Digital Innovation Magazine - May 2022

Capgemini Invent’s Door van der Wiel and Dico van Dijk talk about supply chain sustainability in the wake of the European Green Deal

Fresh from our visit to LogiPharma in Nice, we hit the ground running to make the final touches to our May edition of Digital Innovation Magazine. With two inspiring interviews hitting your inboxes this month, we are committed to our promise of delivering exclusive editorial content from leading figures in Europe’s thriving tech scene.

Our cover story features Capgemini Invent’s Door van der Wiel and Dico van Dijk (p6). The duo explores how companies can take their first steps towards a more sustainable supply chain – a topic of paramount importance following the introduction of the European Green Deal.

Sustainability is also a subject close to the heart of our next interviewee, Dr Jan Joachim Herrmann, Partner at PwC Deutschland. Dr Jan shares his key future procurement trends on page 34. He believes that in order to maximise success, it is essential to leverage key partnerships with other likeminded companies.

Plus, we have some great articles lined up for you on everything from blockchain (p68) and artificial intelligence (p58), to new innovation centre openings (p24) and the latest intriguing research on women in tech (p80).

Capgem ini Inven t’s Door and Dic van der o van Dij Wiel k talk abo sustainab ut supply ility in the chain wake of European the Green De al

Danielle Harris Director d.harris@ithink.media

Tom Barnes Director t.barnes@ithink.media

Daniel May Senior Digital Designer design@ithink.media

We hope you enjoy the issue. As ever, do get in touch if you have a story you’d like us to consider for our next issue.

Happy reading!

Anna McMahon Editor editorial@ithink.media

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Accelerating carbo neutrality using AI solutions in Europe

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Capgemini Invent expounds the virtues of a sustainable supply chain

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An analysis of fema leaders in the Europ tech start-up ecosy

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The launch of Mastercard’s European Technology Hub

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This issue, our start-up of the month is GoodIP

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Dr Jan Joachim Herrmann, Partner at PwC Deutschland, on the major procurement trends for 2022

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Learnings from The EU Blockchain Observatory’s latest healthtech report

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Door van der Wiel

Dico van Dijk

C OV E R STO RY

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HOW TO MAKE YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN SUSTAINABLE Capgemini Invent’s Door van der Wiel, Senior Consultant Supply Chain Strategy; and Dico van Dijk, Senior Manager Procurement Transformation, talk about supply chain sustainability in the wake of the European Green Deal.

oor van der Wiel and Dico van Dijk both joined Capgemini Invent two and a half years ago. As Senior Consultant Supply Chain Strategy, Door focuses on end-to-end supply chain optimisation and supply chain sustainability, and has helped develop the company’s Supply Chain Sustainability Assessment.

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Meanwhile, Dico van Dijk, Senior Manager Procurement Transformation, is helping clients with their procurement questions and advises on the implementation of digital procurement solutions.

With greater pressure on companies to move towards a more sustainable supply chain, Door and Dico highlight three key reasons why sustainability in supply chains is increasingly important. Door explains, “Climate change is the first reason. There is a huge climate crisis happening.

We are already experiencing the impact with changes in the weather, flooding, and drinking water becoming scarce. Supply chains account for more than 80 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, so it is essential that we make sustainability improvements.

“Secondly, we are seeing that consumer requirements are changing. People are more aware of where their products come from and want them to be sustainably sourced.

This is becoming increasingly important for both companies and their customers. Research performed by the Capgemini 8

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Research Institute showed that 68 per cent of consumers want information on the amount of waste generated when food and beverages are produced.

“The third reason is the introduction of further official regulations. The penalties regarding unsustainable actions are increasing, which can put an enormous financial burden on companies. In 2021, the European Green Deal was signed, and there 10

are a number of implications. For example, from 1st January 2023, companies are obliged to report their sustainability performance.

In addition, companies need to have a sustainability strategy, a risk management system, and a system to collect the data for this reporting.”

On the subject of data collection for sustainability reporting, Dico says, “Many of our clients do not know how to collect this data, integrate it, and what kind of strategy they

“Digitalisation holds the key. We have developed smart tools to collect the data, get all the information together, put it in a dashboard, and help clients on the actions they should take on the supply chain part” Dico van Dijk, Senior Manager Procurement Transformation

can roll out to reduce their carbon emissions. We can advise them from a supply chain point of view. Digitalisation holds the key.

We have developed smart tools to collect the data, get all the information together, put it in a dashboard, and help clients on the actions they should take on the supply chain part.”

So, what is the starting point for improving sustainability in your supply chain? Door answers, “The

starting point is to have a baseline.

Some clients lack insights regarding sustainability, whilst others have the insights but do not have a plan. We have developed a carbon calculator, which can measure the emissions of your supply chain and the environmental impact of all products and services in your company. We are using several databases to make it as accurate as possible. From there, you can easily identify the pain points and start with improving your supply chain by modelling different scenarios.”

Depending on the scope of the client – whether manufacturing, procurement, sourcing or distribution, for example – the 11

O N A S US TAI N A B L E F U T U R E Why Automation is Key for Supply Chain Sustainability and Transparency

The pressure is growing with regards to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, and while many companies are proactively doing their part, the time is coming where taking action will be much less of a choice. Those in the EU are already quite accustomed to sustainable investment regulations, such as the EU taxonomy, the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD). But mandatory reporting for climate-related risks will soon be a reality in many regions of the world.

YOU NEED THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY Automation is an opportunity for organizations of all sizes to reinforce their green credentials by reducing CO2 emissions. When you look for finance and procurement automation solutions, they should not only enable you to eliminate paperbased processes, but also allow you to track and benchmark your carbon emission savings from that over time. A sustainability dashboard in Basware’s analytics solution shows customers their average CO2 index per invoice, enabling them to benchmark and improve their index over time or against other organizations in our Network. This helps you tie your automation project back to your company’s green initiatives. These emission savings are mainly from gains through enabling remote working, the elimination of paper and the impact this can have on your supply chain practices.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? Eliminate paper: Getting rid of an overreliance on paper means you can reduce your contribution to CO2 emissions while reaping the benefits of cost savings and efficiency.

Leverage automation: A digital process means you can encourage some of your teams to work remotely for a day or two per week. Working from home decreases emissions from one of the costliest contributors to the carbon problem— transportation.

Use SaaS solutions: Cloud computing means less infrastructure is required to power your business from a hardware and IT perspective so

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fewer servers and less equipment are needed, decreasing CO2 emissions.

Automate procurement: Efficient procurement processes enable bundled orders and shipments, creating less pollution from deliveries and packaging materials.

Business networks: Connecting to a business network means you can identify new sustainable suppliers and source goods and materials from companies that share your values.

Reinvest savings: Fund other sustainability initiatives from the cost savings you realize by going digital.

AUTOMATION ENABLES TRANSPARENCY Automation also brings transparency to the actions of all parties within your supply chain and while it does not prevent risk totally on its own, it does add a layer of insight that provides increased, proactive visibility into areas where risk could be lingering.

But you can’t possibly expect to keep track of all the nuances of your supply chain manually. With all the working pieces, digital, intelligent technologies are a surefire way to properly manage and identify risk and fraud. With a comprehensive supplier management solution, companies gain visibility into 100% of suppliers and spend, enabling exceptional risk mitigation.

With the right automated tools built specifically to improve supply chain visibility, your company can: 1. Decrease business disruptions: Prepare for supply chain disruptions before they even happen. When your supply chain operates with a

strong foundation on data analysis and open lines of communication, you decrease supply chain bottlenecks and even avoid disruptions entirely.

2. Drive your business with data: Manually updating supplier information leads to obsolete data, potential risks, and wasted time. Basware solutions deliver 100% visibility into your entire supplier base, delivering the benefits of complete supplier data. Processing this data through Basware empowers you with the insights you need to make smart, data-based decisions that will lead to supply chain excellence.

3. Team up with the right suppliers: Your suppliers are an extension of your brand. So, it’s important to ensure you’re doing business with the right suppliers who align with you ethically, meet your price requirements, offer the right experience, can meet your orders, and are financially stable.

The right technology helps you ensure your suppliers check all those boxes.

BASWARE SUPPORTS GREEN INITIATIVES AND SUPPLY CHAIN TRANSPARENCY Many organizations overlook the impact paper-based processes have on the environment. Basware’s procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions, powered by the largest open business network and advanced AI and Machine Learning technology, connects you to all your suppliers (even the long tail) and automate deep into the workflow so you can remove paper-based and manual tasks and collect more data for insightful analytics.

LEARN MORE Learn more about important trends such as sustainability, supplier diversity, global regulations, and more procure-to-pay trends impacting 2022 and beyond in the ebook.

GET YOUR FREE eBOOK

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Capgemini team creates a roadmap together with each individual client, prioritising which ideas they wish to implement first and highlighting the benefits of the different opportunity areas. Dico says, “The roadmap is important to help the client see what they can do, while also making them aware of the regulations in place and those coming into effect in the coming years in order to reduce carbon emissions. The ESG topic is

smaller items from different large platforms, but they are realising the environmental implications.

There is definitely a trend for more localised supply chains.”

Capgemini works with several software companies, such as Basware, to ensure clients are able to have full transparency of the sustainability of the products they source. Dico explains, “Basware has included

“Capgemini considers every client to be unique. The Supply Chain Sustainability Assessment identifies the pain points and opportunity areas for all areas of ESG for each client” of huge interest to our clients. We can perform an assessment to see where they score high or low, and advise on what actions they can take.”

Capgemini considers every client to be unique, from the local food producer, to the manufacturer, to the retailers and distributors.

They all have their own sustainability related pain points and opportunity areas to look into. Dico adds, “There is a huge footprint associated with shipping products from China and people are becoming more aware of this.

Consumers are ordering many 14

a questionnaire in their sourcing solution, so suppliers must answer questions on sustainability.

You sometimes need to go deeper into your supply chain to ensure all companies involved are compliant. There could be unwanted labour conditions in level 1, 2, or 3 of your suppliers, for example, and the supplier is not even aware of it. Basware’s solution helps mitigate the risk by making the supply chain more transparent.”

Basware first entered into partnership with Capgemini last year on the procurement side.

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“As a company, we want to be seen to be innovative, so we joined forces with Basware because they have a strong focus on providing an end-to-end solution, as well as the emphasis on sustainability” Dico elaborates, “As a company, we want to be seen to be innovative, so we joined forces with Basware because they have a strong focus on providing an end-to-end solution, as well as the emphasis on sustainability. We are still developing the program and have a couple of certified Basware consultants implementing the product. We collaborate strongly with Basware and are aligned with them on supporting each other.”

Sustainability improvements have previously been associated with high costs, but Door argues that this does not have to be the way.

She says, “An optimised network with more local sourcing can reduce transportation by as much as 15 per cent, leading to cost reductions alongside emission reductions. If you can say to customers that your products are locally produced or locally sourced, it will also boost your sales.

“The same applies to manufacturing. The Green Deal stipulates that by 2030, all 16

packaging material should be recyclable, which will have a big impact on supply chains. If you are optimising your packaging in order to make the production process more efficient, this leaves room for opportunities with packaging reductions. In a previous project for a large FMCG client, we changed the shape of ice cream tubs, significantly reducing the plastic used whilst also bringing sustainability and financial improvements.”

Capgemini has a high-level framework for sustainable supply chains consisting of three pillars: 1. Sustainable procurement – topics include designing and developing low carbon products, designing circular products and services, supplier ESG assessment and implementing sustainable procurement strategies.

2. Green Lean Digital Manufacturing – topics include transforming factories to be efficient in their energy, water and

MAKING A N I M PAC T Discover efficient processes throughout the entire procure-to-pay cycle and reduce your CO2 emissions, leading to less pollution.

FIND OUT MORE IN OUR eBOOK

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material usages by leveraging digital technologies, taking into account the six R’s; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Redesign and Remanufacture.

3. Sustainable distribution – topics include CO2 emission reduction through Supply Chain Network optimisation and Smart Planning, but also sustainable last-mile strategies.

“The most important thing to make it all work is to have a data platform for monitoring and reporting, so you are constantly aware of the sustainability performance of your operations” Door van der Wiel, Senior Consultant Supply Chain Strategy

Door says, “The most important thing to make it all work is to have a data platform for monitoring and reporting, so you are constantly aware of the sustainability performance of your operations. You need to be able to model the environmental impact in terms of carbon 19

“With global warming, we all understand that we need to do something, but this is especially the case for production companies.

We are innovating constantly and making positive changes internally at Capgemini to bring benefits to our clients” footprint or product lifecycle, as well as having access to ESG data across the value chain in order to mitigate risks.”

Another regulation of the Green Deal is that 75 per cent of your goods must be transported by either rail or water by 2030. Door adds, “This means you are not just looking at the geographical area of where you are going to source, store and produce your products, but also the transport mode for shipping them.”

Dico says that in the Netherlands, the internal distribution to shops and factories is done increasingly by electric lorries. He explains, “We have a good network of charging stations in the Netherlands, and our clients are increasingly saying that they want to move to 20

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electric vehicles, which will be huge for their carbon footprint. But the infrastructure needs to be there to support it. The Netherlands is one of the top countries for electrifying industrial vehicles, and in the city, more and more buses are electrified.”

Door and Dico agree that collaborating with other companies in order to make your supply chain

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more efficient is essential, but it can be a difficult road to navigate.

Door explains, “You do not want to share all the data you have with your competition, but you cannot look at supply chain from just one perspective. In the end, it will be a win-win situation if you can share at least part of your data with your competition to increase the efficiency of your supply chain.”

Dico’s final word is on the topic of sustainability. He says it is a must-have, gaining traction in the market. Dico concludes, “In the past, we had to bring the subject of sustainability to the table, but now the client brings the subject to us. We have smart tools across the whole supply chain to support our clients in becoming greener. With global warming, we all understand

that we need to do something, but this is especially the case for production companies. We are innovating constantly and making positive changes internally at Capgemini to bring benefits to our clients” For further information on Capgemini Invent, visit www.capgemini.com

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TECH

A Campus for Tomorrow Mastercard unveils its European hub in Dublin to serve as an innovation engine for digital commerce.

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Mastercard has announced that the doors of its European Technology Hub – ‘One South County’ – in Dublin, are officially open. he building enables the company to accommodate its headcount target of over 2,000 people in the city by 2025, as the leader in payments technology looks to expand its existing workforce of 975. The new campus signals Mastercard’s ongoing commitment to not only Dublin, but Europe, as a key region in its global footprint.

The vibrant and multicultural European Technology Hub attracts passionate technologists from around the world who are dedicated to shaping the future of commerce through deep expertise in areas

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“As the headquarters for Mastercard’s global R&D division, ‘The Foundry’, innovation is at the heart of this campus”

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including Payments Security, APIs, Emerging Technologies, and more. As the headquarters for Mastercard’s global R&D division, ‘The Foundry’, innovation is at the heart of this campus.

Ed McLaughlin, President of Mastercard Operations and Technology, said, “We are thrilled to open the doors to our new European Technology Hub in Dublin, which will serve as an innovation engine for our company across the region and beyond. By increasing our global technology footprint, we can be in closer proximity to our customers and stay at the cutting edge of emerging payment technology in support of all our stakeholders.”

Ken Moore, Mastercard’s Chief Innovation Officer, added, “Our strength truly is our people and in Dublin we have built a dynamic culture that attracts talent from across the world. With new stateof-of the-art facilities and our flexible workstyle approach, we want more passionate technologists to join us and continue shaping the digital commerce of tomorrow.”

The new campus-style workplace was built with priority placed on the environment, wellbeing 28

“With new state-of-of the-art f passionate technologists to joi

Ken Moore, Mastercard’s Chief Innovat and neurodiversity. Highlights include:

• Sustainability certifications:

Mastercard is working towards achieving both WELL

facilities and our flexible workstyle approach, we want more in us and continue shaping the digital commerce of tomorrow”

tion Officer and LEED certifications. WELL certification addresses people's health and wellness, while LEED is a certification that focuses on environmental impact and sustainability.

• Biophilic design: The European Tech Hub was designed using Biophilic design principles, which seek to connect the building with nature and people, bringing the outside in.

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Artwork and graphics have been incorporated that depict or mimic nature and provide a sense of community.

• Wellness: From quiet spaces to a neutral décor, the space is designed to support a healthier workplace environment to improve health and productivity.

• Neurodiversity:

The building offers a wide variety of spaces which take into consideration different employees’ needs. By creating an ecosystem with microenvironments, people are enabled to find the right level of stimulation, be it visual, auditory, or physical.

“This new state-of-theart building will support Mastercard in continuing to evolve its ‘Future of Work’ approach, which focuses on how, where and when employees collaborate” 30

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This new state-of-the-art building will support Mastercard in continuing to evolve its ‘Future of Work’ approach, which focuses on how, where and when employees collaborate.

The safety and wellbeing of all employees remains the

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company’s top priority. And perhaps now more than ever, there is a need for flexibility so that employees can easily manage their work and personal lives, especially during the transition back to in-person work. New or updated policies have been introduced to

“Mastercard began its operations in Dublin in 2008 with 36 staff, and since then, it has grown to nearly 1,000”

help employees reset and strengthen their relationships through the development of new technologies, which bring together the digital and human worlds, so employees can work collaboratively wherever they are.

Mastercard began its operations in Dublin in 2008 with 36 staff, and since then, it has grown to nearly 1,000. This is testament to the investment, innovative work, and great talent the company enjoys in Dublin, highlighting the important role the European Tech Hub plays as part of the global business.

For further information, visit www.mastercard.com

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

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T HE S T RAT EG I C ENABL E R S F O R T OM OR R O W Dr Jan Joachim Herrmann, Partner at PwC Germany, shares his four key procurement trends for 2022 and beyond. ith the urgency to act on raw material shortages and inflation, Dr Jan Herrmann is mindful that price increases will be one of the most important topics in the coming years.

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That said, there are four key enablers related to the current situation, which he outlines as follows: 1) Digitalisation 2) Technology Development 3) Sustainability and 4) Risk Management. Here, Jan shares his views on each of the aforementioned procurement trends, as well as advice on how companies can best prepare.

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Taking the first point, Jan begins, “When we talk about the digitalisation of procurement, we are focusing on getting rid of old manual procurement processes, such as tendering, negotiations, ordering, invoicing, order confirmations, goods receipts, and contract and supplier management, with everyday tasks becoming more and more

“I R ECOG N ISE A N EXPON EN TIA L G R OWTH OF PR OCUR EMEN T D IG ITA LISATION IN TH E N EXT F EW Y EA R S, PR OCESS BY PR OCESS, U N TIL EV ERY TH IN G IS C OV ER ED” Dr Jan Herrmann

digitalised. At the moment, we have a lot of the tools available, but the only obstacle explaining why we haven’t as yet solved everything is the fact that companies are at the beginning of the digitalisation of procurement and are not able to cover the complexity of digital possibilities. They will soon evolve from classical processes to, for example, supplier-network

management (n-tier supplier), contract lifecycle management, and new disciplines like data and analytics or risk management. I recognise an exponential growth of procurement digitalisation in the next few years, process by process, until everything is covered.”

However, Jan flags up that having knowledge of the market trends 37

does not take into account unprecedented global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, or a container ship blocking the Suez Canal. He adds, “It is important to bear in mind that the impact of such unexpected events of the last decade cannot be solved by digital solutions. You need the solutions to ensure an early and proactive involvement in solving upcoming events to reduce the long-term effect on your business.”

The second trend refers to the development of technology.

According to Jan, for the digitalisation of procurement, the technology is readily available, but the challenge lies in understanding how it works.

He explains, “There is no new technology surprising us at the moment. What we are seeing is that when you have solved the first steps of procurement, you can fill the gaps with technologies such as RPA, AI or blockchain. We have all heard about these, but nobody really understands what is behind them. The chances offered by these solutions are therefore not really understood right now.

If we can start to understand how we can use the solution 38

“ FO R T H E D IG ITALIS AT ION OF P R O C U R E ME N T, T H E T EC H N OLOGY IS R E AD ILY AVAILABLE , B U T T H E C HALLE N G E LIE S IN UN D E R S TAN D IN G H O W IT WORKS”

in the right manner, we will open up more opportunities with these new technologies.”

Jan cites the example of using blockchain for track and trace. With this technology, you can follow containers around the world and ensure special requirements are considered across entire value chains.

Y

”

This offers fantastic potential to understand how the value chain is working, enabling companies to see for themselves how they can use this solution in practice.

A further example is semantic folding. Jan continues, “Having the possibility to evaluate all the information on the world

wide web in every source, in every language, is a very strong development. The technology coming through understands the meaning behind all sentences and is able to find the right information in the right language. It is a great chance for us to use technology as a lever to increase the impact on procurement.”

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Create Sustainable Supply Chains with Smart Network Buying from PwC and Coupa

Global supply chains and procurement organisations are under heavy pressure.

New sustainability and risk regulations, such as the German Supply Chain legislation, are becoming part of daily operations. With the current supply chain challenges, the visibility of goods movement and location becomes key, as organisations need to gain visibility of their network flow and identify hotspots in the supply chain.

Consequently, companies need to take sourcing decisions faster and more frequently, often with limited resources.

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Perhaps Jan’s favourite trend of all, sustainability is next, but he stresses that it is difficult to say whether or not something is sustainable procurement at the moment. Jan explains, “The focus for sustainable procurement is making sure the supply chains I have behind my suppliers are transparent and able to react on effects in the supply chain. This means that when there is an issue in the supply chain, the system and network are able to change

“When I have this transparency, I can then take the next step to create the best portfolio of suppliers in terms of ESG, financial risk, raw material shortages etc.

We call it an optimal supplier portfolio. Having the right portfolio of suppliers ensures that the ESG equilibrium can be maintained.”

The final trend Jan mentions is risk management, highlighting the difficulty of evaluating the risk

“CO UPA S OF TWA R E HAS AN E N T IR E S U IT E FO R P RO C URE M EN T, SU P P LY C HAIN AN D R IS K MANAG E ME NT. JAN REF ER S TO TH EM AS AN E N D -T O - E N D D IG ITAL E NAB L ER F OR P R OCU R EM E N T, A PART N E R T O FU LFIL T H E C O MP L ETE SU PP LY C HAIN V IS IBILIT Y MO D ULE ” the structure of the network itself, so I am able to create new supply chains for suppliers to get raw materials or resources to enable the supplies to reach my sites.

Therefore my supply chains are able to react to environmental hazards, social impacts and governance issues, for example, due to high transparency and analytics to raise the red flags, and therewith a chance to implement (automatically) preventive or remedial actions.

of human rights, modern slavery and raw material shortages in the supply chain. Jan says, “The risk analytics behind these issues are not available right now, so there are methodologies in place within companies across their entire supply chain to understand how risk can be evaluated and prioritised. This is a huge trend in procurement at the moment.”

Sustainability and risk management are related insofar 41

as sustainability is the target, and risk management is the enabler. For risk management to be in place, you also need technology and digitalisation at your disposal. Jan adds, “Risk management will be a connector of classical procurement decisions with, for example, network decisions, sustainability decisions etc. I believe that we are not able to 42

focus on just one of these angles.

When new technology arises, we have to understand how we can use it for risk management, for digitalisation, for sustainability. You have to think about each of the individual quadrants.”

Speaking of sustainability, the Supply Due Diligence Act 2023 was

“P R O C UREM EN T ACT S AS T HE O PERATIVE I NST I T U T I ON T HAT TRIES TO F U L F I L T H E R E G UL ATIO N S THAT COM E UP ON THE CO M P L IA N CE SI D E ”

adopted by the German Federal Parliament last June and will come into effect on 1st January 2023. It aims to improve the protection of international human rights and the environment by setting binding standards for large companies and their value chains. So, what do companies need to do in order to prepare? Jan answers, “When

we talk about the Supply Due Diligence Act, we are talking about human rights, which companies need to consider across their entire supply chain.

There are six main obligations including a policy statement, risk analytics for the supply chain, a focus on preventative and remedial actions in the case of an incident, an evaluation of the impact of these measures, the expansion of your grievance mechanism from your company into the entire supply chain, and an external report on what you are doing on human rights.

“When you look at these six obligations running across the entire supply chain, you can see there is a request from the German government – and in the future, the EU – to gain transparency on the specific topic of sustainability. When you bring this back to the four trends I mentioned, it is about creating the right risk analytics across the entire supply chain to gain transparency in this way, which is heavily related to technology and digitalisation.

It is the first regulated step to ensure you cover a specific topic for your entire supply chain.”

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The new law therefore offers the opportunity to focus on the four procurement trends Jan highlights. Once they understand what the regulation means, companies must consider what they already have in place (e.g. risk management, an agreements mechanism, policy statements, a code of conduct etc) upon which they can build. Jan continues, “Having looked at the status quo, you can then figure out where the

compliance side. Germany (PwC) assists companies by analysing the gaps and understanding what they need to do to fulfil these legal requirements alongside the company’s own ambitions.

Jan says, “There is the law, the requirements, and then the gaps.

If a company has transparency of their supply chain on human rights, they can then measure critical financial issues in their

“ P R EWAVE I S A NE WCOMER F OCUSED ON TH E R I SK MA NAG E MEN T AN D TECH N OLOGY ENA B L E ME NT OF SE MAN TIC F OLDIN G F OR TH E EN T IR E S UP PLY CHA IN ” gaps are and take the first step towards creating transparency.

Where are your critical suppliers and critical supply chains on human rights? Once you have this information, you can take initiatives to convince the regulator you have sound processes in place that fulfil the law.”

Procurement acts as the operative institution that tries to fulfil the regulations that come up on the 44

supply chain and increase their ambition level. They therefore gain more out of this transparency than merely human rights.”

Jan believes that in order to maximise success, it is important for PwC to leverage key partnerships with other likeminded companies. He explains, “The complexity of a solution to have the view on technology, the law, procurement, supply chain, is such a massive

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task that no one can do it on their own. You need help from experts to satisfy each of the dimensions, especially on the technology side. Companies like Coupa Software and PreWave are at the leading edge, so it is essential for us to combine our strengths in order to meet the law, enable us to give excellent advice, and provide our clients with the best consulting experience.”

“ T HE IM P O RTA NT MESSAG E

T O TA KE AWAY IS T O TRY NO T O B O IL T HE O C EA N ! ”

Coupa Software has an entire suite for procurement, supply chain and risk management.

Jan refers to them as an endto-end digital enabler for procurement, a partner to fulfil the complete supply chain visibility module. He adds, “We have named this software the entire procurement technology suite. It enables us to digitally analyse every single procurement process.”

PreWave is a newcomer focused on the risk management and technology enablement of semantic folding for the entire supply chain. Jan elaborates, “It is a new technology, which enables an already implemented tool to give greater visibility in the entire supply chain. It is essentially 46

edge technology designed to increase and improve the current tools.”

For Jan, it does not matter which innovations you decide on, or which angle upon which you choose to focus. He says if you have a strategy for the entire digitalisation of procurement,

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you can decide step-by-step what you want to improve. Jan concludes, “Whether you are process-driven or sustainabilitydriven, you need to make a plan offering an entire view and start to work on the pieces. The important message to take away is to try not to boil the ocean!”

For further information, visit www.pwc.de/en/strategyorganisation-processes-systems/ operations.html www.pwc.de/en/strategyorganisation-processes-systems/ operations/procurement.html

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RESEARCH

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Europe has a new deep tech powerhouse on its way.

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THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (INSAIT) WILL FORM PART OF BULGARIA’S SOFIA UNIVERSITY. t has been created in partnership with two of Europe’s deep tech research powerhouses, Switzerland’s ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL).

The institute is backed by $3.75million in financial support from AWS, $3million from Google, and $285,000 from DeepMind.

There is also $6.5million in support from Bulgarian tech company, SiteGround, which provides web hosting services, $600,000 from Bulgarian entrepreneurs, and an initial 10year endowment of $100million from the Bulgarian government.

It is the first time that scientific research in computer science 52

has received public funding and support in eastern Europe, and Martin Vetterli, President of EPFL in Lausanne, believes it shows countries like Bulgaria can become major players in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence.

Earlier this year, fintech platform Payhawk became Bulgaria’s first unicorn, and eastern Europe’s start-up boom is set to accelerate in 2022, with a focus on deep tech.

But, nearly 30,000 Bulgarians leave the country every year in search of better prospects, “a systemic problem that is discouraging innovation,” according to Professor Martin Vechev, the architect of INSAIT

IT IS THE FIRST TIME THAT SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN COMPUTER SCIENCE HAS RECEIVED PUBLIC FUNDING AND SUPPORT IN EASTERN EUROPE

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and leading computer scientist at ETH Zurich.

He continues, “Eastern Europe is full of bright scientific minds – but too often, people’s aspirations are limited due to lack of facilities, funding and support.”

INSAIT hopes to encourage top deep tech talent to stay in the region in several ways. Firstly, the institute is modelled on some of the world’s leading computer science departments such as MIT, UC Berkeley, ETH, and others.

It will have a tenure-track system, where promising PhD students are hired with the promise of permanent roles down the line, and it plans to match the compensation packages seen in the US, both for faculty and PhD candidates. The institute has also borrowed the approach to scientific excellence; goals include publications being selected for top conferences, attracting prestigious grants and awards, and graduating PhD students into academic and industrial careers abroad.

Secondly, Vechev explains that AWS, Google and DeepMind want to bridge the scientific and 54

technological divides between eastern and western Europe.

They also want the institute to “democratise science” and promote “diversity and inclusion by encouraging applications from women and other underrepresented groups in technology and science.”

Bulgaria is among the countries in the EU with the highest percentage of women employed in science and technology, and DeepMind’s investment will fund two PhD scholarships for women.

Amazon’s investment in the deep tech institute over the next five years will support INSAIT’s research on automated reasoning, while Google’s investment will provide the institute with cloud computing

EASTERN EUROPE IS FULL OF BRIGHT SCIENTIFIC MINDS – BUT TOO OFTEN, PEOPLE’S ASPIRATIONS ARE LIMITED DUE TO LACK OF FACILITIES, FUNDING AND SUPPORT

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resources and access to specialised infrastructure for running high-performance machine learning models over three years.

Thirdly, there will be an ecosystem that supports the creation of the next wave of deep tech start-ups.

As INSAIT develops its understanding in machine learning, quantum and 56

information security, for example, start-up founders will be given access to the latest deep tech research and ideas. It will form the “basis of deep tech start-ups,” Vechev adds.

Founders will also receive mentorship from faculty who have previously launched start-ups themselves, both in terms of helping with initial product development and by connecting them to

THE PROGRAMMES AT INSAIT WILL HAVE A CORE FOCUS ON DEEP TECH AREAS LIKE THE APPLICATION OF AI AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

investors. They will be able to access talent as the institute develops.

The programmes at INSAIT will have a core focus on deep tech areas like the application of AI and computer science, including machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, information security, programming languages, formal methods, quantum computing

and computer architecture, among others.

There will also be a start-up programme for researchers exploring a deep tech topic, with the goal of launching a start-up in that area.

For further information, visit www.insait.ai Source: www.sifted.eu 57

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

FROM AMSTERDA TO TALLINN

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AM

An EU-funded project aiming to accelerate carbon neutrality using AI solutions is about to be tested in six European cities.

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SEVEN ARTIFICIAL IN PROTOTYPES ACCE NEUTRALITY HAVE B THE EU-FUNDED P PROCUREMENT (PCP TO BE TESTED IN SIX

FOB

our of the pilots are using AI-based technologies to make cities’ energy domains more sustainable and will be piloted in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Paris Region and Stavanger. The other three focus on reducing CO2 emissions in the mobility domain. These will be tested in five of the same cities, with only Tallinn replacing Copenhagen.

The four solutions selected in AI4Cities Energy Lot are: 60

NTELLIGENCE-BASED ELERATING CARBON BEEN SELECTED BY PRE-COMMERCIAL ) PROJECT AI4CITIES X EUROPEAN CITIES.

B3

• Holoni, developed by a consortium of Alphaventuri (Norway) and Energynet (Denmark); • SPIKE, developed by Enerbrain (Italy); • BEE, developed by a consortium of Eeneman (Finland), Unetiq (Germany) and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), and • C-In.City, developed by an all-French consortium of Kayrros, La Javaness, and Nexqt.

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In the AI4Cities Mobility Lot, the three selected solutions are:

• Avenue, developed by a consortium of Nommon and Populus (both from Spain); • MPAT tool, developed by a consortium of Vianova (France) and Rebel Ticketing (The Netherlands), and • Ix3, developed by a consortium of MarshallAi and Dynniq (both from Finland).

AI4Cities has reserved a total of 1.45 million euros for the consortia to do their pilots.

Kaisa Sibelius, co-ordinator of the project at Forum Virium Helsinki, is highly satisfied with the quality of the selected companies.

She said, “In the previous phase of the project, we had selected 20 suppliers to develop a prototype.

Choosing the seven best ones that would go on to test the prototypes was not an easy task. The solutions were all highly diverse, innovative and efficient at reducing CO2 emissions.

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“AI4CITIES HAS RES 1.45 MILLION E CONSORTIA TO DO

SERVED A TOTAL OF EUROS FOR THE O THEIR PILOTS”

“What makes the selected solutions slightly better is that they also have great potential for replicability and scalability. They address gaps in some of the fastest growing markets in Europe and beyond. This was very important to us, as we want these solutions to be implemented beyond our project cities.”

ENERGY SOLUTIONS Holoni leverages AI beyond the prediction of solar production and predicts how much solar surplus can be generated from positive energy buildings.

It also powers up a digital exchange by using IOTA, the next generation of green, fast, feeless and scalable blockchain, currently a candidate to equip European public smart service infrastructure.

Energinet’s ORIGIN, now called Energy Track & Trace, is integrated to verify the origin of energy, hour by hour, anticipating the shift towards more granular certificates of origin.

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“THE AI ENGINE U DEEP LEARNING PREDICT THE UTI BUILDING FOR T

Enerbrain’s SPIKE is an all-inone, cloud-based software/ hardware platform supporting data exchange with proprietary IoT-enabled devices and communication with other IoT devices/platforms, knowledge extraction for situation-aware user interaction and engagement, and building performance assessment.

In addition, it provides dedicated energy management services 64

capable of innovative and effective optimisation of energy efficiency and flexibility in commercial, service and residential buildings.

The BEE (Building Energy Efficiency) solution combines several of the latest technologies to connect buildings with the energy grid and their environment and to optimise their overall

USES THE LATEST ALGORITHMS TO ILISATION OF THE THE NEXT DAY”

emissions impact. Leveraging Platform-of-Trust – a common interface into different building management systems – ensures easy integration into as many different building types as possible. The AI engine uses the latest Deep Learning algorithms to predict the utilisation of the building for the next day.

C-in.City provides cities with

near real-time carbon emission monitoring. It empowers citizens by providing them with near realtime transparent information on how they can reduce their emissions, which also enables policy makers to design the most effective and actionable policy options, ranging from behavioural changes to technical investments, with more citizen buy-in. Finally, the solution also allows local SMEs 65

“THE IMPACT OF THESE POLICIES CAN THEN BE MONITORED WITH A SPECIFIC VIEW ON CO EMISSIONS SAVINGS”

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to identify and rank cost-effective greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation opportunities, and to offer localised insights to boost climate investments.

MOBILITY SOLUTIONS AVENUE is an innovative solution aiming to predict the impact of shared mobility services on urban transport GHG emissions. Avenue puts the data it receives into an AI-based analytical engine that enables demand monitoring and, based on it, it creates demand prediction models and GHG emission models, which could then be used for policy optimisation. Based on these policy adjustments, new demand prediction models are created, giving city planners a good overview of the impact of their policy actions.

The MPAT tool (Mobility Policy Auto Tuner) is an engine to optimise the CO2 emissionreduction potential of city mobility policies, with a focus on shared micro-mobility. By understanding the geographies where a trip

on an electric-powered shared bicycle, scooter or moped is most likely to create an emissions saving, the tool is able to make recommendations for areas to implement new policies (e.g. subsidies on rides, or removals of fleet caps). The impact of these policies can then be monitored with a specific view on CO2 emissions savings.

The Ix3 solution works by taking information from traffic cameras and from other traffic sources and then integrating it into the city’s traffic light system. Using deep learning-based artificial intelligence and visual sensing, the system drastically reduces the amount of sensors needed, and increases the amount of relevant data, leading to increased traffic fluency and a decrease of unnecessary stops and waiting.

MarshallAi and Dynniq ensure that their system only identifies that an object is approaching a certain intersection, without giving an identity to that object.

For further information on the project, visit www.ai4cities.eu

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B L O C KC H A I N

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Takeaways from the EU Blockchain Observatory’s latest report. he EU Blockchain Observatory has published its fifth report under the headline ‘Blockchain Applications in the Healthcare Sector’. It highlights the importance of distributed ledger technology for the European healthcare sector, which faces a number of challenges on its route to the Healthcare 4.0 era.

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The authors take an optimistic view on the implementation of blockchain technology in healthcare, noting its compatibility with the core principles of Healthcare 4.0, such as interoperability, virtualisation, decentralisation, real-time capability, service orientation and modularity. Here are a number of key takeaways from the report.

crucial importance. Such a system should facilitate easy and user-friendly access for patients, whose interest in accessing their own health information grows rapidly.

And, of course, the data stored in the current healthcare systems are often siloed. A properly designed healthcare application on a distributed ledger can alleviate many of these concerns.

“PERHAPS ONE OF THE MOST WIDELY RECOGNISED ADVANTAGES OF BLOCKCHAIN REGARDING HEALTHCARE IS ITS ABILITY TO FIGHT COUNTERFEITING BY TRACKING THE DATA OF EVERY SINGLE ITEM IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN”

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OLD SYSTEM, NEW CHALLENGES

CENTRALISATION, PROPERLY SERVED

As the healthcare industry becomes more knowledgebased, it gets more complex – the abundant variety of tools and methods also makes it prone to errors. Having a flexible and digitised system of knowledge and data management is therefore of

When talking about healthcare, some centralisation is desired, but efficient centralisation is hard to deliver. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) thus becomes an almost inevitable solution. For example, distributed ledgers could help

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monitor the use of medical equipment by healthcare facilities and identify the deficiency or surplus of devices in different geographical locations, or route patients to facilities that are best able to treat them.

THE FIGHT AGAINST COUNTERFEITING Perhaps one of the most widely recognised advantages 72

of blockchain regarding healthcare is its ability to fight counterfeiting by tracking the data of every single item in the supply chain. The report highlights the logistical benefits as such, “Using blockchains as a ledger for recording provenance, vaccines and other life-saving drugs could be monitored and tracked from their origin to their current locations, thus reducing the

misplacement or mislabelling of medicines and the risk of counterfeit.”

TO GO GLOBAL, GO BLOCKCHAIN Blockchain technology has the ability to streamline the exchange of information on a massive scale. As with any other high-tech industry, artificial intelligence and machine learning are the future of healthcare. Once

“BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY HAS THE ABILITY TO STREAMLINE THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION ON A MASSIVE SCALE” 73

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consolidated, information on medical use cases from a multitude of organisations can be used to train machine learning algorithms. The report says, “Blockchain mitigates federated learning’s issues and helps achieve fairness, accountability of the processes, mitigating threats, and driving the collaboration between organisations, serving

“OVERSIGHT OF DECENTRALISED BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGIES REQUIRES A FRESH PERSPECTIVE AND CONTINUAL EDUCATION OF ADVANCES” as a global model from locally trained models, allowing the exchange of models without transferring the dataset.”

DATA SAFETY The report questions an argument that blockchain isn’t compatible with the necessary privacy of patients’ data because of the immutability of data 75

recorded in distributed ledgers.

According to the authors, the application of blockchain could be combined with an off-chain solution; “To comply with GDPR, products can use blockchain on a layer above databases, so it is possible to monitor transactions on the data exchange and access information while all personal health data is stored off the blockchain.”

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AN ENCOURAGING CONCLUSION Overall, the framers of the report encourage the European Commission to facilitate future legislation enabling innovation in health information technologies, including blockchain. They underline the DLT’s potential to be not just technological infrastructure, but a new way to govern data

relationships and a conduit for economic development.

A possible threat to blockchainpowered innovation could come from legislators who could stall the technology’s implementation by introducing overly conservative regulatory measures. Therefore, the report advocates for the regular review of regulations regarding their adequacy for the newest debates

and developments around DLT. It concludes, “Oversight of decentralised blockchain technologies requires a fresh perspective and continual education of advances to determine how to integrate this technology into the current and future regulatory frameworks.”

For further information, visit www.eublockchainforum.eu

Source: www.cointelegraph.com

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The COO at Sara Assicurazioni charts the company’s successful digital transformation journey

Michael Voegele, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Philip Morris International, explains why encouraging female representation is more than just a box-ticking exercise.

D a n n y

portance of the digitalisation of or customers, and why cloud he company more scalable.

Danny Berry, VP of HPE Pointnext Services Supply Chain, on the critical role of digital technologies

E X C L U S I V E S

Danny Berry, The Vice President of ointnext Technology Services Supply Chain

Capgemini Invent’s Door van der Wiel and Dico van Dijk talk about supply chain sustainability in the wake of the European Green Deal

Scale up Driving forward the next generation of European tech giants

ands

Designing a Supply Chain

sive IT ntinued and efficiency

The Pfizer Vaccine Sto exclusives

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We chat to two supply chain leaders behind the momentous vaccine roll-out

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"The team were professional and diligent throughout" Leigh Feaviour, CTIO for BT’s Supply Chain

"Absolute pleasure working with the Digital Innovation team" Mun Valiji, Chief Information Security Officer at Sainsbury’s

"A highly professional approach" Andy Brierley, Vice President, Cloud Application Modernisation at IBM

ory e x c l u s i v e

"Digital innovation Magazine is a very flexible and professional team" Kim Larsen CTIO, T-Mobile Netherlands

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WOMEN IN TECH

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Female Representation in the European Tech Start-Up Ecosystem We Rise has partnered with StartupGenome, supported by StartupAmsterdam, to analyse the women in technology landscape in Europe.

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A new study has seen We Rise partner with StartupGenome to review female leaders and women working in the European technology start-up ecosystem.

upported by StartupAmsterdam, the study ranks the top 25 European ecosystems for female leaders, the percentage of funding that female founders received, the overall percentage of female leaders in tech start-ups in Europe, and the percentage of women working in technology, among other factors.

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Key findings from the analysis include:

• The top five European ecosystems for female founders and CEOs in Europe are London, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, and Dublin, respectively.

• The number of female tech founders in Europe remains under 15 per cent.

• In the top 25 cities ranked, an average of 25 per cent of tech jobs were held by women.

• The scale-up success rate of female founders in Europe is highest in Brussels, Amsterdam, and Barcelona.

In most major European cities, less than a quarter of professionals working in tech are women. To narrow the gender gap, tech-focused ecosystems should focus on programs and initiatives to

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In the top 25 cities ranked, an average of 25 per cent of tech jobs were held by women

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support women in entering, developing, and staying in the industry.

jobs, and how to accelerate the business success of women in the tech ecosystem.

Insights gleaned from this analysis will assist Europe’s entrepreneurial tech community leaders and stakeholders in identifying how to foster more new female-led tech start-ups, how to involve more women in tech-related

Hazel Boydell, Editor in Chief at StartupGenome, said, “These insights into the share of female leaders in tech start-ups confirm a perceived gap in gender equality, but also reveal a huge opportunity. By providing

These insights into the share of female leaders in tech start-ups confirm a perceived gap in gender equality, but also reveal a huge opportunity Hazel Boydell, Editor in Chief at StartupGenome

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a better understanding of the landscape, we hope to encourage real action toward gender parity in both European and global technology ecosystems.”

Semra Celebi, Female Entrepreneurship and Women in Tech Lead at StartupAmsterdam, added, “Looking at current data and rankings, the Amsterdam ecosystem needs to do better when it comes to the representation of women in entrepreneurship and tech. Therefore, StartupAmsterdam joined forces with We Rise, bringing together more than 20 female-focused organisations to create and accelerate the change that is needed in Amsterdam and beyond.

We hope that in the coming years, corporates and other ecosystem stakeholders will join us on this collaborative mission to create a start-up and tech ecosystem that truly reflects Amsterdam society.”

To read the report in full, visit www.startupgenome.com Source: www.we-rise.co

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IN THE SP OTLIGHT

GoodIP is a Munich-based start-up that uses AI to analyse patents, enabling companies to optimise and future-proof their IP strategy. oodIP helps companies to make smarter decisions about their patents and protect their business, powered by AI. The digital system solves the intellectual property problems faced by entrepreneurs, giving them peace of mind and greater opportunities to secure funding. Empowering entrepreneurs to safeguard their ideas, the platform was built by data scientists and top lawyers.

The technology is easy to understand and requires no expertise. For those who want to know whether their ideas are in use in the market, it is difficult for the

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average small or medium-sized company to find out what really happens behind the scenes of large companies. The number of patent applications has long been used in industry as an indicator of innovation. GoodIP not only publishes this knowledge, but also translates and deciphers information to make it accessible to everyone who wants it.

Dr. Bastian July, CEO of GoodIP, said, “Effectively, getting access to classified patent information has only been possible for experts with lots of money. We used targeted, self-developed algorithms and, over several months, the

“We used targeted, self-developed algorithms and, over several months, the programs deciphered 53 million patent applications” programs deciphered 53 million patent applications. We captured information from many companies and suppliers to big tech that most people have never heard of, yet have a huge, ongoing impact.

“We changed the game and translated the data to make it understandable and actionable, so globally, everyone – not only a select expert group – gets access.”

For further information, visit www.goodip.io

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