-Conscious, Gluten-Free, Lean & Clean, Diabetes Friendly, Chef’s Choice, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Mediterranean, or Quick & Easy. These meals are a part of a weekly rotating menu developed

by Chef Kelly and her team and shipped to tens of thousands of customers on

Mike brings 20 plus years of food manufacturing, quality and operations experience. In his current role, he is responsible for production and equipment buildout within the SunBasket manufacturing facilities.

Previously, Mike was the VP of Operations for DelMonaco Foods, a high end kettle cooking company.

Mike was also the Director of Operations for Penford Food Ingredients, running the food starch manufacturing facilities in the US and co-manufacturing operations around the world and prior to that the Quality Management Director for Penford Corporation overseeing global quality operations.

a regular basis. The meal kits arrive busi ne ssc hi ef . com

267

SUN BASKET

“ One of the major benefits of the meal kit subscription business model is that the amount of food waste we create is so much lower than, say, a grocery store”

268

— Michael Thompson, VP, Supply Chain and Business Integration, Sun Basket

cold-packed with instructions for the customer to prepare a two or four serving meal, sometimes in as little as 10 - 20 minutes.

In addition to its core meal kit offering, Sun Basket is working to broaden its scope across what Wargocki describes as its ‘share of stomach,’ branching out into snacks, lunch items and more.

“We provide the meal kits as our core product, but we’ve also launched our Fresh and Ready meals, which are readymade and just need to be heated up,” he says. “We’ll be further expanding those offerings in 2021, which is very exciting, as well as having a marketplace, which is a way of presenting a curated selection of snacks and juices to our customers.”

Thompson notes that, as far as a secret sauce goes, Sun Basket’s ability to combine quality, a large range of products and a high level of customizability is key to its success.

“We really want to personalize the experience for our customers. Some of our competitors will just offer two options - a basic and a vegetarian. We have 11 options to meet the different needs of different groups,” he notes.

FEBRUARY 2021

What do you love about Sun Basket?

CLICK TO WATCH

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0:19

269 “We work hard to offer an ever-

EXECUTING ON THE VISION

changing menu every week. We take

Between them, Wargocki and Thom-

pride in providing a lot of variety to

pson oversee the operational side of

our customers, and many of our meals

Sun Basket. “Everything inside the

are made with unique components

four walls of the building, like labor,

like sauces that we develop ourselves.

manufacturing and packaging, that’s

We’re not just buying, for example, a

all Mike,” Thompson explains. He, on

romesco sauce off the shelf from a

the other hand, is responsible for the

third party. We’re making that romesco

company’s operations outside its prem-

sauce ourselves.” So, in addition to

ises. “Everything beyond these four

customization, quality and a broad

walls is my responsibility, from logistics,

range of options, sometimes Sun

procurement and supporting services

Basket’s secret sauce is also literally

like corporate IT, to food safety and

a secret sauce.

some of the other functions that enable

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

SUN BASKET

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

270

Michael Thompson Title: VP, Supply Chain and Business Integration Company: Sun Basket Michael brings over 25 years of operational expertise with consumer product and subscription companies, building Direct-to-Consumer supply chain solutions. In his current role, he is responsible for procurement, inbound freight, last-mile delivery, food safety and corporate services for Sun Basket.

Previously, Michael was CSCO for NatureBox, transitioning the subscription service into an omni-channel food brand – servicing home delivery, office locations, food service partners, airlines and on-shelf retailers. Michael was also VP Operations for Bare Escentuals (cosmetics) where he managed North American Operations to support massive revenue growth and created an internal Program Management organization for strategic initiatives.

FEBRUARY 2021

FROM FARM TO TABLE – A UNIQUE SUPPLY CHAIN In order to deliver on its promise of a rotating weekly menu that caters to all manner of dietary preferences and needs, the procurement function of Sun Basket’s business is all about smart, sustainable sourcing.

“We work with the company’s test kitchen about eight weeks before a menu goes out for delivery to make sure we’re taking into account the time of year and the ingredients that are in season,” Thompson explains.

From there, Thompson’s goal is to ensure that Sun Basket is sourcing the freshest possible ingredients in the right quantities. “We’re working to ensure we’re delivering as close as the work that Mike does within the

possible to a farmer’s market fresh

business’ premises. We work together

experience,” he says, adding that

on lots of different projects.” Together,

there are two major factors to con-

Wargocki and Thompson have the

sider when sourcing produce for Sun

unique challenge of sourcing, manu-

Basket’s meals: time and temperature.

facturing and distributing Sun Basket’s

“We’re trying to figure out how quick-

meal kits and other products across

ly we can shorten the time from harvest-

the United States, tackling extreme

ing a vegetable to delivering it to a

levels of customization in a way that’s

customer’s table. We’re fortunate

not only effective, but environmen-

enough to be sitting here in the mid-

tally sustainable.

dle of California, right next to the busi ne ssc hi ef . com

271

SUN BASKET

biggest produce-growing valley in the country. We have fantastic relationships with many farmers here, particularly the organic operators, since 99% of the vegetables we buy are organic certified,” says Thompson.

“These relationships with big farms and smaller scale operations all across the country mean that, when we can, we buy as locally as possible.” All of Sun Basket’s meal kits delivered to the East Coast, for example, utilize organic corn grown by the company’s supplier close 272

to its New Jersey facility when it is in season. Thompson notes that, “We do as much as possible to reduce the time between a vegetable coming out of the ground and coming out of the customer’s meal kit when they go to make dinner that night.”

Dealing with temperature is a uniquely difficult proposition. Sun Basket’s cold chain is an essential element of ensuring that produce not only reaches the manufacturing plant in the best possible condition, but also that the resulting meal kits arrive in the customers’ hands as fresh as they can possibly be. Thompson explains that, using individual temperature gauges on each pallet of produce FEBRUARY 2021

“Whether our customers are eating gluten-free or vegan, or are on a Mediterranean diet, we find creative, delicious and healthy solutions for them” — Mike Wargocki, VP, Manufacturing, Sun Basket

273

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SUN BASKET

“ We like to think of ourselves as the Whole Foods of the meal kit industry; we’re offering a more specialized, higher-end and highquality service” — Mike Wargocki, VP, Manufacturing, Sun Basket

274 received, his team can monitor the entire

When the finished meal kits leave Sun

journey of a piece of produce from the

Basket’s facility, ice packing plays an

supplier to Sun Basket’s loading dock.

important role. “We also try to be smart

“When that product arrives, I have

with how we pack out our products in

access to a complete readout of the

terms of ice, insulation and box size, tak-

temperature of that product over the

ing into account the length of the journey

course of its entire journey. I can see

and the temperatures at the destination,”

if a product that’s supposed to be held

Thompson says. “If you’re sending a

at 38 degrees was held for an hour at,

box to Phoenix, Arizona, where it’s 95

say, 55 degrees, and be able to know

degrees outside, you’re going to need

therefore that it isn’t going to hold up,”

a very different packout solution com-

he explains. “We use that information in

pared to, say, Chicago in the wintertime.”

addition to our quality inspection pro-

Using a sophisticated algorithm, Sun

cess to sort through our produce and

Basket’s fulfilment team can account for

ensure we’re only using products that

travel time, environmental conditions and

live up to our customers’ standards.”

the contents of each individual box.

FEBRUARY 2021

have 25,000 different iterations in a 30,000-box run. We could conceivably have a situation where every single one of our customers orders a completely different combination of meals in their box. It’s really been interesting to work on developing our technology to allow for that level of customization,” says Wargocki, explaining that his own role focuses on finding the most efficient, highest-speed production options that are designed to support regular changeovers and refits with the least amount 275

of downtime possible.

“We have a different ice configuration

“If we’re shipping those 30,000 boxes,

for, in theory, every single zip code in the

they’re going to contain 100,000 individ-

country, which gives me quite a fun chal-

ual meals, which means approximately

lenge,” laughs Wargocki.

300,000 individual ingredients. When you think about the touches that go into

EXTREME CUSTOMIZATION

that, it’s more than a million touches

The sheer level of customization that

every week that are completely unique

Sun Basket offers its customers cre-

to that cycle,” he explains. “Seven days

ates a uniquely complex challenge from

later, the whole process starts again

a manufacturing standpoint as well.

with entirely new products.”

“The big challenge from a manufactur-

Using advanced customer analytics,

ing point of view is how customizable

the Sun Basket team can predict with

Sun Basket’s service is. A lot of our

increasing accuracy which foods their

competitors might send out 30,000

customers will buy each week. “We

boxes in five or six different iterations.

know eight weeks in advance what

Sun Basket, on the other hand, might

we’re going to put on our menu and we busi ne ssc hi ef . com

SUN BASKET

INST AW ORK

276

“Instawork is one of our suppliers of temporary laborers,” says Wargocki. “As the business grew, we needed a fair amount of people very quickly. Instawork is a tech-based solution to that problem that gives us a huge amount of flexibility.

“We have a very high demand for our products over the weekend, and then for the rest of the week we have a more level, predictable workload.

On the weekends, I need to be able to have a large enough team to ensure that all of our production and fulfillment gets done. Instawork is great for that.”

FEBRUARY 2021

Instawork uses a web-based network of contractors that can sign up for particular shortterm jobs. “We can give priority to contractors we’ve had positive experiences with before,” enthuses Wargocki, adding that, “it also provides our contractors with a really good training process. We can upload our training materials, food safety and GMP requirements - everything those employees need to become certified to come in and work for us. It saves a lot of onboarding time for new temporary staff.”

use our analytics to predict how much

notes, is packaging. “Each individual

of each of those meals our customers

ingredient needs packaging, and then

are going to want. We can predict vol-

all those ingredients are put in a package

ume and location based demand, as well

together, which goes in a bigger box with

as which specific meals and diets people

ice and other insulation for shipping,” he

are going to order, and we can get very

explains. While the issue is a hard one to

granular in terms of one ingredient vs

get away from, Thompson adds that Sun

another,” says Wargocki, adding that

Basket has taken some significant steps

this is essential, not only to ensuring the

towards mitigating those issues.

company can meet demand, but also its sustainability goals.

“All of our packaging is either recyclable or compostable,” he says. “It makes our job a little harder, because

SUSTAINABILITY AT SCALE

sometimes it’s difficult to find recycla-

There are a number of factors unique to

ble and compostable solutions that

the subscription-based meal kit delivery

meet our needs regarding keeping

business model that impact sustainable

food cold, but we really stand by our

practice. “One of the major benefits of

commitment that while it is necessary

the meal kit subscription business model

to have a fair amount of packaging,

is that the amount of food waste we

we do as much as we can to reduce its

create is so much lower than, say, a

environmental impact.” Wargocki adds

grocery store,” says Thompson. “We

that, from a manufacturing perspec-

track our wastage for each week and

tive, finding ways to use recyclable and

it’s in the low single-digit percentage of

compostable materials in the manu-

our total food purchase, which is really

facturing process continues to be an

low. We try not to throw anything away

interesting challenge.

that’s still usable. If we don’t manage to sell something to a customer, we’ll

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

donate it to a food bank.”

Thompson reflects that, had things

Where meal kit companies across the industry run into problems, Thompson

been different, the 2020 COVID-19 crisis could have gone in an entirely busi ne ssc hi ef . com

277

SUN BASKET

different direction for Sun Basket.

“We were growing very fast, like a lot of companies in the subscriptionbased food delivery space,” he reflects.

“Then, in 2019, the company made the decision to slow down a little bit and really make sure the economics of the business were sound. You can grow, pump more money into marketing, attract more and more customers, etc.

But if those customers aren’t staying for the long run as you had hoped, your company is going to burn itself out.”

278

Sun Basket spent 2019 shoring up its business model. This year, the results have been spectacular. “Those efforts

“ We have a different ice packing configuration for every single zip code in the country” — Mike Wargocki, VP, Manufacturing, Sun Basket FEBRUARY 2021

put us in a really strong position coming into 2020, when COVID-19 started to happen and being in the business of sending food to people’s houses suddenly became a very good industry to be in,” Thompson recalls. “Had we not gone through all that work the year before to make the economics sound, we wouldn’t have been in such a good position to be able to help our customers and grow as much as we did.”

Now, Sun Basket is looking to broaden its offerings even further, finding new

279

ways to take its core strength of

and diverse in terms of new ways to

making delicious, healthy food and

bring new foods to new customers at

find new channels to deliver it to its

all different times of the day, whether

customers. “2021 is going to be about

that’s lunches, dinners, breakfast or

taking those new offerings to a wider

snacks. The challenge for us is making

market through new channels,” says

sure that we not only do a lot of different

Thompson. The company is growing

things, but that we do all of those things

rapidly, with deals on the horizon to

well. Everything that we’re doing is to

sell Sun Basket’s food through partner-

figure out how to grow the breadth of

ships with on-line retailers, as well as

our offering while never compromising

some brick and mortar locations.

our quality standards.”

In closing, Wargocki adds that, “We’re looking to become very broad busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Optimising Service through 280

ASSET CENTRICITY WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

FEBRUARY 2021

281

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SERVICEMAX

Kieran Notter, VP of Customer Transformation, describes how the company is helping customers adapt to change and guide service according to their assets

T

he beginnings of ServiceMax can be traced to Pleasanton, California, where co-founders Athani Krishnaprasad and

Hari Subramanian started a software as a service (SaaS) company focused specifically on bringing 282

modern tools to field service technicians, which was a gap in traditional customer relationship management (CRM) technology at the time.

Originally called ‘Maxplore Technologies’, it was rebranded in 2009 to its current name, though its focus and dedication to improving field service management has remained the same. Offering customers an equipment-centric approach built on Salesforce cloud technology, ServiceMax can provide a complete view of assets to field service teams, providing technicians with the tools they need to ensure uptime on critical assets.

When Kieran Notter, VP of Customer Transformation, joined the company in 2016, he relates that the business immediately set itself apart: “I think it’s quite an interesting group for a software company, because I’m not a software person; I come from a FEBRUARY 2021

283

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

AQUANT IS HELPING TURN YOUR WORKFORCE INTO SERVICE HEROES AQUANT WORKS WITH SERVICE ORGANISATIONS TO HELP THEM DELIVER THE BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE, as CEO and co-founder Shahar Chen explains. "Every service provider wants a roster full of experts. Service leaders monitoring cost, customer satisfaction, and other KPls want to send out their best technicians because they know that the most experienced field engineers complete jobs quicker and at a lower cost. But there aren't enough experts to go around."

This is where Aquant comes in. The technology helps shrink the skills gap and create a dream team of expert problem solvers. Right now, there's only a small number of standout experts or service heroes in every organization. But they are overwhelmed. They can't be in the field doing what they do best while simultaneously training new employees.

Aquant takes all the information about how the best field service and call center agents do their job, combines that with vast amounts of other service data, and analyses all that information-quickly. Aquant then makes all that insight available to everyone across the service organization.

We then use the information to create smart recommendations, which allows someone who joined the organization yesterday to gain the experience of someone at the job 20 years," adds Chen.

Aquant is a key partner for ServiceMax, having worked together for several years. "From the beginning, we found there was a common language between the companies. It stems from the fact that both companies grew from field service management," says Chen. "We address the same market, reach out to the same kind of

companies, and talk about the value in almost an identical way, but we attack these challenges from different angles."

The two approaches are inherently complementary. "Aquant takes data from existing systems, including ServiceMax, analysing that information in order to identify patterns and then suggest the most likely solutions to each problem."

Going forward, Chen expects the role of Al in the industry to increase, but he emphasises that this is not at the expense of people. "There's a common mistake that Al is here to replace people. Instead, Al works alongside your team, helping them do what they do best-solve complex problems and make the smartest decisions based on each service situation," says Chen.

LEARN MORE

SERVICEMAX

286

service background. ServiceMax is actu-

interest in field service management.

ally quite novel in that it wanted people

“I needed to understand both and then

from the service domain to help it create

try and find a mutually beneficial solution.

service products.” Although service

Moving to a cost-centric approach made

is his current specialty, it was supply

it very enjoyable. Technicians generally

chain logistics to which Notter became

become technicians because they want

accustomed to early in his career. It was

to fix things.”

attempting to reconcile these two some-

ServiceMax’s pioneering adherence

times mutually contradictory sectors,

to improving customers’ service distin-

he explains, that fuelled his overall

guished it from other software providers

FEBRUARY 2021

“ServiceMax is actually quite novel in that it wanted people from the service domain to help it create service products” — Kieran Notter, VP of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax

287

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Kieran Notter Title: VP of Customer Transformation Company: ServiceMax Industry: Software Kieran Notter is acknowledged as a service industry domain expert with 30 years’ experience. He specialises in field service revenue and working capital improvements, with a particular passion for supply chain operations. He is highly effective at partnering with customers to deliver tangible, practical results across their service operations. Having previously worked for companies including Kodak, Bell & Howell and, most recently, Pitney Bowes he understands the importance of a logical approach that is supported by real-time analytics.

His expertise is in recognising a client’s challenges and facilitating solutions that lead to sustainable growth.

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

SERVICEMAX

“ C ustomers come to us for a perspective that is going to help them build their company. We challenge and help them deliver, using best practice all the way through” — Kieran Notter, VP of Global Customer 288 Transformation, ServiceMax

early on, and this dedication encompasses an ethos of specialisation.

Not content to be a “jack of all trades”, Notter insists that it chooses to do one thing exceptionally and with authority, “Customers come to us for a perspective that is going to help them build their company. We challenge and help them deliver, using best practice all the way through.” ServiceMax’s mission statement - ‘We help our customers keep the world running’ - is more than just words, particularly as an increasing number of their clients have a role to play in the cold supply chain delivering COVID-19 vaccines; it is an enabler of superlative service that maintains the vitally important work of its customers.

Achieving this end, in Notter’s view, is contingent on encouraging ‘asset centricity’, a cultural shift that favours consulting asset-based data with greater diligence. In today’s environment, companies across all industries are rethinking their approach to service.

Requirements for equipment performance have intensified, the pandemic has put more focus on outcomes, and customer expectations continue to rise. Organisations must advance

FEBRUARY 2021

Asset 360: ServiceMax & Salesforce CLICK TO WATCH

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0:52

289 beyond the standard ‘break-fix’ model

managing ‘potential failures’ proac-

to ensure uptime for important assets

tively instead of solving ‘functional

in a safe and compliant manner. Service

failures’ reactively.

teams must prioritise efficient asset

“If you look at a car production line

performance, as well as the customer

obviously the cars represent revenue,

experience they provide.

but if the production line fails a com-

“Factually, if you rely on people, stud-

pany can’t produce cars. Therefore,

ies have shown that humans tend to

if our client needed to increase the

exaggerate, add their own bias, or

volume of cars to make more money,

forget information. The asset doesn’t

then the production needs to become

do that,” he explains. Praising this data

more efficient. The only way to achieve

for its capacity to encourage collabora-

that is to understand the asset and how

tive partnerships between ServiceMax

it interacts with everything. A 360-degree

and its customers, Notter states that

view into the install base means cus-

this can make the difference between

tomers gain granular insights around busi ne ssc hi ef . com

SERVICEMAX

290

FEBRUARY 2021

“The only way to achieve [production efficiency] is to understand the asset and how it interacts with everything” — Kieran Notter, VP of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax

service contracts and asset performance to maximise equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs. This advanced insight empowers customers to shift from selling products to adopting outcome-based strategies that propel businesses forward and help drive operational results.”

Focusing beyond cost, asset centricity, through improved product knowledge and workforce/technician distribution, can have a significant effect on maximising revenue streams.

It’s a game-changing re-evaluation of service priorities and clearly identifies ServiceMax as a company that isn’t hesitant to try new ways of operating or addressing a problem. This philosophy served the company in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted industry norms and thrust remote working into the limelight.

“A lot of companies might have originally had only 5% of their work orders remotely fixed, but then, suddenly, they needed to do up to 95%. Those that started the digital transformation months or years before were much better placed to actually meet this remote need,” says Notter. ServiceMax was busi ne ssc hi ef . com

291

SERVICEMAX

one such example; as a vendor of field

“We can’t go into an environment try-

service management solutions, it was

ing to sell digital transformation to a

devoid of any legacy infrastructure that

business if we haven’t been on the

might have encumbered field service

journey ourselves.”

teams and readily embraced Zoom for

Although remote working methods

its customer-facing interactions and

could never replace the in-person ‘ride

utilised tools from Salesforce and its

alongs’ that ServiceMax used to under-

own real-time communication tool, Zinc,

stand customers’ business objectives

to effortlessly transition into a remote

pre-COVID, Notter still praises the

working paradigm. Notter relates that

definite benefits that new workplace

this was also necessary to ensure

trends are bringing. For example, one

ServiceMax practices what it preaches,

of the current problems facing service

292

FEBRUARY 2021

“ ServiceMax is customer obsessed.

Therefore, our ultimate goal remains to help keep the world running” — Kieran Notter, VP of Global Customer Transformation, ServiceMax

providers is a rapidly aging workforce.

Remote working gives older employees the ability to gain a better work-life balance and reduced physical strain. This development, he believes, will ultimately lead to greater knowledge retention within service companies generally and subsequently improve the training cycle for new employees.

Reflecting on the rise of intelligent service chains, Notter states that the ability to collect, analyse and unlock the value of data will be crucial for the industry, particularly as data flows become increasingly complex and voluminous.

“AI (artificial intelligence) is going to be hugely important because you need to grab that data and turn it into something actionable. 5G and IoT (internet of things) are also going to make a difference, and it’s great having all this technology, but understanding where and when to use it and how to grow with it is also vital.” This is where ServiceMax helps make a difference to its customers: by challenging thought processes behind the desire to implement new tech-nologies, it can learn clients’ desired outcomes and guide their development accordingly. “There’s no point in busi ne ssc hi ef . com

293

SERVICEMAX

2007

Year founded

500+ Number of employees

CEO Neil Barua

294

AQUAN T: “ A G R EAT PARTNER S H IP” One of ServiceMax’s key digital transformation partners is predictive AI and workforce knowledge management company Aquant. Founded in 2016, this New York-based software specialist’s service intelligence platform is capable of learning its clients’ idiosyncrasies and building an AI-driven decision-making framework around them.

Providing essential analysis and unstructured data optimisation, the company strives to empower teams with enhanced problem solving, faster decisioning and more accurate results.

“What I like about working with the guys at Aquant is they don’t just give you a solution: they actually help you mine and understand data,” says Notter.

“It’s a great partnership and it brings ServiceMax many different benefits.”

FEBRUARY 2021

295

having the separate components of an

forward to accentuate the importance

intelligent service chain if you don’t know

of service and promoting the integrity

how to use them,” emphasises Notter.

of assets as a guide for optimising it.

“It should be about managing expecta-

“We have to keep innovating our prod-

tions and learning from other people’s

uct to remain at the cutting edge of

mistakes; you don’t have to make your

what’s needed, making sure that

own mistakes to learn.”

it’s both viable and available to any

Looking ahead to 2021, Notter says

service business that requires it,”

that the drive to continually improve

he concludes. “ServiceMax is cus-

the service of its customers will be

tomer obsessed. Therefore, our

ServiceMax’s main goal. With a head-

ultimate goal remains to help our

start on its competitors in terms of

customers keep the world running.”

tech infrastructure and cultural alignment, the company will be pressing busi ne ssc hi ef . com

296

FEBRUARY 2021

COMMUNICATIONS AND COLLABORATION FOR THE ENTERPRISE WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

CRAIG KILLINGBACK

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S TA R 2 S TA R

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FEBRUARY 2021

President and Chief Revenue Officer Michelle Accardi discusses Star2Star’s cloud-native offering and its necessity amid COVID-19

S

tar2Star is a unified communications company that offers collaboration, voice, video and text chat integra-

tion capabilities, as well as contact centre and desktop-as-a-service offerings. Michelle Accardi is President and Chief Revenue Officer at the company, responsible for the entire sales and goto-market strategy of the organisation. “We offer a way to take companies into the cloud and great mobile applications to keep people connected, whether they’re in a work from home environment because of the pandemic or because that’s just part of the way the world is working these days.”

Star2Star’s huge experience as a communications company has stood it in good stead for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and re-emphasised the benefits of strong communication. “We’ve really taken a very agile approach to making sure that we’re doing daily calls, helping people understand where they need to be focused, overcoming whatever obstacles and giving them the focus for the next day. And then we use our great tools and

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299

Hear from Citrix and Star2Star on the latest productivity integrations to help you do your best work as well as the latest trends in digital transformation.

Learn more

“ We build solutions that enable companies to not just get through the pandemic, but to actually thrive” so we can remove those obstacles,” — Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

says Accardi. “It’s certainly why we’ve won workplace awards, because we foster that kind of open but hard working culture.”

everything from our own video meet-

Its approach is why it is favoured by

ings to our own mobile applications to

its customers as a solution provider,

help us all stay connected.” That use

with the highest customer retention

of technology is informed by a culture

rate in the industry at 99.4%. “We

of transparency at the organisation.

are one of the only vendors I know

“I really try to facilitate people bringing

of that focuses so much on customer

forward any challenges they’re having

retention, with our retention rate

The Future Is Here: Connect & Collaborate From Anywhere With Star2Star CLICK TO WATCH

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S TA R 2 S TA R

302 being due to putting the customer at

months, deferments, anything to help

the centre of everything that we do,”

our customers.” The holistic nature

says Accardi. “During the pandemic,

of its solution is another key part of

for instance, we’ve rolled out many

its appeal. “There are a lot of single-

different types of programmes – free

threaded vendors out there who can

2006

Year founded

only do one thing. The fact that we can do so much is very unique to us. I don’t know of any other solution provider like Star2Star that has things like employee alerts as packaged applica-

300

Number of employees FEBRUARY 2021

tions that can be built into workflows, for example.”

Among its raft of solutions is a mobile softphone app. “It’s about being able to get a call to your business phone

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Michelle Accardi Title: President and Chief Revenue Officer Industry: Telecommunications Location: Florida, USA As President and Chief Revenue Officer, Michelle’s mission is to inspire and maintain growth for the company and its partners, ensuring that customers get significant value from Star2Star’s products and services. Michelle works with the executive leadership team of Star2Star to define long-term vision and operational strategy to assure that growth and market potential are achieved.

In pursuit of this goal, Michelle sees engaging and listening to employees, partners, and customers as a primary function of her role in order to keep Star2Star on the optimal strategic path. In this way, customer success is assured as employees and partners are inspired to deliver an excellent product and experience with every interaction.

In her previous position as the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Michelle used these same methods to develop new processes and systems to streamline business interactions.

She grew departmental leadership and expanded Star2Star’s support capabilities to better serve customer and partner needs.

Michelle is also regarded as a technical thought leader in next-generation marketing and communications strategies. Her book, Agile Marketing, chronicles her experiences applying agile methodology to the marketing process for better results and faster time to value. She brought her substantial executive-level and tech industry experience with her to Star2Star, having driven innovative, agile, revenue-producing field and channel marketing programs for one of the world’s most relied upon technology companies, Computer Associates.

Michelle holds an MBA from American Intercontinental University and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida. busi ne ssc hief. com

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S TA R 2 S TA R

“ The fact that we can do so much is very unique to us” 304

— Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

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S TA R 2 S TA R

number versus your personal phone

to do things like mass marketing, or

number, right on the mobile app, while

getting information out to people like

also being able to do text messaging,

appointment reminders or curbside

or even fax via a mobile application,”

checkout, which we can help with.”

says Accardi. “You’d be surprised how

A strong enabler of the work

often different industries, whether it’s

Star2Star does is its partnership

healthcare or real estate, need that

with Citrix, with the company being

kind of thing. Those text messaging

the only UCaaS provider certified as

applications, both on mobile and on

Citrix-ready. “They have great tech-

desktop, are really game-changing in

nology that allows companies to put

the pandemic. Businesses are trying

their applications that were previously

306

FEBRUARY 2021

“ How people work and where people work is changing” are literally millions of companies and users who depend on Citrix, so

— Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

we can either provide desktop-as-a-

housed on-premise in the cloud, so

put our communications on top of the

that workers can now work from

Citrix environments they have in place.”

service from Citrix if customers don’t have that capability, or we can simply

everywhere,” says Accardi. “And it

The pandemic has accelerated

can do that in a secure manner. There

changes in the work environment,

307

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S TA R 2 S TA R

308

with Star2Star serving as a model for how businesses may look going forwards. “Thankfully we’ve always been a cloud-based company and we’ve always had a remote workforce,” says Accardi. “So for us, having everyone go remote just as those people who aren’t in our headquarters means we can understand FEBRUARY 2021

“ We are one of the only vendors I know of that focuses so much on customer retention” — Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Star2Star

or they prefer to have a mobile app that can communicate via voice, text, or fax.”

As the world bends to precisely the mode of working that Star2Star can facilitate, Accardi is clear that the company’s future is bright. “We see a future where it is going to be a mix of remote and working from home. Once vaccines come about, there will be a return of some workers to the office. But they’re going to want the flexibility to have mobile applications that enable them to work from home when they want to.”

Star2Star is perfectly positioned to allow companies to straddle that gap. “I often like to say: it’s with irritation that you make the pearl. For Star2Star, we build solutions that enable companies to not just get and give all of our customers the

through the pandemic, but to actu-

capability to go remote as well.”

ally thrive as they digitally transform

Accardi sees that as a permanent

because of it.”

change, even once the pandemic has abated. “How people work and where people work is changing. And we have a broad spectrum of solutions that can help them, whether they prefer to have a desk phone, busi ne ssc hief. com

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310

FEBRUARY 2021

311

Transforming Patient Care with Innovation WRITTEN BY

LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY

THOMAS LIVERMORE

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL

We speak to Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, Dr Justin Cross and Danina Kapetanovic about how digitalisation is enhancing the management of patient care at Jewish General Hospital.

312

M

ontreal’s Jewish General Hospital has been operating since 1934, founded originally with a mission to meet the healthcare needs

of the city’s growing Jewish community. Located in one of Montreal’s most diverse neighbourhoods, today it is one of Quebec’s busiest and largest acute care hospitals.

A McGill University teaching hospital, Newsweek magazine ranked it in their top five hospitals in Canada two years’ running, and number one in Quebec. Cardiology and Oncology and Emergency Medicine are particular specialties, along with research through their Lady Davis Research Institute.

Now the hospital is embarked on a digital mission to ensure they can continue meeting the healthcare needs of an aging population, by moving their care out of the four hospital walls and into the community.

FEBRUARY 2021

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JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Dr Lawrence Rosenberg Title: President and CEO Company: Integrated Health and Social Services University Network of West-Central Montreal

314

Lawrence Rosenberg is Professor of Surgery and Medicine at McGill University, and President and CEO of the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network of West-Central Montreal. The Network, situated on 34 sites, includes the Jewish General Hospital, which is a tertiary/quaternary university teaching hospital.

Dr. Rosenberg received his MD, CM degree from McGill University, where he completed specialty training in General Surgery. He holds an MSc and PhD in Experimental Surgery, completed post-doctoral studies and a surgical transplantation fellowship at the University of Michigan, and received an MEng from University of Waterloo, with concentrations in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

He was Director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at Montreal General Hospital, inaugurating McGill University’s Pancreas Transplant Program and leading the team that performed the first successful liver transplant at McGill.

Dr. Rosenberg has served as a consultant to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), the Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA), the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and the NIH. His scientific contributions to the field of islet regeneration are widely acknowledged. He has extensive experience as a clinician-scientist, educator, and consultant in value-based health systems and management of change.

FEBRUARY 2021

“ The pandemic was a wake up call, which points out very concretely the directions in which we need to be going to better serve the population in our territory” — Dr Lawrence Rosenberg, Jewish General Hospital

315

A big component of their digital strategy is innovation. Danina Kapetanovic joined in April 2020, with a mandate to

although they live longer they aren’t

strengthen the organisation’s culture

necessarily healthier. We’re looking

of innovation and spearhead the new

at ways in which we can make our

Connected Health Innovation Hub.

healthcare system sustainable in

Called ‘Orot’, which means ‘illumination’

order to meet the growing needs of

in Hebrew, the hub will enable them to

the demographic change.”

form partnerships with industry and implement new technologies.

“Innovation is the means to an end,

“We turn to innovation because we believe that with the technology that exists out there in the age of informa-

and this end is our vision of “care

tion, with the advent of machine learning,

everywhere”” Kapetanovic explains.

artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, big

In Quebec and Canada we have an

data science and analytics, we can

increasingly aging population, and

strengthen our system and add value, busi ne ssc hi ef . com

JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL

“ The focus is on how we’re bringing our organisation along and transforming how our teams work and how our care is organised” — Dr Justin Cross, Jewish General Hospital

but it requires us to look at the way we provide care and then figure out meaningful ways to integrate technology into that model of care.”

Entrepreneurship is key, and the hub will be vital to fostering new partnerships. “The idea is to bring entrepreneurs inside our system and help provide them with ideas, access to users, and with an understanding of how the system works as a business so that they can in turn provide solutions that will transform healthcare” Kapetanovic says.

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surgery and join our events

317 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Dr. Justin Cross Title: Chief Digital Health Officer Company: Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal Dr. Justin Cross is the Chief Digital Health Officer for the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal. In this role, he oversees the organization’s digital health transformation strategy.

Dr. Cross holds dual board certifications in Clinical Informatics and Family Medicine. Prior to his current role, Dr. Cross worked with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in the United States Department of Health and Human Services, in Washington, DC. As the Medical Director for Systems Safety, Dr. Cross worked closely with stakeholders across the healthcare sector to improve health IT in the US.

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JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL

318 E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Danina Kapetanovic Title: Strategic Advisor Company: Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal Danina Kapetanovic is the Strategic Advisor to the CEO for the Integrated Health and Social Services University Network for West-Central Montreal and the head of their Connected Health Innovation Hub – OROT. Prior to joining the CIUSSS, she served as Executive Director of Hacking Health, a global, grass-roots network of innovators committed to creating digital health solutions to benefit citizens, support healthcare systems, and promote economic activity. This network organized 160 hackathons in 63 cities around the world, leading to more than 1,500 innovative projects.

Ms. Kapetanovic also held various leadership positions across the United Nations system, spearheading innovation and public-private partnerships in order bring about transformative change around the world.

FEBRUARY 2021

“ The spirit of ingenuity and innovation is something I’ve found absolutely awe-inspiring in my short time with this institution” — Danina Kapetanovic, Jewish General Hospital

The strategy also involves a very heavy emphasis on data science, and collecting and analysing data in real time, as well as the creation of a new electronic healthcare record. “We call it the connected healthcare record, which will enable us to put in place an electronic healthcare record for all the individuals in our territory, reflecting the continuum of care” Rosenberg says.

“Other parts of the program include the creation of a command center, which will allow us to integrate the various elements across our health network that

Their digital strategy has in some ways

are under development at the moment.

been confirmed by the Covid-19 pan-

This all needs to be tied together and

demic. Telehealth was part of their plans

protected by a robust cybersecurity

before the outbreak, but as President

foundation.”

and CEO Dr Lawrence Rosenberg

“It’s really a next generation strategy to

explains, they found themselves set-

ensure the viability and the vitality of the

ting this up much more rapidly than they

hospital and our network into the future.

ever thought possible. “We were able

I think the pandemic was a wake-up call,

to maintain at least 70% of our ambu-

which points out very concretely the

latory activities that way, including about

directions in which we need to be going

80%of the activities from our cancer

to better serve the population in our

center” he says. “That’s the way of the

territory. What’s interesting is what

future – the hospital at home, virtual

we’re learning from this pandemic and

care, and tele-triage as far as the emer-

how to react to it. We conceived of

gency room goes, are all fundamental

our digital health plan almost two years

pieces of the strategy.”

pre-pandemic, so in some respects, our busi ne ssc hi ef . com

319

JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL

“ The pandemic is validation of the digital approach we had already decided to move towards” — Dr Lawrence Rosenberg, Jewish General Hospital

320

response to the pandemic and our agil-

Both Kapetanovic and Rosenberg

ity is validation of the approach we had

agree that people play an essential role

already decided to move towards.”

in making this digital journey successful.

An exciting development for 2021

“Healthcare institutions aren’t neces-

will be opening of a new innovation lab,

sarily structured to innovate, they’re

intended to be a physical space where

structured to provide care” Kapetanovic

they can host presentations from staff

says. “Innovation requires people to go

and industry representatives as well

above and beyond the call of duty, and

as hackathons. “The idea is to create

the spirit of ingenuity, entrepreneurship

a space to track industry and get it to

and innovation is something I’ve found

take residence with us, so we can

absolutely awe-inspiring in my short time

actively pursue collaboration and

with this institution.”

work together as closely as possible” Kapetanovic says.

FEBRUARY 2021

JGH has recently launched a website that includes calls to action to join their

you’re moving your organization into a new digital ecosystem and a new care delivery paradigm, you can’t just focus on the technology. You also need to plan for and help your organization transition from a culture perspective, from previously siloed ways of doing things to more integrated ways of doing things.

“The focus is on how we’re now bringing our organisation along and transforming how our teams work and how our care is organised, how we want to interact with our patients and how we deliver care to them” he adds.

Despite the challenges the pandemic has thrown up, Kapetanovic says they community of innovation practice – an

are very clear about their future direc-

initiative that will help them showcase

tion and what drives their strategy.

examples of innovation and best prac-

“Democratise care with the use of tech-

tice – but also highlights the success

nology, empower the patient, center the

of staff. “People thrive when they feel

care on them, and push it as much as

appreciated” Kapetanovic says. “The

possible out of the institutional walls, and

website very specifically zooms in on

closer to the patient.”

innovation and really puts staff at the center of it all.”

“Health IT projects are successful when the technology meets the needs of the organization and when the end users are involved in the implementation of the technology” Dr Justin Cross says. “When busi ne ssc hi ef . com

321

322

FEBRUARY 2021

323

MORE THAN JUST A BUILDING AND POWER PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

WRITTEN BY

RHYS THOMAS

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

CORE DATA CENTRES

Meet industry veteran Bill Henneberry’s new firm, co-founded with Jim Nikopoulos, CEO, a nimble newcomer to Canada’s data centre landscape providing scale and custom solutions in the age of digital transformation

B

ill Henneberry designs data centres in his sleep. The Chief Technology Officer of CORE Data Centres is only half-joking,

admitting that his work, a preoccupation that extends far beyond a means to make a living, is 324

never far from his thoughts. “I’ll be going to sleep at night and I’m already designing the next day’s work,” he says. “To a certain degree I’m always thinking of a design: how it can change and how it has to evolve.”

Data centres and colocation have been a fixation of Henneberry’s “before data centres were really even around”. He’s worked at “all the big companies” and consulted at many more, before founding CORE Data Centres with Jim Nikopoulos, CEO. Core Data is a relative new entrant to the market that nonetheless boasts an agile team of specialists with near unrivalled experience. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s snowier counterpart to Silicon Valley, the business was founded 16 months

FEBRUARY 2021

2019

Year founded

15

Number of employees 325

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ DEMAND ISN’T SLOWING DOWN 326 IN THE DATA CENTRE WORLD”

— Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres

ago with the underlying philosophy that

To illustrate the point, Henneberry

data centres should be ‘more than just

considers the growing pan-industry

a building and power’ - and a promise to

adoption of artificial intelligence. The

extend these values in its approach to

nascent explosion of interest in this

working with partners.

technology brings unique complexities,

“It’s not just about having a cookie cutter approach. We are not that rigid player that says, ‘because our business

many of which businesses are often illequipped to tackle on their own.

“I have clients who didn’t know how to

case says X, this is all we can do to

approach AI,” he says. “So we worked

make our money’,” Henneberry explains.

with them. We put the data centre

“And it’s not just space and power; we

together for them, and then as they

need to provide the right space and the

changed their philosophies on what

right power and the right cooling - and it

they required from a digital perspective,

all extends on from there.”

we can tailor for more power or more

FEBRUARY 2021

327

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Bill Henneberry Title: Chief Technology Officer Company: CORE Data Centres Bill is an Chief Technology Officer with Core Data Centres with experience covering various areas in the Data Centre industry. Over 30+ years of delivering complex projects and achieving successful outcomes for clients ranging from small business to large enterprises. His CORE expertise is in Data Centre construction, design and build, facilities operations, assessments, and Data Centre migration projects. Bill has manage over 500 + Data Centre build-outs, concept solutions and operations type projects or facilities. He holds a BSc and is an expert in Project Management with years of training in the Data Centre field and Telecommunications world. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT HAVING A COOKIE CUTTER APPROACH” — Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres

328

cooling from our point of view. But just

“Clients now can get some indication

understanding the client’s demands

of where things should be by search-

and what they’re trying to do on that

ing online. But I always ask, ‘What’s

digital side impacts how we manage

the end goal? What quality is needed

the relationship with requirements.”

for the solution you’re trying to pro-

Cost is another “interesting” topic of

vide?’ One bullet is never going to fix

conversation customers often thrust

the problem, but we always have a

into the equation at the early stages.

backup plan. I treat everybody equally

Understandably, clients need to

and we’re very good at helping clients

understand how much the operations

understand the technical reasons

will impact their balance sheets, and

of why that element costs that price,

while Google can be a valuable tool in

even in the change order process.

estimation, Henneberry prefers a more

Explaining it at the executive level is

incisive course of action.

very important to understand why cost

FEBRUARY 2021

“Montreal is saturated from a data centre perspective right now,” says Henneberry. “There’s so much supply that’s already there. So we focused on what was missing, and that’s why our Kingston project is a very strategic one. There’s a new fibre build from Montreal to Toronto that the hyperscale firms have demanded, but it has to go through somewhere, and it’s hitting Kingston. Our data centre is going to be a hub for that, and we’re an anchor tenant.”

An additional site is in Vancouver “where it’s hard to find land and good quality data centres”. Henneberry is a key factor, but not always the most

says the region has been undersup-

important factor.”

plied for some time, “So we thought

To better serve Canada’s thriving

we would beef up the supply, and as

business and finance hubs, CORE

the big hyperscale guys come along,

Data Centres has embarked upon an

or government agency demand ramps

ambitious greenfields development

up, we’re available.” That project is

project. A new site will open in Toronto

about three years out, he says, but

to serve the city and its surrounding

will become a key resource for CORE

areas as demand continues to rise.

Data Centre’s future development.

This will be joined by two further pro-

These projects, which will coincide

jects, both aimed at expanding supply

with the excavation and improvement

in strategic locations. One is situated

of major subterranean fibre cable cor-

in Kingston, between the Canadian

ridors, will take some time to come to

capital and Montreal.

fruition. In the meantime, CORE is also busi ne ssc hi ef . com

329

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ I WOULD NEVER TURN DOWN BUSINESS. EVEN IF I HAVE NO SPACE AVAILABLE, I WILL GIVE IT TO MY COMPETITORS. I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANYBODY WITHOUT A SOLUTION” — Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres 330

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tier one solution with a generator and a UPS, a bit of backup battery and some cooling,” Henneberry says. “We can deploy these pretty rapidly - although we sometimes run into slowdown from municipalities and government when running fibre - but I think from an edge perspective these are going to make a big, big difference going forward.

“Obviously from there it needs the home run to a real data centre - or a bigger data centre - and that’s where we play that strategic role as well,” he continues. “From the east coast to the deploying a variety of flexible, modular

west coast of Canada there are lots of

container data centres to support

small data centres dotted all over the

smart city initiatives across the coun-

place, and I’ve been a consultant over

try. Launched under the CoreBox

the years on many of those locations.

brand, these 20-40-foot scalable cen-

I have those relationships with those

tres will provide greater supply to rural

clients, so if somebody needs some

areas of Canada, and other enterprise

extra help here or there, I can work

districts beyond the bustling cluster of

with those guys.”

major cities situated just north of the Canada-US border.

The outbreak of COVID-19 and a shift to working from home, remote

“CoreBox is going to serve those

learning, and digital catch-ups with

more remote areas, and these will be

friends brought the critical role of data

set up in strategic areas to serve as the

centres into sharp focus. Increased

edge data centres. They’re relatively

demand for bandwidth and storage,

straightforward solutions, whether you

however, introduced a new set of high

want a tier three design, or a standalone

and low-tech issues. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

331

CORE DATA CENTRES

“ TO A CERTAIN DEGREE I’M ALWAYS THINKING OF A DESIGN: HOW IT CAN CHANGE AND HOW IT HAS TO EVOLVE” — Bill Henneberry, Chief Technology Officer, CORE Data Centres

332

“Demand isn’t slowing down in the

downtown Toronto, for example. The

data centre world, but we had to

owners of these companies are trying

really change our protocols,” says

to figure out, ‘Okay, what do I do next?’

Henneberry. “We couldn’t just let any-

They’re increasing their bandwidth

body come into our centres without

because, as soon as you leave one loca-

being tested correctly or following the

tion, if you understand networking, and

protocols. That did slow us down with

you have it all over the place, it’s like a

regards to construction or retrofits or

different mesh network. You need to

just having anybody in the data centre

provide a different topology across the

doing what we would normally do.

board on how to connect everything. I’m

“What is changing mostly, though,

working on another project right now

is the way we think. There are a lot of

for a client where, we built an SD LAN

office buildings that are sitting there

solution for them, with firewalls and eve-

empty right now across the way in

rything, to all their remote locations.”

FEBRUARY 2021

and doing sessions on the whiteboard, you’re missing out on those elements.

And I guess, as with everyone out there, keeping our own minds and sanity going is the biggest obstacle,” he admits.

“But from a data centre perspective in Ontario, and in Canada in general, our power costs are pretty high.

Everyone around the world has their challengers on specific things, but for us that’s power costs. We’re coming up with some solutions, going off grid a little bit and using generators as demand power. But there are inherent risks with shifting your loads round on a regular basis.”

So has demand outstripped CORE’s

Heneberry predicts a busy year

ability to supply? Is Henneberry turn-

ahead for the CORE team. The firm is

ing business down?

eyeing some potential M&A activity to

“I would never turn down business.

further solidify its growth, but its first

Even if I have no space available, I will

priority is serving clients: “As clients

give it to my competitors. Trust me. I don’t

come back to us with more demands

want to see anybody without a solution.”

and different situations, which they will,

Even in the fast and tech-driven data

we’re prepared and ready to deal with

centre field, the biggest obstacles

them accordingly.”

facing Henneberry and his team in the short term are the fundamental human principles of business.

“I think not having that face-to-face time with people is tough. Gathering busi ne ssc hi ef . com

333

Mining a Bright Future in China 334

FEBRUARY 2021

335

WRITTEN BY

DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

RICHARD DEANE

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SILVERCORP METALS INC

How the Canadian miner is balancing profitability, social and environmental responsibility, employee wellbeing and sustainable development

S

ilvercorp is an innovative and unique Canadian mining company with roots in the far east. Founder Dr. Rui Feng took his

early geological studies in China before completing his doctorate in Saskatchewan, where he was drawn to Canada’s mining industry. After settling in Vancouver, and working on technical reports for 336

junior mining companies that were going public, Dr. Feng fell in love with the idea of building an entrepreneurial mining company. By taking control of a listed shell company, and using his network of contacts in China, he set about finding attractive assets to put in it.

Dr. Feng is a successful entrepreneur and explorer with over 25 years of global industry experience acquiring mining opportunities worldwide. He was integral in discovering Jinshan Gold’s CSH Gold Mine in China in 2002, which was acquired by China Gold International. Dr. Feng founded Silvercorp in 2003 and acquired early-stage projects in China’s Ying mining district. Through discovery and development, Silvercorp has become one of the most profitable Canadian mining companies, with multiple mines in China.

FEBRUARY 2021

337

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

10+ YEARS

Proudly supporting and advising Silvercorp on resource/reserve estimation processes and reporting across its operations.

Industry leaders in geology, mining, and geotechnical engineering - AMC Consultants’ due diligence and feasibility studies are relied on by the world’s major investment banks and mining companies.

AMC has been Silvercorp’s trusted advisor for Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve estimation since 2009. With AMC’s continuing guidance, we are now looking forward to yet further streamlining our estimation processes for both internal site operations and external reporting.

- RUI FENG, CHAIRMAN AND CEO

MORE ABOUT AMC

amcconsultants.com

“

“

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Rui Feng

Title: Chairman and CEO

Company: Silvercorp Metals Inc.

Industry: Mining Dr. Rui Feng is a successful entrepreneur, explorer, and mine builder with over 25 years of global mining industry experience. His passion for discovery has led him to explore and acquire mineral opportunities worldwide. He was integral in discovering Jinshan Gold’s CSH Gold Mine in China in 2002, which was acquired by China Gold International. Dr. Feng founded Silvercorp in 2003 by acquiring early-stage properties in China. Through discovery and development, Silvercorp has become one of the most profitable Canadian mining companies, with multiple mines in China. As a director and former CEO of New Pacific Metals, Dr. Feng led the company to Bolivia in 2017 and acquired the Silver Sand project which has recently led to a significant discovery.

In addition to delivering value to employees and shareholders through discovery and development, Dr. Feng also believes a sustainable operation requires innovation and more effective management. He pioneered a digital information management tool for Silvercorp’s mines, which has contributed to improved organizational performance and operational profitability.

Dr. Feng obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Geology in China, his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada in 1992, and received a Postdoctoral fellowship from the National Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada in 1992. Dr. Feng supports many community and social causes through contributions made personally and through the actions of the companies he leads.

339

SILVERCORP METALS INC

“ Mines are depleting assets but, despite the years of production, recent drilling results brought our inventory at Ying, in terms of reserves, back up to roughly the same level as in 2016, with a renewed 20-year mine life”

“The Ying Mining District was wellknown for having high-grade mineralization at surface,” recalls Silvercorp’s Vice President Lon Shaver. “But, until Dr. Feng assessed its potential, nobody had ever really cracked the code to determine how to address what were effectively nest-like swarms of ore bodies with many narrow, very highgrade veins. Silvercorp brought a new perspective to the project in terms of

340

— Lon Shaver, Vice President, Silvercorp

how to explore and delineate enough material, in substance and size, to begin a profitable, sustainable operation.

And that’s what the Ying project was founded upon.”

MAXIMISING OPPORTUNITIES AT YING A joint venture was originally established at Ying in 2003 by Silvercorp making a $5m investment to kickstart operations. The mines across the property have remained selffunded ever since through operations that have delivered profits of $480m to shareholders. A recently-published technical report, completed by AMC Consultants (AMC) in 2020, highlights a bright future for the mining of silver, gold, lead and zinc at the FEBRUARY 2021

2003 Year founded

$166m LTM revenue in dollars

1,200+ Number of employees

Ying 2020 Technical Reports – Highlights Effectively replacing reserves since the last report in 2017, the latest technical report (carried out by AMC Consultants) reconfirms a 20-year mine life at Silvercorp’s flagship operation and shows: • 18% Increase in Measured and Indicated Silver Resources.

• 4% Increase in Proven and Probable Silver Reserves, on Top of 21 Million Ounces of Silver Produced between June 2016 and December 2019 at the Ying Silver-lead-zinc Mining District.

• In comparison with the 2017 Technical Report, Inferred Resource tonnes have increased by 78%, and contained metal

has increased by 42% for silver, 38% for lead, 32% for zinc and 450% for gold.

Significant aspects of comparison of Mineral Reserve estimates between June 2016 (previous Technical Report) and December 2019 (Ying 2020 Technical Report): • Increase in total Ying Mineral Reserve silver, lead, and zinc grades of 7%, 2%, and 11% respectively.

• Increase in total Ying Mineral Reserve metal content for silver and zinc of 4% and 8% respectively; 1% decrease in total lead content.

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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SILVERCORP METALS INC

342

Ying property. Shaver notes that in

to be,” explains Shaver. “Our last report

addition to the current inventory of

was based on drilling up to June 2016,

reserves of around 12 million tonnes

and this report brings that forward to

there is also the potential for further

December 2019. Mines are depleting

incre-ases if additional drilling can con-

assets but, despite the production

vert known resources to reserves, as

that took place over that timeframe,

well as identify more resources.

drilling results brought our inventory

“Everything in the report ties back to

at Ying, in terms of reserves, back up

the resources and then the reserves,

to essentially the same level. We had

because it’s upon those reserves that

a 20-year mine life that would have

the mine plan was established, and

been reduced by the depletion that

that dictates the projected economic

took place, but that life has been

contribution of what the mine is going

restored to 20 years again.”

FEBRUARY 2021

“ The Ying Technical Report has further confirmed our ability to define higher grades and prioritise those grades during the mine life” — Lon Shaver, Vice President, Silvercorp

the source of anomalous gold results from drilling that occurred in the past.”

Silvercorp’s recent technical report also introduced the potential for a seventh mining unit and the current Ying operations have excess mill capacity.

“Right now, the existing six mines are operating at sustainable production rates,” explains Shaver. “We don’t really want to push them for much higher tonnage, if anything we’re

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

looking at creating opportunities for

Silvercorp currently operates six mines

higher quality tonnage out of those

across three of its four licences in the

mines, and pursuing the development

Ying mining district - SGX, HZG, HPG,

of a seventh mining area, the DCG

LME, LMW, TLP. The Ying Technical

Project (which would be the first mine

Report confirmed that Ying is prov-

on the fourth licence). When that does

ing to be a prolific producer. “Over the

come online it may contribute to pro-

years, we’ve established the ability to

duction growth and flexibility in terms

define higher grades and prioritise

of the overall operating plan.”

those grades during the mine’s life,”

It’s early days, but Shaver explains

adds Shaver. “This of course brings the

there was work done historically on the

production to a higher level in the

Ying property’s fourth mining licence,

earlier years, which contributes more

which shows the potential of the veins

when calculating our net present value.

that Silvercorp is looking to develop into

Recent drilling appears to have identi-

new production zones. “We’ve been driv-

fied zones of traditional mineralization,

ing a tunnel towards that fourth licence

with high grades and close to existing

and with recent drilling efforts we’ve hit

infrastructure, but also potentially a dif-

some interesting zones,” he confirms. “If

ferent type of mineralization that was

it all proves to be positive, the next steps busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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SILVERCORP METALS INC

344

“ Given the pressures of the pandemic on the global economy, the metals markets should benefit from the fiscal stimulus being put forward. The inflationary pressures we’re seeing will be positive for precious metals” — Lon Shaver, Vice President, Silvercorp

FEBRUARY 2021

would be to develop additional access and infrastructure to develop another mining operation.”

THE MARKET “Like every other miner in the metals industry, we are in a commodities market where all the producers are price takers,” says Shaver. “The key focus then is how to create and sustain an operation at the low end of the cost curve, so that in good times when prices are high, you make money, but then when prices are low you can survive those tough times, continue to generate positive cash margins and be self-sustaining.”

Shaver sees a strong future for precious and base metals: “Given the pressures of the pandemic on the global economy, the metals markets should benefit from the fiscal stimulus being put forward. The inflationary pressures we’re seeing will be positive for precious metals, and silver will benefit from that, along with the part it plays in the electrification of society and its growing use in renewable energy such as solar. At Ying there are many positives as the mining is relatively straightforward, with good ground busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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SILVERCORP METALS INC

“ We trust the expertise AMC Consultants on technical reports and look forward to their input on assessing the viability of our future projects” — Lon Shaver, Vice President, Silvercorp

The Enterprise Blog

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The Enterprise Blog (EBlog) is Silvercorp’s social media platform for the transparent distribution and flow of work-related knowledge across multiple locations within the business. In the system, each of the mining stopes, development faces, or major pieces of equipment is assigned a blog name.

Daily results of onsite inspection by responsible engineers are required to be published on their blogs. The results are listed in a structured data format in a checklist table, containing information and supporting photos. Related parties at different levels of the management team can directly access the daily blog for each workplace, for first-hand information in real time. Meanwhile, the EBlog system also records when a manager has accessed the blog to read or comment on the daily results under their responsibility.

With the Enterprise Blog, information collection, assessments are fair and timely, and each team member is responsible for their work distribution, retrieval, and monitoring has become transparent and immediate. The knowledge collected by the frontline technicians or engineers freely flows throughout layers of the management structure. Management have the incentive, and tools, to make prompt and more accurate decisions that can be instantly delivered to responsible parties. The benefits of the system are that team member collaboration becomes easy, KPI assessments are fair and timely, and each team member is responsible for their work.

FEBRUARY 2021

conditions, and little mitigation needed.

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Metallurgy is strong and our concen-

A holistic and sustainable philosophy

trates are in high demand from smelters

is key to Silvercorp’s growth strategy.

so we are in a good position to be a

From reducing waste to minimising

sustainable producer of silver, gold,

mining’s footprint on the surrounding

lead and zinc.”

environment, the company is proactive in its efforts to lead the conversation

AMC CONSULTANTS

around sustainability for the mining

“AMC have been working with us for a

industry in China. “Across our mine

number of years and understand the

sites we’re continually re-greening

nature of the ore bodies, the informa-

and re-vegetating and right now we’re

tion we’re collecting, how we collect

building an aggregate plant within the

it, how it gets processed and how we

Ying mining district,” explains Shaver.

apply that picture to the operations,”

“Working with the community and local

explains Shaver. “We record some of

government we’re aiming to upcycle

these nuances on our Enterprise Blog;

waste rock stockpiles from our mines

our in-house platform allows us to

into useful building materials.”

store, share and access information

Silvercorp’s involvement with local

in real time across the business.

businesses is creating economic

AMC have made a number of site visits

opportunities in synchronicity with

and combined with the flow of informa-

its mine life plan. Setting the standard

tion we can share they’re in a great

for others to follow in China’s mining

position to chart the process and come

industry bodes well for a productive

up with what we believe are reason-

and bright future for the company.

able conclusions for this latest report.

They’ve also worked with us on reports for the GC mine. We trust the expertise AMC brings on technical reports and look forward to their input on assessing the viability of our future projects.” busi ne ssc hi ef . com

347

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Delivering value-based care with digital innovation

FEBRUARY 2021

349

WRITTEN BY

LEILA HAWKINS PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY busi ne ssc hi ef . com

MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

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FEBRUARY 2021

Richard Queen, Director of Data Solutions at Memorial Health in Ohio, tells us how they are using technology to drive value-based care

R

ichard Queen describes himself as a “tech geek”, who’s spent the majority of his career in healthcare, focused on finding ways to

close care gaps, reduce costs and overall, improve patient outcomes.

He joined Memorial Health System, a healthcare provider in Marietta, Ohio, because he was drawn by their innovation. “Their administrative team has an entrepreneurial mindset, more so than any hospital system I’ve ever seen before,” he says.

As an example, he cites the fact that the hospital hosts a healthcare software company MedOne Systems within its four walls. “We call it the ‘innovation center’. They’re currently writing a custom electronic medical record application called BOLT, which bolts on to our underlying electronic medical record (EMR). We’re rolling this out to all of our ambulatory and inpatient clinics to make provider time more productive. How many hospitals can you say have a tech company within their premises?” he asks.

As Director of Data Solutions, Queen is helping to improve workflow efficiency through a quadruple aim: busi ne ssc hi ef . com

351

Contactless registration to meet your health system's evolving needs Learn how Phreesia is powering safe, convenient, and contactless patient registration at health systems across the country, including Memorial Health System

Learn More

“ We’ve had phenomenal feedback from the physicians, with some saying they can see two more patients a day because they walk into the room knowing what needs to be done” — Richard Queen, Director of Data Solutions, Memorial Health System

the provider experience, the patient experience, population health, and reducing cost. “The last two are about value-based care,” he says. “That is the focus of everything we design, even from a technological standpoint, including better managing chronic diseases, ensuring patients receive preventative care, and designing solutions to be more cost effective.”

Queen has created CareBridge, a piece of software that draws from multiple data sources including the EMR, BOLT, different immunization vendors, the FDA, the US Census Bureau, and CMS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “CareBridge draws from these external data sources and combines this with our clinical data to enhance what we can do,” he says.

Part of its aim is to provide evidencebased preventative care, something that only eight to 15% of Americans receive in full measure.

“For example, people with diabetes need a hemoglobin A1C lab test at least once a year. It’s very common for a third to a half of diabetic patients to have not had one in the last 12 months,” Queen says. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

“ Value-based care is the focus of everything we design, even from a technological standpoint” — Richard Queen, Director of Data Solutions, Memorial Health System

354

“Typically, in any hospital, it’s the in-

and as a result in just six months

surance companies as the payers

Memorial has improved point-of-care

who calculate all this data and report

gap closure from 8.5 to 30%. “We’ve

back to you on what the patients need.

had phenomenal feedback from

The typical workflow is waiting six to

the physicians, with some say-

nine months after the point of care to

ing they can see two more patients a

tell you what didn’t happen, and then

day because they walk into the room

you have to manually try to either get

knowing what needs to be done.”

these patients back in, or prove that

The intention is to use CareBridge

you did. We’ve turned this data into real-

to manage a range of chronic diseases

time clinical indicators” he explains.

and standards of care such as mam-

CareBridge can provide this informa-

mograms for women and bone density

tion directly to the payer or the clinician,

scans for people with osteoporosis.

FEBRUARY 2021

E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :

Richard Queen

355

Title: Director of Data Solutions C ompany: Memorial Health Industry: Healthcare

Location: Ohio, United States

Richard has more than 12 years’ experience in hospital and provider group management, including diverse titles such as Chief Financial Officer, Director of Business Intelligence, and VP of Data Science. Combining his educational background in finance, his vast experience across healthcare, and his more than 20 years in technology and automation, he brings a unique perspective in his vision on the future of healthcare. Utilizing the principles of Lean Six Sigma and continuous process improvement, Richard has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to drive revenue growth, improve throughput, gain efficiencies, and implement process redesign.

Richard is passionate about identifying bottlenecks in today’s healthcare system and then putting technology to use in finding solutions. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

Care Bridge CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:43

356

“ We’ve really empowered staff across the organization to be able to get advanced clinical information” — Richard Queen, Director of Data Solutions, Memorial Health System

FEBRUARY 2021

Using algorithms, the software stratifies data by risk factor, so physicians can identify the right type of care for each patient at the right time.

Using a cloud-based platform, it’s been designed so it’s easy to use.

“Staff can engage with it in a very visual format, which gives them access to information that was previously difficult, if not impossible, to see from an electronic medical record.

Everyone from an administrator to a physician to a secretary with no technical skill whatsoever can very easily get into the system, run

DID Y O U KN O W?

By implementing supplemental data feeds directly to our payers, we immediately saw diabetic A1C compliance rise by 369%. Because of better data, we were able to get credit for the great work we were already doing operationally.

patient, Phreesia can show them things our records indicate they need.”

Alongside Carebrige, there has been other behind the scenes work such as implementing RPA for repetitive tasks to free up staff and automating scripts for appointment-making.

“We’re using open-source Python programming language to write many different algorithms for high-risk patients.

Every night we have scripts running to show each patient that has cancelled or not shown up to an appointment in the last 10 days and not rescheduled.

That generates reports by provider and

advanced clinical queries, and export the

inputs them directly into a Microsoft

data immediately. We’ve really empow-

Teams channel, so that when staff come

ered staff across the organization to be

in the next day, they have this prepared

able to get advanced clinical information.”

in front of them, with patient identifica-

To implement CareBridge, Queen and his team worked with software as a

tion and contact information.

“We’ve got this big SQL Server data-

service (SaaS) company Phreesia, a key

base that we’re making actionable using

partner in carrying out Memorial Health’s

Microsoft Power BI,” adds Queen. “This

digital strategy. “They have some great

has given us the ability to share all this

educational modules, check-in tools, and

advanced data logic in a way that is very

electronic registration tools for patients.

unintimidating and very visual to front-

They’re working with us on identifying

line staff. It’s been transformative for

care gap needs and building an interface

our workflow”.

directly to Phreesia so that, during that electronic registration process for the

Queen adds that none of these achievements would have happened without busi ne ssc hi ef . com

357

MEMORIAL HEALTH SYSTEM

1921

Year founded

64

Clinics operated

3,300 Number of employees

358

“ We’ve set ourselves up so much better than we expected to be from a digital transformation and technology standpoint.

We can now be more efficient at dealing with whatever is thrown at us next” — Richard Queen, Director of Data Solutions, Memorial Health System FEBRUARY 2021

a great team to support them. “Memorial have really set a vision across the entire organization that value-based care and population health are top initiatives.

That sets the expectation across all teams that we are going to have a unified vision, and work towards a common goal of offering first-class patient care at a reduced cost,” he says.

It’s also remarkable that they decided to accelerate their digital project during a hugely challenging time - the first few

359

months of the pandemic. “What was sup-

better than we expected to be from a

posed to be an 18 months to two-year

digital transformation and technology

rollout we ended up doing in six months.

standpoint. We can now be more effi-

Memorial chose to use this time of Covid

cient at dealing with whatever is thrown

to carry out this rollout throughout the

at us next.”

entire organization, knowing that we would have challenges to overcome, but adding tremendous value to the organization and avoiding staff furloughs in a time of lower volumes. Obviously, we’re still dealing with Covid, as everybody is, but we’ve set ourselves up so much busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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