July 2019 Issue

July 2019

Virtual Reality Surgery Preparing trainees for real-life operations with FubndamentalVR’s pioneering technology

Growing Success RateSetter’s Jonathan Hodge, Andreas Papadopoulos and Alastair Jones on their company’s unique proposition

Tony Healy Mobica’s CIO talks digital transformation, cybersecurity, customer service and people management

DIARY DATES Tech Open Air 2-5 JULY

Funkhaus Berlin, NalepastraĂ&#x;e 18, 12459 Berlin

FullStack London 2019

10-12 July

Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 0QH

ProductLed Summit

21-26 July

summit.productled.com

I

t has been a joy for me to put together the July edition of Digital Innovation Magazine. I have had the pleasure of interviewing four tech leaders this issue - Tony Healy, CIO at Mobica (p26), as well as RateSetter’s Chief Operating Officer, Director of Engineering and Director of IT Operations; Jonathan Hodge, Andreas Papadopoulos and Alastair Jones no less (p62)!

Tony has recently been appointed to the position of CIO at Mobica, so it was fascinating for me to find out more about his changing role. It is clear that the CIO is more about people than systems and software these days, which ties in very nicely with our feature all about the reinvention of the fintech industry’s CIO role over on page 6.

Furthermore, the RateSetter team kindly shared their strategy for business success. By ensuring that their organisation continually evolves, it is able to keep up with any new customer requirements, as well as withstand competition. Huge thanks to Jonathan, Andreas and Alastair for their time.

As always, we are proud to bring you the latest stories and goings-on in the world of tech and innovation, so, this issue, we bring you news of the latest research project at Lancaster University using 3D printed sweets (p44), a report on new findings that UK businesses are fully invested in AI but lack the necessary in-house skilled talent (p72), plus virtual reality surgery that prepares medical students at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for the operating theatre (p52).

Happy reading!

Editor Anna McMahon

Director Danielle Harris

editorial@digitalinnovationeu.com

d.harris@digitalinnovationeu.com

Senior Digital Designer Daniel May

Director Tom Barnes

design@digitalinnovationeu.com

t.barnes@digitalinnovationeu.com

+44 (0) 203 890 1189 enquiries@digitalinnovationeu.com All rights reserved. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of material published in Digital Innovation Magazine. However, the company cannot accept responsibility for the claims made by advertisers or contributors, or inaccurate material supplied by advertisers.

Digital Innovation is a trading name of HBL Europe Ltd. Company Registration Number: 10933897. Company Registered in England and Wales

3

Tony Healy, CIO at M is a keen investor in

26

Kao Data pledges to operate using only renewable energy

16

6

How the financial sector is reinventing the role of the CIO

52

Technology replicating organs and tissues is assisting trainee surgeons 4

Mobica, n people Lancaster University uses 3D printed sweets in its latest research

44

In-house skilled talent shortage is a barrier to AI

72

82

62

UK company, AVORA, is this issue’s start-up of the month

RateSetter’s Jonathan Hodge, Andreas Papadopoulos and Alastair Jones talk infrastructure, technology and staying on top 5

FINTECH

REINVENTIN 6

NG THE ROLE The financial sector is seeing transformational changes at every level, not least in the responsibilities of the CIO.

7

W

ith technology taking over many financial interactions and changing the way we communicate, regulate and deliver financial services, the fintech landscape is shifting.

insurance, at the same time, it must now cater for the needs of progressive and digitallyequipped customers. Data forms the foundation of any fintech, so it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to be data-savvy.

Revolving around a host of traditional services, such as payments, lending and

This is where the role of the modern CIO in financial institutions comes to the fore.

DATA FORMS THE FOUNDATION OF ANY FINTECH

8

DATA IS KEY ordes of data, often in an unstructured form, exists within organisations. It is a wealth of information, but only if utilised well. Decisions are becoming more data-based, with the need to understand the implications of a wrong decision taken, especially decisions taken without a sound data backing. With regulatory and compliance mechanisms being extremely stringent, it can cost organisations millions in breach cases. Thus, data-based financial strategy formation must be given its due credit and skills developed to attain the same. This includes developing prowess in analytics, data management and data storage.

Another key skill is the ability to differentiate the controllable from the uncontrollable data variables, and try to devise maximum valueadding offerings in a complex operating environment. This complex environment must be understood, organised and addressed as the first responsibility of the new-age CIO.

9

ON THE BALL IOs must stay up-to-date on the technological advancements in the industry and look at opportunities to integrate finance and technology in the best possible way. Digging deep into the loopholes from a customer point of view is extremely important i.e. the ability to develop a high degree of customer orientation.

DIGGING DEEP INTO THE LOOPHOLES FROM A CUSTOMER POINT OF VIEW IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT 10

11

12

FRESH APPROACH t is essential that a CIO be nonbiased by traditional business processes and methodologies.

A fresh perspective is a must to develop innovative fintech solutions. An outwards-in approach must therefore be developed, as opposed to an inward-looking perspective.

While concurrent departments, such as sales and marketing, are more focused on developments outside the organisation, IT has always been more concerned with internal issues. One of the key reasons for this is the high focus on operational issues in the IT domain, driving leaders away from thought leadership.

A FRESH PERSPECTIVE IS A MUST TO DEVELOP INNOVATIVE FINTECH SOLUTIONS 13

STRATEGIC PLAN ost importantly, the CIO must have a decisive place at the business table. IT must not be treated as a business support function, but as a true enabler of business. In fact, the role of a CIO must not only be enriched, but totally reimagined in the new scheme of work in the financial world. Some of the major financial players, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., have already embarked on that journey, with their latest CIO initiating a host of developments to make the company’s applications more cloudaware. This is the way ahead for most financial institutions.

THE ROLE OF A CIO MUST NOT ONLY BE ENRICHED, BUT TOTALLY REIMAGINED IN THE NEW SCHEME OF WORK IN THE FINANCIAL WORLD 14

15

D ATA C E N T R E N E W S

COMMITM

SUSTAIN

Kao Data, provider of s neutral data centre sp it will operate using 10 energy at its Lo

16

MENT TO

NABILITY

state-of-the-art, carrierpace, has announced 00 per cent renewable ondon campus.

17

KAO DATA, THE HOME OF INNOVATION AND ONE OF THE UK’S LEADING ENTRANTS TO THE WHOLESALE COLOCATION DATA CENTRE MARKETS, HAS AGREED TO USE ONLY RENEWABLE ENERGY GOING FORWARD, AND BE COST NEUTRAL TO ITS CUSTOMERS.

18

W

hen the campus is operating at full load (43.5MVA), this will effectively reduce CO₂ emissions by more than 80,000 tons per annum, the equivalent of removing over 30,000 vehicles from the road.

By today’s standards, many legacy data centres and colocation providers are unable to offer the same level of technological advancement, scalability and low cost of operations as those built on innovative hyper-scale

principles. Kao Data’s commitment to innovation and continuous improvement, providing renewable energy at a zero-price premium, ensures that customers are not compromised in their requirements for multi-tariff energy options.

Paul Finch, COO at Kao Data, said, “Although the industry can evidence tremendous improvements in operational efficiency over the last decade, data centres will continue to be an increasing consumer of

19

“ALTHOUGH THE INDU TREMENDOUS IMPROVEM EFFICIENCY OVER THE LAST WILL CONTINUE TO BE AN IN POWER DRIVEN BY CO

Paul Fin

20

USTRY CAN EVIDENCE MENTS IN OPERATIONAL T DECADE, DATA CENTRES NCREASING CONSUMER OF ONSUMER DEMAND”

nch, COO at Kao Data

21

power driven by consumer demand. “The EU Commission recently concluded, by 2030, annual energy consumption relating to servers and infrastructure is forecast to rise to 75TWh. It is Kao Data’s belief that we need to work closely with our supply chain to ensure renewable energy remains fully accessible, promoting sustainability and strong industry stewardship.�

Kao

Kao Data Wins CSR Prize at Datacloud Global Awards 2019

The data centre market is irrevocably linked to the utility industry. There are very few people in the developed world who are not dependent on the data streaming through these buildings, or on the energy coursing through the power lines linking our homes, work and communities together.

22

23

As such, data centres are increasingly becoming more sustainably developed and powered, something that is fundamental to Kao Data’s corporate social responsibility ethos.

Kao Data’s campus is engineered to be highly efficient, utilising 100 per cent ‘free-cooling’ to reduce the complexity of both the mechanical and electrical

24

“KAO DATA’S ENGINEERED T EFFICIENT, UT PER CENT ‘FREE REDUCE THE CO BOTH THE MEC ELECTRICAL

S CAMPUS IS TO BE HIGHLY TILISING 100 E-COOLING’ TO OMPLEXITY OF CHANICAL AND L SYSTEMS”

systems. This results in an ultra-low PUE, even at very low customer IT utilisation.

Achieving 100 per cent renewable energy use is a longstanding commitment and demonstrates the effectiveness of Kao Data’s business processes and responsibility to improve operational performance, provide increased assurance, and reduce the environmental impact of the business.

For further information on Kao Data, visit www.kaodata.com

25

26

Tony Healy is the CIO at Mobica, a global software services company with close to 1000 staff, three-quarters of whom are highly skilled engineers, who specialise in delivering enabling technologies to transform business outcomes.

Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Danielle Harris

27

Mobica offers scalable custom software engineering with technical and delivery excellence, across the stack, from chip to cloud, but Tony’s role is far more than just systems and software.

T

ony Healy plans and executes Mobica’s global IT strategy and roadmap, which includes the delivery of their technology solutions and enhancement to their cybersecurity footprint. Mobica is undergoing some exciting changes, reported Tony, “My role is to implement a complete global digital system transformation, which will see a large number of legacy and custom-built applications replaced with new cloud-based technology.”

28

Having expanded rapidly over the last few years, Mobica has opened new offices around the world and hired hundreds of additional employees. For a company undergoing that type of year-on-year growth, it’s easy for the internal tech stack to become outdated while everyone is focused on servicing customers. In 2018, Mobica made the decision to bring in a leading CIO, Tony, to lead the digital transformation programme covering all IT systems and roadmap, and bring together customer

Tony Healy CIO at Mobica “I am where I am because of the people who work for me, and a large part of my role is enabling my team members to grow and achieve success�

29

Mobica consolidates onto one communications platform with RingCentral “RingCentral is leaps and bounds above the communications systems I’ve used in previous organisations. It is truly enabling our global, mobile workforce.”

—Tony Healy, CIO

30

Named as one of the UK Sunday Times Tech track top 100

Awarded the Queen’s Named as one of Award for Enterprise: the London Stock Exchange’s 1000 companies International Trade to inspire Britain

innovation and internal system transformation. Tony explains that the success of any digital transformation program is based on three key concepts; People, Process and Technology.

People People is the first component of any Systems Digital Transformation Strategy, comprising:

1.

The leader who develops and implements the businessenabling vision and strategy

2.

The business people around whom the whole strategy and roadmap is centred and who define the requirements and content so that the roadmap is people-centric, not technology first

3. The IT team who deliver it 4. Sponsorship from the top table 31

Tony leads the Mobica team on this new journey. He has worked with high-growth global organisations including Wall Family Enterprises, Synexus and Promethean PLC, where he has performed as a visionary leader, building high-performing teams. Tony is well-known in the wider IT community, speaking at many events such as CIO summits, forums and roundtables, mentoring at Tech Manchester, and has recently been selected to chair the judging panel for the 2019 UK Digital Experience Awards to share his expertise with the rising stars in the industry.

Tony believes that the end user (employee in this case) is fundamental in driving the digital transformation journey.

The Strategy has to be businessuser-centric and enable these requirements to drive the technology choices, rather than starting with them. He explained, “The tables have turned. Systems are not driven, created and implemented by IT teams in a silo, disconnected from the business.

The users can and must now influence our ways of working and our technology choices in order to create real digital transformation.

It is about making sure that the systems and teams of people can 32

now adapt to that change in mind-set.”

Tony believes that a highly motivated and capable IT team is essential to the success of a digital transformation program, adding, “I am where I am because of the people who work for me, and a large part of my role is enabling my team members to grow and achieve success.”

He believes in establishing teams with core values of hard work, respect and trust, and is noted for his love of mentoring and coaching people, helping them to realise their potential at all times. Tony said, “I really enjoy developing people, finding their potential and real talent, and supporting them to develop further.”

Tony believes that the end user (employee in this case) is fundamental in driving the digital transformation journey

33

ONE MISSION. ONE PURPOSE. ONE COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM.

RingCentral delivers a single global communications platform for modern digital business that empowers companies to work as one to better serve their customers, improve business efficiency, and boost customer satisfaction.

Visit ringcentral.co.uk to learn more.

34

Process Process is the second component of digital transformation. In order for the program to be successful, it is critical that process evaluation and transformation come before technology choices.

There is a misconception that digital transformation is simply about putting a new system in place. It is a complex exercise involving understanding what the current processes are, why you want to improve them, and how you want to change them to fully optimise those processes within the business. Implementing a platform and solution capable of scaling with the organisation is key to this exercise.

Tony explains, “Taking a growing business on a digital transformation journey requires full company buy-in and a lot of trust from the entire staff that the journey will be worth it. It involves balancing the vision of the longterm transformation plan along with implementing continuous prioritised improvements all the way along that journey. So when I started at Mobica in 2018, we looked initially at the quick wins for the business, addressing the areas that were potentially costing

us a lot of money, were very complicated, or caused our users frustration.

To make life easier for people within the business, we stabilised the core infrastructure, improved our security footprint, enabled a process review across key technology requirement areas, ensured we were GDPR compliant, and consolidated a number of our online meeting and telephony platforms into a single standardised collaboration tool.

“Mobica partners with RingCentral to consolidate its collaboration solutions and telephony platforms�

Tony Healy, CIO at Mobica

Technology The third leg of any digital transformation program is the technology choices and onboarding the right, reliable platform and solution providers to enable your business to achieve the roadmap goals with 35

Tony Healy CIO at Mobica

“It’s essential that we continue to streamline our processes to make life easier for people and enable them to deliver the truly world-leading innovations that our customers demand”

36

37

maximum impact and minimum disruption.

Mobica partners with RingCentral to consolidate its collaboration solutions and telephony platforms.

Tony said, “I started looking at an all-in-one cloud collaboration tool for telephony. Being a global business of nearly 1000 people, I also needed something that we could use on multiple devices.

Since its implementation, we have dramatically reduced the amount of money we were paying in onpremises telephony systems and various platforms, and improved our employees’ experience in their day-to-day work, reducing multiple phones and systems.”

Security is a key enabler to digital transformation, and as a wrapper around all activity, can be the key component as to whether an IT digital transformation program implementation fails or

is successful. With a background in security, architecture and strategy, Tony is well-placed to enhance Mobica’s cybersecurity footprint. He said, “In this day and age, reputation is everything. When you are dealing with customers who demand and expect a high level of security, we need to ensure that we are as protected as possible.”

The company now partners with Triangulate, who have introduced them to Rebasoft for its security software.

Tony added, “I need a single view of my enterprise, so I know what people are doing from a network and security perspective. I wanted to be able to control the devices coming in and out of the business, and to see how much traffic is being generated. It is important to go through a robust process to on-board a supplier-partner you trust with a core component such as security, especially in a high technology innovation area that we are in.

“We have built a robust security policy which protects the business and our users, and we take a common-sense approach. Rather than having 10 different security systems

38

Mobica is already well on its way with the digital transformation journey and intends to be even better placed in the market once this journey is complete, with far more flexible and dynamic systems

39

As for Mobica’s future plans, the organisation has aggressive growth targets to continue its reach as a leading software solutions company

40

monitoring 10 different things, we decided to pull everything into one single system, because if you’ve got a number of alerts being triggered in 10 different systems, it’s quite hard to track them through to resolution.

One system allows us to easily drill through to the issue and rapidly resolve it.

We are also investing heavily in perimeter security, internal security and the right anti-virus products, but more importantly, we are focusing on the user element. We are rolling out cyber training with our employees, such as how to spot phishing attacks and how to be secure when accessing company information remotely.”

What’s Next?

Mobica is already well on its way with the digital transformation journey and intends to be even better placed in the market once this journey is complete, with far more flexible and dynamic systems.

Tony expands on this, “Last week, we had sign-off on our 12-18 month transformation plan, which will see sales, HR, marketing and finance all move to new cloud-based solutions that will generate business process improvements, easier ways of working, and enable the business to flex depending on the business strategy.”

As for Mobica’s future plans, the organisation has aggressive growth targets to continue its reach as a leading software solutions company. Tony concluded, “Our new CEO, Simon Wilkinson, has an excellent vision for the company. Between Simon and Inflexion, who are our private equity partner, they see the great potential for the business to grow.

We are very good at what we do, and they want to take it to the next level. To grow our business model, Simon realises that we need to give our workforce the right tools to do their job, and simplify processes and systems as much as possible to enable every individual to focus on the areas where they individually excel in innovative R&D development.

My role is to provide the platforms that will enable Mobica to reach this ambitious vision, ensuring that they are flexible to adjust as we grow and move into different markets. It’s essential that we continue to streamline our processes to make life easier for people and enable them to deliver the truly world-leading innovations that our customers demand.”

For further information on Mobica, visit www.mobica.com 41

42

“The Digital Innovation team are incredibly professional and it was my pleasure to be part of the August 2018 edition. At each stage, Danielle and her team were highly prepared and very thorough. I was impressed with the level of diligence and attention to detail that they paid throughout the whole process. It was good to work with a team who had an extremely high level of contextual expertise in the industry in terms of breadth and depth, and they had clearly done their research properly. I wish them every success and it was a real career high to be involved with the project, and I’d like to thank the Digital Innovation team for everything they have done for me” – Jen Stirrup, Director – Data Relish

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE!

SUBSCRIBE

43

3D PRINTING

SWEET & SOUR

44

Researchers at Lancaster University and Dovetailed Ltd have used printed sweets in their latest food and memory experiment, which tests the link between different tastes and their corresponding memories.

45

AN ORIGINAL STUDY BY LANCASTER UNIVERSITY AND DOVETAILED LTD TESTS THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS FOODS ON HUMAN RECOLLECTION, SPECIFICALLY THE LINK BETWEEN SWEET OR BITTER TASTES AND THEIR PARALLEL MEMORIES. n order to isolate the various tastes and odours within each food sample, the researchers used 3D printing. This allowed them to develop specific treats that met the control requirements of the experiment.

Tom Gayler, of Lancaster University and lead researcher of the study, said, “Taste can be a powerful tool to express and communicate experiences.

Although lab-based studies have looked at the relationships between basic tastes and emotions, until now we have known very little about how this extends to real-life scenarios.”

46

While most studies tested these factors in abstract ways, usually related to mood, this latest research tested for positive and negative experiences.

“TASTE CAN BE A POWERFUL TOOL TO EXPRESS AND COMMUNICATE EXPERIENCES” As a result, they were able to confirm the common suspicion that sweet tastes correlate to positive experiences. And, conversely, they were also able to

47

find a correlation between bitter tastes and negative experiences.

Testing the links between food and memory recollection is not a new idea. However, the difference in this approach is the level of control the researchers exercised. They were also able to create original foods that avoid triggering pre-existing associations outside of taste and odour. This is all thanks to their use of the nufood printer, providing for a much neater experiment design.

Tom added, “We wanted to find out more about which tastes are associated with which emotions, to discover if our sense of taste can be used to develop new experiences, and we also wanted to explore how some of these

48

“WE WANTE OUT MORE AB TASTES ARE A WITH WHICH TO DISCOVER OF TASTE CAN DEVELOP NEW E

ED TO FIND BOUT WHICH ASSOCIATED H EMOTIONS, IF OUR SENSE N BE USED TO EXPERIENCES”

experiences, such as finding out how your favourite team did in the big match, might work.”

The researchers take their conclusions further, noting how food printing could be a memory retrieval means.

They envisage 3D food printers located within the home and connected to a smartphone,

49

“THE RESEARCHERS TAKE THEIR CONCLUSIONS FURTHER, NOTING HOW FOOD PRINTING COULD BE A MEMORY RETRIEVAL MEANS. THEY ENVISAGE 3D FOOD PRINTERS LOCATED WITHIN THE HOME AND CONNECTED TO A SMARTPHONE, CREATING FOODS THAT TRIGGER MEMORIES AS STIMULI IN MUCH THE SAME WAY WE USE OLD PHOTOS” creating foods that trigger memories as stimuli in much the same way we use old photos. The concept is an interesting one.

The study states, “Systems could be designed to support recall on-demand (as you would when choosing to view old photographs) or allow users to ‘stumble’ across memories through digitally curated experiences that control the delivery of food as memory cue. Specifically, this could be a system that supports users with declining memory recall performance associated with 50

aging, allowing them to create prompts in the form of printed food stimuli helping them recall stories from their youth. Eating is a bodily experience that creates a re-experiencing transcending the more passive experience of simply looking at family photos or videos, moving towards a visceral felt aspect of remembrance.”

This approach could therefore be useful in bringing aiding recollections in patients with memory issues, with food printing being more commonly seen in old people’s homes and other medical situations.

51

V I RT UA L R E A L I T Y

A pioneering system by FundamentalVR gives trainee surgeons the hands-on experience they require, using haptic technology to replicate actual organs and tissues, in preparation for performing real-life operations.

52

53

FUNDAMENTALVR SPECIALISES IN THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCES AND HAPTICS TO ENHANCE MEDICAL TRAINING AND OUTCOMES.

An overview of Fundamental Surgery 54

T

aking advantage of VR hardware to create a simulation system that can be used on any modern VR-enabled PC or laptop, FundamentalVR’s SaaS platform, Fundamental Surgery, grants healthcare professionals low-cost access to authentic surgical simulations with precise measurement and performance insight.

A spokesperson for FundamentalVR said, “We believe that every surgeon

should have the opportunity to rehearse, practise and test themselves within a safe, controllable space that is as close to real life as possible and is within an arm’s reach of their workplace.”

The company provides a suite of online simulations for use by hospitals and institutions, delivering customised simulations and medical training experiences that combine the very latest VR techniques with the 55

sense of touch. Working in disciplines as varied as MIS/ Laparoscopic, Ophthalmology, ENT and Neurosurgery, and in training ranging from technical capability development and rehearsal through to clinical shared decisioning, Fundamental Surgery can provide a new way to accelerate education, understanding and advocacy.

The latest London hospital to sign up to the platform

56

is St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which now offers Fundamental Surgery as part of the curriculum for the South West London Registrar Orthopaedic Training Program, adopting the VR and haptic simulation system for spine and orthopaedic training.

The simulation system has been installed within the GAPS Centre (St George’s Advanced Patient Simulation and Skills Centre) and was used

SURGICAL TRAINEES CAN ACTUALLY FEEL THE MOVEMENT AND INTERACTION OF TISSUE, MUSCLE AND BONE WITHIN A SUBMILLIMETRE OF ACCURACY OF RESISTANCE in a recent South London Deanery training day on hip arthroplasty.

Omar Sabri, Consultant at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and lead consultant on the integration into the program, said, “We are thrilled to have integrated Fundamental Surgery into the GAPS Centre and to have also had the group of orthopaedic trainees go through the program, experiencing the Posterior Approach Total Hip Replacement (PTHR) on the machine for the first time.

Through this integration, trainees can now demonstrate the skills they’ve learned by using this technology and have it reflected in their educational portfolio and Intercollegiate Surgical Curriculum Project.

This, along with the Royal College approval, (is) just the start for Fundamental Surgery’s platform and the team’s effort to integrate it into all surgical training programs across the country.”

With the integration, the trainees at St George’s University Hospitals NHS 57

OUR EDUCATION TREMENDOUS LONG FOR ENHANCING SU THROUGHOUT THE N OF BETTER PATIE

Richa CEO a

58

N PLATFORM HAS G-TERM POTENTIAL URGICAL TRAINING NHS, IN THE PURSUIT ENT OUTCOMES

ard Vincent, at FundamentalVR

59

Watch a VR Total Knee Arthroplasty operation

Foundation Trust can now utilise the Fundamental Surgery platform to test and hone their skills. Through the platform’s live dashboard, the trainees and their professors can review

their performances and scores achieved, allowing both parties to visualise their progression with all aspects of the training module.

Richard Vincent, CEO at FundamentalVR, said, “We are thrilled to be working with such a prestigious teaching hospital. Our education platform has tremendous longterm potential for enhancing surgical training throughout the NHS, in the pursuit of better patient outcomes. The implementation is further proof that our haptic simulations

60

provide a virtual environment that can help provide access and aid training development.�

Fundamental Surgery’s remote data analytics and data dashboard covering surgical skills and knowledge provide an invaluable insight into surgical capability and education progression. While other simulations are limited to visual and audio interactions, Fundamental Surgery takes

it to a new level, as surgical trainees can actually feel the movement and interaction of tissue, muscle and bone (as they would in an actual procedure) within a submillimetre of accuracy of resistance.

Is this the future of medical training?

For further information on FundamentalVR, visit www.fundamentalvr.com

61

B U S I N E S S I N T E RV I E W

RateSetter’s Jonathan Hodge, Andreas Papadopoulos and Alastair Jones explain why they believe their company must continuously evolve, to ensure its proposition is a growing success.

Written by Anna McMahon • Produced by Danielle Harris

62

63

AT THIS TIME LAST YEAR, RATESETTER WAS FIVE MONTHS INTO ITS ISA JOURNEY, HAVING RELEASED ITS ISA PRODUCT IN FEBRUARY 2018.

SINCE THEN, A LOT OF HARD WORK HAS GONE INTO THE PROPOSITION, AS WELL AS THE TECHNOLOGY, ENSURING RATESETTER’S CUSTOMERS EXPERIENCE THE BEST POSSIBLE SERVICE.

C

hief Operating Officer, Jonathan Hodge, explained, “The product has been very successful for us. In the last 17 months, as well as releasing the product for new investors, we have also started taking transfers. People with existing ISAs with other providers, whether they are cash ISAs or stocks and shares ISAs, are now able to transfer those to RateSetter. We have been through

64

of ISA investor money, both new and transferred 65

RateSetter has an in-house team specialists working across its co hardware and security needs, an partnerS closely with the team a leverage additional software de capacity to enable it to deliver a range of business strategies rap our second ISA season and received £250 million of ISA investor money, both new and transferred. We believe we are the biggest provider of the innovative finance ISA in the country.”

With success in marketing its ISA product to individual customers, RateSetter is now looking to attract financial advisers. Jonathan said, “One of our biggest areas of development at the moment in terms of technology is allowing easy access for advisers to our products. We are speaking with advisers to gather information about their requirements to 66

ensure our product works for them and their customers.”

RateSetter has an in-house team of technology specialists working across its code, data, hardware and security needs, and it also partners closely with the team at N-iX to leverage additional software development capacity to enable it to deliver across a wide range of business strategies rapidly. For example, much work has been undertaken in the technology area to build a portal that can be accessed by advisers, which will enable them to manage the interests of their clients.

m of technology ode, data, nd it also at N-iX to evelopment across a wide pidly

Dedicated Development Team Sooware QA & Tessng

Sooware Product Development

Jonathan Hodge Chief Operating Officer

Technical Support

Mobile Applicaaon Development

Lviv, Kyiv (UA) | Sofia (BG) | Krakow (PL) | Minsk (BY) | Malmo (SE) | St. Petersburg (USA)

n-ix.com contact@n-ix.com 67

Alongside this, RateSetter is rapidly developing its mirco services architecture in order to help accelerate business growth. The nature of the micro service paradigm is to allow

distributed computing, something that the cloud providers are now supporting. It is a tool that allows code to be broken into different parts, each carrying out a specific function. Alastair Jones, Director of IT Operations, explained, “From a business point of view, it is an approach that allows us to break up the monolith code-base so that it becomes much more scalable.

In this way, we can rapidly build and deploy architecture for accelerating customer growth and prepare for it accordingly.�

RateSetter has earned a reputation for providing a

The biggest and most significant change in terms of security we have made is to use a product from Veracode Alastair Jones Director of IT Operations

68

platform that is both innovative and continuously moving forward, in a bid to offer customers the best possible service. Andreas Papadopoulos, Director of Engineering, said, “We are about to launch a new scoring system to determine the creditworthiness of customers. It gives us the ability to derive credit scores from different data sources to inform credit strategies. It is based on the micro-services architecture and is completely bespoke to us, giving our credit team the ability to easily customise strategies”.

Operating since 2010

600,000 investors and borrowers

Jonathan said, “RateSetter is committed to building its own credit decisioning technology.

At the very basic level, when we have new customers who want to borrow from our platform, we have to make a decision about whether or not they should receive a loan. We have built our own technology - it is a big project, which is currently going through its second phase. It is part of RateSetter’s proposition, and who we are, which is, we believe, the best peer-to-peer lending potential new threats. Alastair company for managing risk.” said, “The biggest and most significant change in terms of Cyber security is something that security we have made is to the company takes very seriously, use a product from Veracode. constantly updating its security This tool allows us to test the practices to withstand any code as it is written to check for

£3.2Bn

£3.2 billion invested to date

69

We are about to launch a new scoring system to determine the creditworthiness of customers Andreas Papadopoulos, Director of Engineering 70

vulnerabilities, so every time a new code is built, it is analysed

by Veracode and we receive reports back. There is an iterative loop to ensure the developers are writing secure code, free of application security flaws, and they know at which points it could fall down.”

One of the other pieces of infrastructure in place is cloud security platform, Cisco Umbrella.

Alastair added, “Cisco Umbrella manages calls made to sites that are outside of our control, where there is known to be a threat. It protects all Domain Name Server (DNS) traffic, preventing user connections from being completed when the user attempts to browse to sites which are known to be malicious or compromised in some way. We use many pieces of infrastructure such as this to protect as many elements as we can. The next stage will be looking at how documents are managed and owned, and what compliance can be put around the ownership of individual files. We have come a considerable way in the last two years. It is our aim to stay one step ahead and remain as secure as possible.”

clear proposition and we are well placed for the future. We have a strong product that appeals to a large number of people who would like to do more with their money.

We pride ourselves on making the product as accessible as possible, allowing our customers to access their accounts and their money as simply as possible. If their circumstances change, they are able to put money in or take money out. In addition, we are looking at how new types of customer can have access to the product we are offering. Underneath that, we are doing a lot of work across all our technology, from developing our platform to looking at the risk of cyber security. The platform is constantly improving and becoming more and more scalable in order to meet future demand.”

As for the future of RateSetter, the company is continually evolving.

Jonathan added, “We have a very

For further information on RateSetter, visit www.ratesetter.com 71

A RT I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E

72

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE New findings suggest that most UK organisations are fully invested in AI. However, almost threequarters don’t have the required in-house skilled talent to execute their strategy.

73

RESEARCH BY SOFTWARE COMPANY, SNAPLOGIC, HAS FOUND THAT 93 PER CENT OF UK BUSINESSES CONSIDER AI TO BE A PRIORITY, AND EITHER HAVE PROJECTS PLANNED OR ALREADY IN PRODUCTION, BUT 73 PER CENT OF THEM ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT MIX OF SKILLED AI TALENT IN-HOUSE TO BRING THEIR STRATEGIES TO LIFE.

74

I

nadequate access to skilled talent was cited as the number one barrier to progressing their AI initiatives, followed by lack of budget, lack of access to the right technology and tools, and lack of access to useful data.

93% of UK businesses consider AI to be a priority

The study was conducted by independent specialist in market research for the technology sector, Vanson Bourne, on behalf of SnapLogic. Vanson studied the views and perspectives of around 300 IT decision makers (ITDMs) across several industries, asking key questions such as where is your organisation in its AI/ML

journey, what are the top barriers your organisation is facing when executing your AI initiatives, does your organisation have employees in-house with the required skillset to execute your strategy, and what are the top skills and attributes you are looking for in your AI team?

73%

acknowledge that they do not have the right mix of skilled AI talent in-house

Where are organisations in their AI/ML journey?

When asked where organisations are in their AI/ML journey, 93 per cent of ITDMs claim to be fully invested in AI, with 66 per cent of organisations in the UK having initiated an AI project during the past three years.

75

76

“INTERESTINGLY, THE PRIORITY SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES THAT ORGANISATIONS ARE LOOKING FOR IN THEIR AI TEAM ARE CODING, PROGRAMMING AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT (35 PER CENT)” Looking at specific industry sectors, the financial services industry is most progressive, with 80 per cent having current AI projects in place, followed closely by the retail, distribution

and transport sector (76 per cent), and the business and professional services sector (72 per cent). Surprisingly, the IT industry was found to be among the least progressive in AI uptake, with 70 per cent having projects actively in place.

Key barriers holding AI initiatives back Despite strong levels of AI uptake, organisations are being held back by significant barriers, with 73 per cent of ITDMs in the UK claiming to not have the right in-house AI talent to execute their strategy.

77

Manufacturing and IT are challenged the most by this in-house talent shortage, with 69 per cent of manufacturing organisations and 56 per cent of those in the IT sector citing lack of in-house talent as the primary barrier.

Behind lack of access to skilled talent, ITDMs also consider a lack of budget (32 per cent) to be a key issue holding them back, followed by a lack of access to the right technologies and tools (28 per cent), as well as a lack of access to useful data (26 per cent).

Building the right AI team Interestingly, the priority skills and attributes that organisations are looking for in their AI team are coding, programming and software development (35 per cent), with

78

“MICRO LOOKING NEW INI ANNOUN IN AI, MA ENGINEER

data visualisation and analytics considered to be a priority by 33 per cent of ITDMs. An understanding of governance, security and ethics is also considered a necessary skill (34 per cent), and just over a quarter of ITDMs (27 per cent) are looking for talent with an advanced degree in a field closely related to AI/ML.

recruiting from universities is important in getting an effective AI team in place.

Gaurav Dhillon, CEO at SnapLogic, said, “The AI uptake figures are very encouraging, but key barriers to execution remain. For organisations to accelerate their AI initiatives, they must upskill and recruit the

OSOFT AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY ARE G TO LESSEN THE SKILLS GAP WITH A ITIATIVE. THE TWO COMPANIES HAVE NCED A NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR SKILLS ACHINE LEARNING, CLOUD AND DATA RING, AND DATA SCIENCE” right talent and invest in new In order to build the right AI technology and tools. team, an impressive 68 per cent said they are investing in “Today’s self-service and lowretraining and upskilling existing code technologies can help employees. Nearly 58 per cent bridge the gap, effectively of ITDMs indicated they are democratising AI and machine identifying and recruiting skilled learning by getting these talent from other companies transformative capabilities into and organisations, while almost the hands of more workers at half (49 per cent) believe that

79

133m

new roles could be created as a result of the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms

80

“ACCORDING TO THE WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, TECHNOLOGIES LIKE AI ARE CREATING DEMAND FOR NEW WORKER SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES” every skill level, thus moving the modern enterprise into the age of automation.”

solutions for firms, and building a sustainable talent pool of workers with AI skills.

Microsoft and General Assembly According to the World are looking to lessen the skills Economic Forum, technologies gap with a new initiative. like AI are creating demand The two companies have for new worker skills and announced a new partnership competencies, and by 2022, for skills in AI, machine learning, up to 133 million new roles cloud and data engineering, could be created as a result and data science. of the new division of labour between humans, machines The initiative will aim to build and algorithms. In order credentials and standards for to tackle this challenge, AI skills, upskilling and reskilling both Microsoft and General 15,000 workers by 2022, along Assembly will be powering with creating a pool of AI 2,000 job transitions for talent for the global workforce. workers into AI and machine According to both firms, the learning roles in year one, joint program will be focused and will train an additional on three main areas; setting 13,000 workers with AI-related the standards for AI skills, skills across sectors in the next developing scalable AI training three years.

81

IN THE SP OTLIGHT

START-UP OF THE MONTH AVORA is a next-generation data intelligence solution delivering cost-effective, machine learning powered, business intelligence as a service.

P

roviding what is calls ‘business intelligence as a service’, AVORA, the enterprise analytics platform powered by native machine learning, was founded in London five years ago by CEO Ricky Thomas. With a vision to create an easy-to-use but automatic insights platform utilising machine learning with Smart Alerting, it provides automatic insights through anomaly detection and deep learning whilst remaining open and collaborative.

82

A recent Series A round saw the business raise £5.1million in a bid to disrupt traditional analytics with augmented intelligence. The funding round was led by Albion VC and existing investor Crane, while a number of previous backers also followed on, including Dr Steve Garnett, former Chairman EMEA Salesforce.com, and Stephen Kelly.

AVORA has already built an impressive client base, which features Telefonica, OMD, NPR, HBO LatAm and Ocado. The UK start-up will use the funds raised to expand its leadership and sales teams, launch in the US market, and continue to evolve its technology by enhancing its in-platform machine learning algorithms. The financing will also pave the way for the development of an app marketplace to

enable customers to build their own solutions on top of its platform.

AVORA enables a new way of working with data. Its algorithms unveil insights and intelligence to businesses in seconds, rather than days or months. Unlike traditional analytics platforms, AVORA’s Smart Alerts feature proactively looks for and flags data anomalies in real time, allowing businesses to spend their time making more effective decisions, with immediate results, using trusted insights. Spotting an anomaly is only the first step; AVORA also allows businesses to understand why something has happened through its Root Cause Analysis, so users can act on those insights instantly.

Ricky said, “Real-time, comprehensive data analysis is vital for organisations. But, legacy

solutions are characterised by complex and laborious IT-led deployments across multiple systems. This is slow, clunky and expensive. That’s why so many companies are ditching BI tools altogether – they just don’t work.

I started this business out of that very frustration.

“Our technology harnesses machine learning and augmented intelligence to revolutionise this problem, replacing fragmented legacy infrastructure with an end-to-end, continuous system of insights that is both faster to deploy and more flexible to use. We look to further invest in developing our unique technology, and expand to bring its benefits to new markets.”

For further information on AVORA, visit www.avora.com 83