Gigabit Magazine – November 2019

WINNING THE QUEST FOR UNINTERRUP TED SERVICE www.gigabitmagazine.com

NOVEMBER 2019

DIGITALLY TRANSFORMING HEALTHCARE

USING AI TO CHANGE THE WORLD

A platform for the digital future Offering hyper-personalised data centre services from the single rack to the hyperscale

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WELCOME

W

elcome to the November edition of Gigabit Magazine, where we’re telling the digital transformation and technology stories of the world’s most dynamic companies.

This month’s cover story features leading data centre operator, Digital Realty, and the imminent launch of PlatformDIGITAL™, a new way of approaching digital infrastructure, a “one-stop solution that helps to interconnect their entire digital ecosystem,” enthuses Tony Bishop, SVP of Platform and Ecosystem Strategy. We sit down with Bishop and Corey Dyer, EVP of Global Sales and Marketing for Digital Realty.

“We’re the best positioned in the industry to address the broadest range of requirements. We build, design, operate some of the most highly interconnected data centres in the world,” says Dyer.

Also appearing this month is our interview and in depth feature on the World Rally Championship and the role that its Director of Content and Production, Florian Ruth, is playing as part of a sea change in the way audiences around the world experience sport in the digital age.

“The whole world is changing. The way people consume media has completely altered in the last five years,” says Ruth.

This month’s Top 10 ranks the world’s leading robotic process automation companies.

Don’t forget to check out our in-depth profiles on Atos, Microsoft, Tivity Health, Qualcomm, TELUS Digital and more…

Enjoy the issue.

Harry Menear harry.menear@bizclikmedia.com

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innovation in practice Sprint and Amdocs have been key partners for over two decades, delivering together innovative solutions to make Sprint the success it is today.

Our joint accomplishments include modernizing billing support systems, introducing a groundbreaking customer care system, providing cost-effective payments processing and the optimization of current and future network capabilities.

This strong Sprint-Amdocs partnership has won widespread industry recognition, including the 2017 Global Telecoms Business Award for Consumer Service Innovation.

Visit www.amdocs.com to learn more about how you can partner with Amdocs to innovate successfully.

www.amdocs.com Š 2019 Amdocs. All rights reserved.

Click the home icon (top right of page) to return to contents page at anytime EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HARRY MENEAR EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

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CONTENTS

50

12

Inside Digital Realty’s strategy for an agile, interconnected world

60

28

84

40 68

TOP 10 RPA Companies

EVENTS

88

Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company

110

Tivity Health

128

Qualcomm

146

T5 Data Centers

164

Partners Behavioral Health Management

196 Stora Enso

178

innogy SE

216

Saudi Telecom Company

230 Atos

246

Microsoft

260

274

294

306

320

336

Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology

Mimecast

TELUS Digital

Revolution IT

Penrhos College

WSP Canada

12

NOVEMBER 2019

Inside Digital Realty’s strategy for an agile, interconnected world WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

TOM VENTURO

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13

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

Tony Bishop and Corey Dyer of Digital Realty discuss the data centre giant’s ongoing efforts to offer hyper-personalised data centre services from the single rack to the hyperscale

T

he global business landscape is experiencing a sea change. This transformation is permeating every industry

and market, seeing enterprises in the public and 14

private sectors swept along by a rising tide of demand for interconnected digital services. The ongoing transformation of the global economy is increasing the need for a wider array of digital infrastructure solutions, and is driving a seismic evolution on a global scale. “We’re the best positioned in the industry to address the broadest range of requirements. We build, design and operate some of the most highly interconnected data centres in the world,” says Corey Dyer, EVP of Global Sales and Marketing for Digital Realty.

Arriving at Digital Realty in January 2019, Dyer can look back on a year of continued growth and strategic success. Now, he and the rest of Digital Realty are looking forward, as the company embarks on the next phase of its digital transformation voyage.

NOVEMBER 2019

2004

Year founded

$3bn+ Approximate revenue

1,500

Approximate number of employees 15

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Founded in 2004, Digital Realty supports the digital infrastructure needs of more than 2,000 companies across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, with industry-leading data centre, colocation and interconnection services. Being uniquely positioned as the largest provider of data centre and digital infrastructure solutions worldwide gives Digital Realty the opportunity to not only navigate the tides of change, but also direct them to help create even more value for its customers.

“The digital economy is remaking both private and public enterprises

“ The digital economy is remaking both private and public enterprises across all industries, transforming how they create and deliver value” — Tony Bishop, SVP, Platform and Ecosystem Strategy, Digital Realty

across all industries, transforming how they create and deliver value,” says Tony Bishop, SVP of Platform and Ecosystem Strategy at Digital Realty. Now more than ever, Bishop believes, companies need to operate ubiquitously, providing on-demand services to customers, partners and employees enabled by intelligent analytics. “Companies are being forced to re-architect their IT towards a decentralised infrastructure to accommodate distributed workflows, which vary by participant, application, information and location w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

17

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘AARON BINKLEY ON THE ROLE DATA CENTERS PLAY IN SUSTAINABILITY’ 19 specific needs,” he elaborates.

infrastructure, a “one-stop solution

Dyer agrees. “These customers

that helps to interconnect their entire

need a platform that allows them

digital ecosystem,” enthuses Bishop.

to augment and change things in

“Customers will get to collaborate at

real time,” he says.

scale to solve the problems of global

From this market-wide demand

coverage and capacity through one

for solutions to the increasingly

provider; tailor their infrastructure

mission critical nature of agile,

deployments to their business needs,

on-demand capability is at the

irrespective of data centre size, scale

heart of Digital Realty’s newest

or location; and operate their deploy-

offering: PlatformDIGITAL™.

ments as a seamless extension of

Scheduled for launch this month

their global infrastructure to enable

at the company’s MarketplaceLIVE

globally distributed workflows.”

event in New York, PlatformDIGITAL™ is a new way of approaching digital

Digital Realty is a genuine global partner, placing customer service w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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at the heart of its business strategy.

“From a single cabinet, up to multiple

Dyer notes that the company is

megawatts, we’re a one stop shop for

uniquely positioned to deliver a ser-

all their infrastructure needs.” This

vice that is unavailable anywhere else

will be key to Digital Realty’s creation

in the data centre space. “We’re really

of a truly interconnected infrastruc-

the only provider that operates globally

ture offering. “We’re refocusing our

at scale, but at the same time, we

business to take advantage of this

offer this highly tailored experience

unprecedented opportunity and

to each individual customer,” he says.

become the global partner that helps

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Corey Dyer Corey Dyer is Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing, with responsibility for sales, leasing and marketing efforts across the organisation.

Prior to joining Digital Realty, Dyer served as Senior Vice President, Sales, Americas at Equinix, where he had responsibility for sales across the Americas region. Before joining Equinix, Corey worked at Hewlett-Packard, where he served as Vice President, Storage Sales, Canada and led the firm’s Canadian storage business. Previously, he held various sales and sales leadership positions at Dell, primarily in the server, software and peripheral businesses. Corey has over 25 years of experience as a sales leader with a track record of building and driving sales and marketing operations at leading technology companies.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Wake Forest University.

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companies manage their digital

and other industries. We’re bringing

transformation with their data centre

together the community that builds

infrastructure as the foundation,”

the cloud, network and internet

says Bishop.

infrastructure to demonstrate how

At MarketplaceLIVE, the company

PlatformDIGITAL™ is built to lead

will launch PlatformDIGITAL™. The

companies into the future of the

event – taking place on 7 November

digital economy,” says Bishop. This

at Spring Studios – is intended to

future that Digital Realty is helping

facilitate discussions around the

create for (and with) its clients and

future of digital transformation.

partners is defined by interconnec-

“We’ll host conversations around

tion and the ways in which coming

connectivity and connected tech-

together fosters collaboration. “It’s a

nology across AI, cloud computing

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“ We’re really the only provider that operates globally at scale, but at the same time, we offer this highly tailored experience to each individual customer” — Corey Dyer, EVP, Sales and Marketing, Digital Realty

not only with our customers but with our partner world,” says Dyer.

In addition to being an infrastructure provider, Digital Realty acts as a facilitator of expertise and connections to its client network. Offering a full range of fit-for-purpose data center solutions, from single cabinet colocation to private hyperscale facilities, Dyer remarks that there really is no end to the variation in the relationships and support structures Digital Realty provides. “Because we have such a strong partner community, we can be very agile in how

NOVEMBER 2019

we support our customers in such a

business has also completed the

fast-paced environment.”

acquisition

Digital Realty is continuing to grow,

of data centre infrastructure

both in scale and agility, through a

company Ascenty and entered into

combination of organic and acqui-

joint ventures related to three of

sition-fueled growth. In 2015, the

its data centres.

company completed its acquisition

The past year alone has seen

of data centre solutions company

Digital Realty expand its operations

Telx in a deal valued in excess of

in Frankfurt, Tokyo, Chicago, Dublin,

US$1.8bn. “The Telx acquisition

Northern Virginia, Brazil and more,

has been a huge boost to us and

as well as announcing plans to enter

our ability to provide interconnec-

the South Korean market for the

tion, which massively helped us build

first time. A large element of Digital

PlatformDIGITAL™,” Dyer explains. In

Realty’s growth is self-funded, an

addition to the Telx acquisition, the

impressive feat given what Dyer

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Tony Bishop As part of the Digital Realty CTO team, Tony plays a central role in helping the organisation build a differentiated global platform and ecosystem strategy to enable enterprises and services providers to accelerate their digital business strategies on PlatformDIGITAL™.

Prior to Digital Realty, Bishop served as VP of Global Enterprise at Equinix, Chief Strategy Officer for 451 Research and served at Morgan Stanley as Managing Director, Global Head of Enterprise Datacenter Operations & Strategy.

He is the author of Next Generation Datacenters – Driving Extreme Efficiency & Effective Costs Savings ( July 2009).

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25

D I G I TA L R E A LT Y

describes as the “capital intensive” nature of the industry. In September, the company sold 10 of its Powered Base Buildings® to Singaporian real estate developer Mapletree Investments, along with the establishment of a joint venture to co-manage three more facilities. The deal saw Digital Realty generate around $1.4bn in capital. “The transaction is going to allow us to continue selffunding our growth, diversify some of our sources of equity and capital, and really let us harvest value from our 26

fully stabilised assets so that we can redeploy the proceeds into higher

“ MarketplaceLIVE is a huge opportunity for us to connect, not only with our customers but with our partner world” — Corey Dyer, EVP, Sales and Marketing, Digital Realty

NOVEMBER 2019

yielding development opportunities,” Dyer explains. “It continues to build on our global expansions, and lets us stay focused on our core markets and the assets that we think drive the most value to our customers. It also reduces our reliance on capital markets, which can be volatile.”

As a leading builder and operator of data centre infrastructure, Digital Realty is aware of the role it has to play in the evolution of the market as a whole. Given that global internet

several Northern California properties, and boasting more certified green buildings than any other data centre provider. “Reducing our environmental impact is a priority for us,” says Dyer. “Our long-term goal is to pursue 100% renewable energy for our global portfolio.”

The launch of PlatformDIGITAL™ at MarketplaceLIVE is the highlight of a year filled with global growth and billion-dollar deals, highlighting its importance to the company’s strategy. “The launch is going to be the big mover for us, and I’m very excited,” says Dyer. “It’s going to have a huge impact on our business, and our customers’ businesses as well.” usage has tripled since 2015, and is

Harnessing its industry leading scale,

predicted to double again by 2022,

its commitment to providing a per-

managing the amount of power con-

sonalised service to suit the needs

sumed by the world’s data centres

of each individual customer and an

and networks is key to operators’

increasingly sustainable portfolio,

sustainability goals. Digital Realty

Digital Realty is set to enter 2020 as

continues to set and exceed ambi-

a force for intelligent, interconnected

tious sustainability and renewable

digital infrastructure solutions.

energy goals, achieving 100% renewable energy for its EMEA portfolio, 100% wind power for its US colocation business unit, 100% carbon free and renewable power supplied to w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

27

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

28

Gigabit explores the changing face of sports broadcasting as the industry moves towards an on-demand, OTT streaming future WRITTEN BY

NOVEMBER 2019

HARRY MENE AR

29

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

T

he rise of social media – the fact that virtually every smartphone is a mobile camera rig capable of broadcasting live worldwide at the push

of a button – is radically altering the way we obtain

information and consume content. With film and television production already moving away from traditional broadcasting models towards Over the Top (OTT – a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet, bypassing cable, broadcast and satellite) platforms, the writing is very much on the wall. Nowhere is this truer than in the global sports entertainment market, where the importance 30

of immediate on-demand coverage of the tens of thousands of live events that happen every year is becoming increasingly evident to broadcasters.

In a report released earlier this year, telco giant Tata Communications slated 2019 as the “tipping point” for the global sports industry, as digital transformation is set to catalyse a new era of “unprecedented commercial growth for broadcasters, rights holders and sports organisations.” Florian Ruth, Director of Content and Production at the World Rally Championship (WRC) agrees. “The whole world is changing. The way people consume media has completely altered in the last five years. Now, it’s all about real-time communication; people want to see and learn about what’s happening directly from the source as it happens.”

NOVEMBER 2019

“THE WHOLE WORLD IS CHANGING. THE WAY PEOPLE CONSUME MEDIA HAS COMPLETELY ALTERED IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS” — Florian Ruth, Director of Content and Production, World Rally Championship

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31

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

In response to the growing demand for on-demand sports streaming,

enables broadcasters, rights holders

established media giants and a new

and other key players in the sports

generation of challenger companies

ecosystem to maximise the

alike are entering the market, working

commercial opportunities that digital

to make the space more data driven,

platforms offer.” However, some

accessible and consumer-friendly.

sports are easier to transition towards

“Digital technologies are the friend, not the enemy, of the live experience.

So, as the digital fan experience gets

32

“A holistic fan engagement strategy

a digitally-enabled broadcasting strategy than others.

Ruth, who’s worked in sports

better, the pressure is increased to

broadcasting for over a decade –

ensure that fans at venues can engage

including more than five years with

with the action in new ways too,” says

Red Bull, overseeing events like the

Mehul Kapadia, Global Head of

Red Bull Air Race – came to the WRC

Marketing at Tata Communications.

in 2016 at a time when he sensed that

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP (WRC) – ALL LIVE!’ 33 consumer tastes were undergoing

Over the past three years, Ruth has

a dramatic shift. “When I came to the

overseen the digital transformation

WRC, everything was produced the

of the WRC’s broadcasting strategy

same way it had been, say, 10 to 15

from the ground up. However, the

years previously,” he recalls. “For

process of digitally transforming

example, when something happened

that strategy hasn’t been without its

at a rally – a crash, a leaderboard

challenges, many of them as a result

change, etc – people were learning

of the sport’s unique nature. “When

about it immediately via Twitter,” but

I first saw how the WRC was being

the nature of the WRC’s setups was

produced... it’s a really complex and a

such that, sometimes, it would take

very difficult production. In comparison

hours to obtain and broadcast the

to a Formula 1 race or a football

footage. “This wasn’t the sort of state-

match, where it all takes place in an

of-the-art production setup the sport

overseeable space, the rally is just

deserves,” says Ruth.

absolutely crazy,” laughs Ruth. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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

“The area we have to cover during a rally weekend is sometimes more than 10,000 square kilometres.”

In order to overcome the sheer scale of a rally event, Ruth and the WRC have partnered with Tata Communications, in order to support a radical reimagining of the way rally fans can access the WRC’s footage.

The service, WRC+ All Live, does exactly what it says on the tin: subscribers can view dozens of hours of footage, live, covering virtually every 34

moment of each global event. “This continuous live stream has become the heart and the soul of our production,” says Ruth. This is also where Tata Communications comes in, as the Indian telco has been instrumental in executing Ruth’s plan to transform the WRC broadcast from “between three and five hours of live content to more than 25 in a single event,” he explains. “Tata helped me to reduce our onsite facilities by feeding all the individual signals to our new post-production hub we’ve set up with our technical partner NEP in London.”

At an event, the WRC captures footage from a mixture of onboard, NOVEMBER 2019

“DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES ARE THE FRIEND, NOT THE ENEMY, OF THE LIVE EXPERIENCE” — Mehul Kapadia, Global Head of Marketing, Tata Communications

35

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

DAZN – PURE SPORT ON DEMAND This London-based sports entertainment streaming company was among the first to offer a pure-sport live and on-demand streaming service. Currently, the company offers its programming in seven markets across three continents and features over 25,000 live events each year.

As part of its ongoing efforts to scale, DAZN has been turning towards a network of virtual production facilities, which allows its editors to perform live logging, editing, commentary, and graphic design functions remotely from anywhere in the world. The first hub opened in Madrid in September in order to support DAZN’s production of content 36

in support of its premium sports right in the country to MotoGP, Premier League and Euroleague Basketball.

“At DAZN, digital disruption is at the heart of everything we do. The ability to operate in an agile and scalable virtual environment means we can get our content localised and out to market across multiple regions much more quickly. It also enables us to tap into shared resources in whatever configuration is required to fulfil our programming needs,” said Neil Colligan, Chief Operations Officer of the DAZN Group.

AMAZON – THE NEW ESTABLISHMENT With a 100mn-strong global user base, Amazon’s Prime membership offering has seen its media library expand consistently since its launch in 2006 as Amazon Unbox.

Over the last winter, it broadcast the NFL’s Thursday Night Football – on both Prime and its Twitch subsidiary – as well as professional golf, tennis and baseball across multiple markets.

NOVEMBER 2019

static, handheld and helicopter mounted cameras. In order to wirelessly transmit this footage live to the production suite, Ruth’s team uses RS technology to transmit any and all footage to a B200 King acting as a relay plane that constantly circles the stage.

Looking back over the 2019 season, Ruth is overjoyed with the continued success of the new OTT platform.

“The next big step we’re going to take in 2020 is to not only produce all the post-production content remotely, but also to produce All Live and the live television product completely remotely from London,” he explains. As traditional broadcasters like ESPN, established media entities like Amazon and challenger platforms like DAZN – as well as first party broadcasters like the WRC – all converge on this rich new distribution method, the relationship between sports fans and the content they love will undeniably never be the same.

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37

Covering every angle in the digital age The Business Chief platforms offer insight on the trends influencing C and V-level executives, telling the stories that matter

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D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N

40

Have seamless digital customer experiences become mission critical?

Gigabit deep dives into the changing relationship between companies and consumers, and the new need for seamless digital customer experiences WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENE AR

NOVEMBER 2019

41

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D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N

A

cross every industry in every market, one thing has become clear in 2019: this is the year of the customer. Ubiquitous

advertising, economic discomfort in a shrinking middle class, more ways than ever for people to self-determine the companies they deal with, a hunger for on-demand and personalised products and services, and a younger consumer class grown increasingly distrustful of an unfair capitalist system, are all conspiring to firmly put the ball back in the court of corporations when it comes

42

to attracting and retaining a customer base.

Back in 2018, James Paine, the Founder of West Realty Advisors wrote, in a piece for Inc, that “twenty years ago, if you paid for a product or service and you weren’t happy with what you received, the best you could hope for was that if you sent in a letter of complaint, you’d eventually receive a refund.

You could tell a couple of friends and maybe they’d tell their friends, but that was about it. Nowadays, though, if a customer has a bad experience then they can post about it online, and if they post about it online then it can go viral and even seriously damage the overall value of your brand. After all, all it took was one tweet from Kylie Jenner to knock US$1.3bn off Snapchat’s valuation.”

The message from consumers is clear: “treat us right or perish.”

NOVEMBER 2019

43

This month, Gigabit explores the strategies being adopted by companies that want not simply to survive this age of seamless consumer experience, but to thrive in it. Victoria Holt, CEO of digital manufacturer Protolabs, agrees that customer expectations in her industry have changed over the past decade. “People expect improvements at a pretty fast clip these days. So, being able to very quickly design, prototype and launch products is a critical success factor for manufacturers w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N

today,” she explains, adding that

customer expectations and the

“there’s more mass-customisation too,

standards are becoming more

which is another thing that not only

exacting every year as the customers

requires rapid innovation, but the

take more and more control.

capacity to produce products in lower

44

“For the last 50 years, software

quantities as you customise them for

development has been specification-

specific end uses. Again, this lends

centric. Teams created software that

itself to a more digitalised manufacturing

complied with a specification. That just

process.” This emphasis on harnessing

doesn’t work anymore,” says Antony

the power of digital transformation is

Edwards, Chief Operating Officer of

part and parcel with the ouroboric

artificial intelligence, analytics and

relationship between the company

software solutions company, Eggplant.

and customer. Companies digitally

“Software teams need to use customer

transform to offer products that are

analytics to become user-centric and

more personalised and readily

create software that delights users

available, and in return, this drives

and drives business outcomes.”

“People expect improvements at a pretty fast clip these days” — Victoria Holt, CEO, Protolabs

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘EGGPLANT – ONNECT YOUR CUSTOMER’S USER EXPERIENCE WITH YOUR BUSINESS GOALS’ 45 Edwards’ observations are backed

and “on-demand” are a good start, but

by a recent white paper from Adobe.

to better understand the specific

Noting that the most successful

things consumers want from them,

modern companies are the ones that

successful companies are doubling

have digitally transformed themselves,

down on analytics and diverting more

Adobe warns that “transformation

and more resources, both to under-

needs to be driven with a purpose.

standing their consumers and to

For top businesses, that purpose is

providing a seamless experience.

customer experience.” Companies

“Fast food stores are employing user

that place customer experience at

analytics to understand how their staff

the top of their list of priorities are more

are using point-of-sale terminals and

successful than those who adopt

then using this information to update

a ‘push’ mentality.

the point-of-sale terminal so that

But what do those customers want?

High level concepts like “customisability”

customers are served faster,” says Edwards. “Retailers are using a w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L D I S R U P T I O N

combination of user and technical analytics to understand how technical factors such as website speed and design factors such as high-resolution graphics, impact purchases. They then feed this automatically back into their software development to optimize revenue.” Across the board, industry leaders are moving as one towards a more informed company-customer relationship. In Gartner’s recent Customer Experience Trends Survey, it was revealed that, in 2018, two-thirds 46

of companies increased their customer experience technology investments, with 52% reporting that they intended to increase spending further in 2019.

In last year’s survey, Gartner found that 81% of companies expect customer experience to be the most important competition metric by 2020.

Seeking to perfect the customer experience is going to become an even greater point of differentiation for companies in the next few years.

Social media is a valuable tool for companies to understand, sell to and interact with their customer bases, but the sword swings both ways. Debacles like Fyre Festival and Kylie Jenner’s NOVEMBER 2019

“ Software teams need to use customer analytics to become user-centric and create software that delights users and drives business outcomes” — Antony Edward, COO, Eggplant

Snapchat Tweet prove that brands have nowhere to hide anymore; the customer experience must be seamless, curated and on-demand. Companies that want to succeed in what may become the Decade of the Customer need expert help - a fact that means the global Customer Experience Analytics Market is expected to grow to around $12bn by 2023 - and to embrace the power of digital. Vinod Muthukrishnan, co-founder and CEO of customer experience management software company CloudCherry, lives this reality every day.

“Customer retention is lower than it ever has been. The millennial audience is actually much more conscious of business ethics, the environment and corporate social responsibility than the two generations before it, mine included,” he explains. When asked about the key to a great customer experience, Muthukrishnan said: “We’re going back to the basics. In many ways, the more digitisation we do, the more humanisation the customer demands. You can use machine learning, you can use bots - you do whatever, as long as it’s aimed at actually giving that customer a more personal experience.” w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

47

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AI

ROBOTAXIS: 50

THE FUTURE OF TRANSPORT Gigabit takes a look at the dawning robotaxi revolution and profiles major players in the form of Waymo, DiDi and Tesla WRITTEN BY

WILLIA M SMITH

NOVEMBER 2019

51

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

AI

T

he world witnessed a revolution in the taxi industry with the advent of ride hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft. Existing firms have

been forced to modernise their offerings – intro-

ducing apps, for instance – and make the process more transparent. Now, advanced artificial intelligence is giving rise to a new disruptive force in the industry: robotaxis.

The technology has inspired utopian visions of the end of private car ownership, with people instead being able to rely on a fully automated fleet of 52

vehicles to take them to their intended destinations, on demand. Whether that eventually comes true

© Waymo

is yet to be seen; what is certain, however, is that robotaxis are already undergoing limited public trials across the world, operated by the likes of NuTonomy in Singapore and Waymo in Phoenix, Arizona. It seems likely that China, however, will see the first commercial use of the technology, with Chinese tech giant Baidu targeting a launch in the city of Changsha by the end of the year.

The race to evolve the technology has, at times, been bitter. Google sued Uber for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to driverless vehicles in 2017 and the engineer at the centre of the case, Anthony Levandowski, was charged with 33 counts of theft and attempted theft in August 2019.

The holy grail driving the frenzied competition NOVEMBER 2019

© Tesla

53

“ THE ADVENT OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES AND ROBOTAXIS SEEMS SURE TO HAVE A HUGELY POSITIVE EFFECT ON REDUCING ROAD DEATHS” w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

AI

is the achievement of fully autonomous vehicles ranked level 5 on the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Levels of Driving Automation Standard, meaning they are able to operate in all conditions without human interaction.

There are still a number of hurdles to overcome before a true robotaxi service is put into place, however. As first reported by The Information, of the 10,500 trips that Waymo underwent in July and August, 30% received a less than five-star rating from passengers.

© Waymo

54

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘EXPERIENCING DRIVERLESS WAYMO RIDES’

NOVEMBER 2019

55 Of the trips the company provided to

WAYMO

employees in Silicon Valley, that figure

Alphabet Inc-owned Waymo began life

rose to 47%. There have also been a

as Google’s internal self-driving vehicle

number of high profile fatal incidents

project. It has perhaps the greatest expe-

involving Tesla’s SAE Level 2 Autopilot

rience with real world conditions, saying

system, as well as the 2018 death

on its website that, since 2009, its “fully

of Elaine Herzberg who was struck

self-driving technology” has clocked up

by a self-driving Uber test vehicle.

10mn miles on real-world roads.

Despite such tragedy, the advent of

The company’s aforementioned

autonomous vehicles and robotaxis

Waymo One robotaxi trial in Phoe-

seems sure to have a hugely positive

nix, Arizona relies on users utilising

effect on reducing road deaths. In a

Waymo’s app. Recently, however, the

2018 presentation, Waymo CEO John

company announced a partnership

Krafcik quoted statistics showing that

with ride-hailing company Lyft, making

human error was responsible for 94%

ten of its vehicles available outside of

of crashes in the US.

Waymo’s own ecosystem. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

AI

DIDI

ness, and has previously announced

Chinese transportation company Didi

a partnership with the Renault–Nis-

Chuxing (DiDi) recently announced it

san–Mitsubishi Alliance to work on

is to allow customers in Shanghai to

autonomous vehicles.

hail self-driving vehicles via an app.

Since its founding in 2012, the

56

Shanghai’s government has granted the company permission to test its

company has raised over $20bn, with

autonomous fleet in the Jiading dis-

investment from the likes of SoftBank,

trict of the city. 30 different autono-

Toyota and Apple, who contributed

mous vehicles will be deployed, all

$1bn in 2016. DiDi is best known for

at level four on the SAE scale. The

having bought out Uber’s China busi-

vehicles will still at times be piloted

© DIDI

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘CHINA'S FIRST SELF-DRIVING TAXIS HIT THE ROAD IN GUANGZHOU’

“ ADVANCED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IS GIVING RISE TO A NEW DISRUPTIVE FORCE IN THE INDUSTRY”

by humans, with the company citing the complexity of the Shanghai environment as a mitigating factor. As reported by Autoblog, the service is scheduled to launch within a ‘couple’ of months, expand to Beijing and Shenzhen by 2020, and launch outside the country by 2021.

“Working with our auto-industry partners, DiDi has the potential to become the first business to realize large-scale robo-taxi service in China,” said Zhang Bo, CTO of DiDi and CEO of DiDi’s autonomous driving company. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

57

AI

TESLA The traditional conception of a robot taxi service is based on the business model of today, only with the driver taken out of the equation. Tesla, however, envisions a distributed network of personally owned vehicles sent out to perform taxi work when not in use by their owners. At the company’s 2019 Autonomy Day, the company’s notoriously unpredictable CEO said he was “very confident” that it's autonomous ride sharing network 58

“ THE HOLY GRAIL DRIVING THE FRENZIED COMPETITION IS THE ACHIEVEMENT OF FULLY AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES”

would be ready by 2020.

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘TESLA AUTONOMY DAY’

NOVEMBER 2019

59

© Tesla

update. Musk was quoted by TechCrunch as saying: “From our standpoint, if you fast forward a year, maybe a year and three months, but next year for sure, The service has long been gestating,

we’ll have over a million robotaxis on the

with Musk first floating the idea in

road. The fleet wakes up with an over

2016. One advantage the company

the air update; that’s all it takes.”

possesses over rivals is an existing fleet

Tesla is planning to take around 25%

of vehicles which can be given the new

of the revenue generated by the service,

capabilities required through a software

with the rest going to owners. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

CLOUD

60

MAKING THE WAVES: SAMSUNG UK AND OUR 5G FUTURE GIGABIT SITS DOWN WITH KATE BEAUMONT, DIRECTOR OF INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES STRATEGY AT SAMSUNG UK AND IRELAND TO DISCUSS THE WAYS IN WHICH THE KOREAN TECH GIANT IS DRIVING 5G ADOPTION WITH FUTURE-FORWARD THINKING AND CUSTOMER-DRIVEN R&D WRITTEN BY

NOVEMBER 2019

HARRY MENE AR

61

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

CLOUD

62

A

s the Director of Innovation,

Innovation, Technology and Strategy?

Technology & Services

Well, I worked across a variety of

Strategy at Samsung UK,

industries - including insurance,

Kate Beaumont is at the forefront of

magazines, commercial electronics –

the Korean tech giant’s introduction

before coming to telcos about 18

of 5G technology to the country.

years ago. I’m naturally very curious

We sat down with her to talk about

and, especially when I can see things

gesture controls, connected living

are broken, an intuitive problem solver.

and Minority Report.

Samsung UK was the perfect home for me because when I walked into

First of all, Kate, could you tell us a

the business, it had just gone through

little about yourself, your journey

leadership change and really needed

so far, and what drew you to your

a lot of business and operational

current role as Director of

transformation. I was able to come in,

NOVEMBER 2019

63

identify what the needs were and

opportunity to be able to shape and

then work to rebuild and put into place

influence that.

the commercial operating rhythm.

What I discovered as I came into the

How is 5G adoption affecting

telco business is that product really is

Samsung’s business strategy?

my first love – which I think is what

That question kind of assumes that

drew me to my current role. Being at

we’re reacting to this big trend when,

the cutting edge of tech is both

in reality, Samsung is at the forefront

fascinating and scary, because every

of these innovations. We’re obviously

sci fi movie you’ve ever seen might

collaborating with others in the

become a reality in the next

industry, but we’re focused on leading

five years, and there’s a lot of respon-

the way. We’ve had several world

sibility that comes with that, I think,

firsts in 5G because we were out

as a tech company, and I wanted the

there testing it. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

CLOUD

64

“ BEING AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF TECH IS BOTH FASCINATING AND SCARY, BECAUSE EVERY SCI FI MOVIE YOU’VE EVER SEEN MIGHT BECOME A REALITY IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS” Kate Beaumont, Director of Innovation, Technology & Services Strategy, Samsung UK

It’s less about catching the 5G wave and more about making it. But we’re also not doing it alone, of course.

Partnerships are a really important part of how we operate, whether it’s with Microsoft or Adobe, or on the infrastructure side of things.

Samsung has a huge R&D team, and we’re committed to investing $22bn over the next three years into things like AI and 5G technology in order to ensure we continue to lead the field, but also aren’t just doing innovation for the sake of innovation. We have to be doing meaningful innovation that creates meaningful experiences for our customers. It’s twofold: it’s about taking our global R&D efforts and – this is where my role comes in – bringing those fantastic innovations and developments to life for our consumers in the here and now.

Communication on mobile is becoming increasingly visual. How’s that affecting your innovation strategy?

Even 10, 15 years ago, we were looking into biometric engagement – using your body to power and control the device. Now, you can see some of that starting to come together:

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘SAMSUNG GALAXY: THE FUTURE’ 65 our devices have gesture controls that

We also know we need to be really

let you do things like take a selfie by

immersive and really authentic.

waving at them. Then there are things like voice control as well that are

Is it more challenging to work on

contributing to things becoming more

introducing technology, like AR or

and more interactive.

AI, that has its conceptual roots in

Whether it’s VR, AR or something

science fiction, versus something

else, the question is always: “How do

that doesn’t have that conceptual

we fuse the physical with the digital?”

baggage in the collective cultural

I think that, over the next year or two,

consciousness?

you’ll see 5G really empower VR and

That’s the ultimate question, and I’ve

AR, because if you’ve tried them, you

loved having a bit of a play with it.

know how sketchy the experience has

I’ve opened presentations by talking

been historically. Moving forward, 5G will

about Minority Report – saying things

completely change those experiences.

like “well, you thought that was just w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

CLOUD

sci fi, and now how many years are we

limited coverage like you do in the UK at

away from those kinds of experiences

the moment - and customers are

being a possibility?” I can’t decide

engaged and get it once they see an

whether we’re all going to end up

application. Tell them about something

fighting the Terminator or if we’re just

that’ll be happening in three years and it

plugged into the Matrix.

might as well be science fiction.

In reality, I don’t think the general

66

This is fundamentally what my role in

public are necessarily as worried about

the UK is: bridging the gap for Samsung

that. What we’ve found in our research

between the science fiction future and

is that, the further away it is, the less

now. It’s my job to go, “5G is definitely

real for people, obviously. Show them

worth investing in now, because within

something right now - and this is the

a year or two the experiences it

ultimate challenge with bringing 5G to

supports are going to be as fundamen-

life especially when you’ve got very

tal as Uber – a product of 4G – is now.”

“ WE’RE CREATING A WORLD WHERE CONNECTED DEVICES AND SERVICES ARE TRANSFORMING INTO TRULY SEAMLESS CONSUMER EXPERIENCES” Kate Beaumont, Director of Innovation, Technology & Services Strategy, Samsung UK

NOVEMBER 2019

What’s your top priority right now?

be connectable. Everything we

Samsung has a vision of connected

produce from sometime next year will

living; having billions of connected

be able to connect to a network,

devices all working together intelli-

whether it’s a fridge, an oven, your

gently. We’re creating a world where

phone, tablet, etc. Whatever it is,

devices and services are transforming

they’ll all work together seamlessly.

into truly seamless consumer experi-

If you think of that as our primary

ences. Imagine every electronic device

focus, everything else branches off

that you own, all speaking to each other

from it. In order to have connected

and all operating autonomously.

living you need 5G. You need the

In the UK, two out of three house-

Internet of Things. You need AI as it

holds have at least one Samsung

becomes predictive. All of those things

product. From 2020 onwards, we’ve

are going to be priorities going forward.

committed to having all of our devices

67 What’s on the horizon for Samsung and yourself going into 2020 and beyond?

Samsung’s plan for the UK is to be driving 5G penetration, and by that I mean encouraging the take up of 5G devices, which means we need to work with our partners on the content and experience, because we have got to give consumers a real genuine reason to buy.

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

68

NOVEMBER 2019

RPA companies Gigabit takes a look at the world’s top robotic process automation (RPA) companies and the products heralding a new age of digital workers WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

69

T O P 10

70

10

Another Monday

Germany’s Another Monday adopts a musical theme for its RPA solution suite, AM Ensemble, with its Muse, Composer and Conductor tools guiding the creation and implementation of RPA. Highlighting the simultaneous importance and tedium of repetitive processes, Another Monday positions its software robots as the solution.

Able to mimic the inputs of a worker and integrate with existing software, Another Monday also suggests an attendant benefit of freeing employees up to perform more rewarding tasks.

NOVEMBER 2019

Hans Martens , CEO

50+

Approximate number of employees

HQ

Cologne, Germany

09

71

Edgeverve

A subsidiary of Indian multinational Infosys, EdgeVerve was founded in 2014 with a focus on enterprise. Having absorbed Infosys’ banking solution FInacle in 2015, the company offers that suite alongside its AssistEdge automation platform which features an end-to-end RPA service.

The company lays out the progression of RPA as ending in “Human-empowered Automation” – a seamless interaction of human and digital workers. Retainers of its services have included Vodafone New Zealand and Curtin University.

Mohit Joshi, President

500+

Approximate number of employees

HQ

Bangalore, India

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

How AWS is helping create a future-ready Australia We are at a fascinating point in the history and evolution of Australian organisations, where they are using technology to transform and enhance the experiences they bring to their customers.Transformation touches everyone, from government agencies including the ATO, Australia Post, and ABC, digital natives like Atlassian and Xero, start-ups like Baraja and Whooshkaa, to established players like Qantas, Woodside Energy, NAB, Linfox, and Fonterra. Having the right skills in place to drive digital transformation is critically important, as is a willingness to embrace change and shift to a more agile, collaborative culture.AWS help organisations of all shapes and sizes with their most critical issues and opportunities. Together, we create enduring change and results.

Let AWS help create enduring change and strategies for you.

NAB’s Cloud Guild drives new tech skills NAB is watching a new approach to learning develop inside of the bank as it approaches the first anniversary of an ambitious program to train its workforce in the ways of cloud. The program, called the NAB Cloud Guild, was intended to enable “more than 2000” NAB employees to acquire or build cloud skills in support of the bank’s $1.5 billion “digital-first” transformation.Inside of the first year, the Cloud Guild is already tracking well ahead of that goal.“The results of the NAB Cloud Guild have been outstanding,” NAB’s Manager Engineer and Cloud Guild Founder Paul Silver said. “Within the first 10 months, we’ve had about 4000 people who’ve gone through the program so far in a one or three day course. “When we started, we had seven people in the whole organisation who were certified in AWS cloud. There are now over 400 people who are certified”.Silver can already see change as a result of the program.

“What we’ve found after people have done the three-day associate courses is they’re becoming self-learners, which is fantastic,” he said. “AWS has great digital content we can consume and use inside our organisation. After people get their first certification, they’re actually going off and selflearning this content with the outcome of getting more certifications, in-turn leading to better outcomes for NAB.” The learning culture is expected to have a strong impact on NAB’s project, which includes a target of moving 35 percent of its 2500 IT applications into the cloud within the next three-tofive years. “With AWS’ help we’ve been able to drive outcomes incredibly fast. This is helping us meet our customer expectations a lot faster than we have been able to in the past,”

Silver said. NAB’s Chief Technology & Operations Officer Patrick Wright said the battle for technology talent in Australia is “fierce”. Wright sees the NAB Cloud Guild not only as a way to create opportunities for employees to learn new skills and grow their career in technology, but also as a means “to attract top talent in the industry.” “We’re embarking on a transformation that we think is fundamentally changing our ompany, fundamentally changing the way we work, and launching us into a new era,” Wright said. “If you want to build a company of builders, you have to have technology career pathways.”

NAB is also taking some cues on best practices from AWS as it continues on its digital transformation journey.

The bank recently tackled the AWS 50 in 50 program, which involves getting 50 applications into the cloud in just 50 days. It was a clear signal of the speed and agility that NAB now wants to operate. “AWS’s passion for customers aligns well with what we are doing at NAB and we’re also learning from them along the way as well,” Silver said. “It’s been a really good partnership to work with them.”

How AWS is helping create a future-ready Australia

Woodside Energy leveraging data to seize growth opportunities Woodside Energy is the pioneer of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in Australia, and the largest Australian natural gas producer. Woodside’s producing LNG assets in Australia’s north-west Pilbara region are among the world’s best facilities, renowned for their safety, reliability and efficiency.

Now, Woodside is seeking to create an integrated LNG production centre – the Burrup Hub - that would see new Scarborough and Browse gas resources processed through the Woodsideoperated Pluto LNG and Karratha Gas Plant. To help realise this vision, Woodside is leveraging gains from its data science and intelligent asset work programs over weeks and days, instead of months and years, allowing the company to make decisions sooner, using richer data. Innovation has always been part of Woodside’s DNA. Applying cloud technology is helping Woodside accelerate the traditional oil and gas project innovation cycle from years, down to months. Woodside uses AWS cloud as the foundation for optimising production in real time, by running high -speed algorithms to uncover new insights and opportunities to deliver extra value. Woodside can run 10,000 algorithms per hour, taking data from over 200,000 sensors attached to its Pluto LNG plant. The company remains focused on reaching all Woodside employees with this work.

Digital at Woodside is not just about ‘gear’; it’s honing and changing the way people work, with collaborative partnerships playing a key role.

Learn more

Visit awsinsight.com.au to find out more how AWS is able to help you thrive in today’s digital economy.

08

73

WorkFusion

Emphasising the intelligent side of its RPA capabilities, WorkFusion differentiates itself from competitors with rapid deployment within 12 weeks. Highlighting its solution’s intelligence, simplicity and scalability, WorkFusion’s Intelligent Automation Cloud ecosystem comes in business and enterprise tiers, as well as a free express version for personal automation projects. Customers include Capgemini, Deloitte, Tata and Infosys. A relative newcomer, having been founded in 2010, WorkFusion has raised

Alex Lyashok, CEO

200+

Approximate number of employees

HQ

New York, NY

over $120mn from six funding rounds.

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T O P 10

74

07

Pegasystems

Pegasystems specialises in customer relationship management software. The company’s automation offerings are built around its Pega Platform, which allows for the creation of apps without code. To maximise the impact of its RPA features, Pegasystems’ Opportunity Finder utilises machine learning to find areas optimal for automation. Founder and CEO Alan Trefler first gained fame as a chess master, later using his expertise in the game to develop chess playing computers before founding the firm in 1983.

NOVEMBER 2019

Alan Trefler, CEO

1,000+

Approximate number of employees

HQ

Cambridge, Massachusetts

06

Automation Anywhere

75

Automation Anywhere operates a Bot Store – a marketplace for pre-existent bots suited for different roles. These so-called “Digital Workers” are given job titles by the company, such as the “Digital Employee Onboarding Specialist” which can identify, shortlist and onboard candidates. Also on offer are bots suited to specific tasks such as autonomously converting text to speech. Originally founded in 2003 as Tethys Solutions, the company acquired its current name in 2010, emphasising its focus on robotic process automation.

Mihir Shukla, CEO

1,000+

Approximate number of employees

HQ San Jose, California

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

We’ve helped Australian companies such as oOh! Media to build high quality technical teams.

Data & Analytics | Engineering | Information Security Infrastructure & DevOps | Product & Design

THEONSET.COM.AU | RECRUITMENT@THEONSET.COM.AU

05

Blue Prism

77

The UK’s Blue Prism counts the likes of Ebay, the NHS and Walgreens among its customers.

Its intelligent RPA platform comes in both on-premise and SaaS varieties, and it identifies industries such as the public sector, manufacturing and financial services as ripe for RPA implementation. Blue Prism maintains a dragand-drop interface built around connectable objects containing actions and events, with the processes created leaving a detailed, auditable trail. The company is relatively ancient in RPA

Alastair Bathgate, CEO

500+

Approximate number of employees

HQ

London, UK

terms, having been founded in 2001.

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T O P 10

78

04

UiPath

UiPath is an RPA specialist, offering a platform for automating repetitive manual tasks, which the company claims represents the future of work. Advertising the ease of use for its automation designer, UiPath’s robots are able to operate in both attended situations, such as help desks and call centers in collaboration with humans, and unattended situations.

Reflecting the increasingly important status of RPA, the company raised $568mn in its latest Series D funding round.

NOVEMBER 2019

Daniel Dines, CEO & Founder

1,000+

Approximate number of employees

HQ

New York, NY

03

79

SAP

‘Intelligent Robotic Process Automation’ from SAP come as part of its SAP Leonardo intelligent enterprise system. It emphasises its capability to mimic human workers inputs as well as interpret their communications.

SAP’s offering incorporates machine learning and conversational AI alongside RPA. Its bots also have the capability to build intelligence into existing back office processes. SAP was founded in 1972 by five German engineers from the next company on this list, IBM.

Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein. , Co-CEOs

96,500

Approximate number of employees

HQ

Walldorf, Germany

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T O P 10

02 IBM IBM sees the implementation of intelligent automation as heralding a future ‘collaborative workforce’ comprised of humans and machines working together. It advocates for a programme of change management to upskill workers with the ability to collaborate with robots. The company’s suite of intelligent automation services includes its Watson system, and its technologies have already been put to use in banking, shipping and in 80

policing. The grandfather of the IT industry, IBM can trace its history back over 100 years.

NOVEMBER 2019

Ginni Rometty, CEO

350,600 Approximate number of employees

HQ

Armonk, New York

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘IBM ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION: UNLOCK GREATER VALUE’ 81

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

Cognizant Cognizant advertises the platform-agnostic nature of its automation offerings, which can ‘harmonise’ with legacy systems. The com82

pany identifies automation potential in tasks across the business operation, which it says its machine learning augmented robotic process automation can provide. Cognizant offers so-called ‘Robotics-as-a-Service’ systems which can free human workers up to pursue less menial tasks in sectors such as insurance, banking, healthcare, manufacturing and more. The company was founded in 1994, spun out of business information company Dun & Bradstreet.

NOVEMBER 2019

Brian Humphries, CEO

261,400 Approximate number of employees

HQ

Teaneck, New Jersey

83

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘COGNIZANT – BOTS PROMISE A BETTER ENTERPRISE INTELLIGENT PROCESS AUTOMATION’

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

EVENTS & A S S O C I AT I O N S

We round up the biggest and best technology events and conferences from around the world… EDITED BY HARRY MENEAR

04–07 NOV 2019

VMworld 2019 Europe [ BARCELONA, SPAIN ]

84

04–08 NOV 2019

Microsoft Ignite 2019

Touting itself as “the preeminent digital infrastructure event of the year”,

[ ORLANDO, FLORIDA, USA ]

VMworld is a global conference for vir-

Microsoft Ignite is Microsoft’s annual

tualization and cloud computing hosted

meeting created for enterprise

by VMware. Attendees will learn from

professionals, services and products.

top VMware and industry experts about

Offering everything from deep product

what’s coming next in IT. Additionally,

dives to hands-on labs and immersive

attendees will be able to network with

experiences, Microsoft Ignite will cover

peers, make new connects, get direct

a wide range of topics such as deploy-

experience and training with hands-on

ment, development, architecture security

labs and discover new product break-

as well as operations and management.

throughs. Last year, 13,000 attendees

At last year’s event, the keynote speaker

and 3,500+ companies from across the

was Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

globe gathered to attend the event.

NOVEMBER 2019

18-20 NOV 2019

GOTO Copenhagen 2019

19-22 NOV 2019

Aimed at developers, lead teams,

Open Source Data Conference (OSDC) Europe

software architects and project

[ LONDON ]

managers, GOTO Copenhagen is an

Boasting 24 training sessions, 30

event defined by its expert speakers,

workshops, 120 speakers 230 hours of

who this year include Polhem Prize

content and around 1,800 attendees,

winner Daniel Stenberg, legendary

ODSC claims to be “one of the largest

AI pioneer Doug Lenat and Apple

applied data science conferences

Co-founder and tech icon Steve

in Europe”. Attendees can expect

Wozniak. As the organisers say,

to learn from the best and brightest

GOTO is “all about the talks. We seek

minds in the field who will cover a

interesting speakers from around the

variety of topics such as open data

world and let them shape the agenda

science, deep learning, machine learning,

— they’re the experts after all.”

and data visualisation.

[ COPENHAGEN ]

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85

EVENTS & A S S O C I AT I O N S

20-21 JAN 2020

European Blockchain Convention [ BARCELONA ] Returning to Barcelona after a successful 2018 event, the European Blockchain 86

Convention (which alternates between Barcelona and Copenhagen) is one of the defining events for all things crypto

24-27 FEB 2020

and powered by digital ledger. This

MWC

year’s event is expected to play host to

[ BARCELONA, SPAIN ]

more than 600 tech leaders, regulators,

With thousands set to descend on

investors, corporations, developers and

Barcelona for the event, MWC (formerly

entrepreneurs from the industry.

Mobile World Congress) promises

Its talks, seminars and events are

to be an unmissable technology

expected to focus on real-world appli-

congress. Hosting groundbreaking

cations for blockchain and digital ledger

innovations from almost 2,500

technology across multiple industries,

companies and over 100,000 dele-

including energy, finance, supply chain,

gates, MWC stands as one of the

government, insurance, healthcare,

largest conferences in the world

retail and mobility.

centered around mobile technologies.

NOVEMBER 2019

02-04 JUNE 2020

DataCloud World Congress [ MONACO ]

24-26 MAR 2020

Money 20/20 Asia

87

Next year, Monaco will be home to the 17th annual DataCloud World Congress,

[ SINGAPORE ]

bringing together a variety of experts in

Asia’s famously grandiose technology

the cloud, data centre and IT infrastructure

and fintech conference focuses on

markets. Touting itself as “the premier

helping entrepreneurs and large enter-

leadership summit for critical IT infra-

prises maintain the pace of innovation

structure”, the event promises to cover

and network with like-minded individuals

everything from cloud challenges to

and thought leaders. “Complacency is

edge evolution. Speakers at last years’

the enemy,” warn the organisers. Money

event included: Michel Fraisse, VP,

20/20 carefully curates its content

Europe, Huawei, Jeffrey Ferry, Director,

each year in order to present the very

Goldman Sachs and Glenn Fitzgerald,

leading edge in business and financial

Chief Technology Officer, Product

strategy to its host of attendees.

Business, Fujitsu EMEIA.

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Retail Business Services: the importance of collaboration

88

WRITTEN BY

SHANNON LEWIS PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

NOVEMBER 2019

89

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R E TA I L B U S I N E S S S E R V I C E S , A N A H O L D D E L H A I Z E U S A C O M PA N Y

Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, discusses collaborative approaches to grocery retail tech integration

R 90

etail Business Services was launched in January 2018 to support Ahold Delhaize USA’s consumer-facing grocery retail

companies and online grocery retailer, Peapod.

Retail Business Services provides innovative solutions by leveraging scale and expertise to ensure the company’s partners can focus on developing their local brands. “Since our first day,” Scorza says, “IT has had a seat at the table of the leadership team. Which has enabled us to successfully support these brands.” Paul Scorza is the Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of IT at Retail Business Services, having previously worked as the CIO and EVP for Ahold USA prior to the merger between Ahold and Delhaize in 2016. He brings with him 32 years’ experience at IBM, a job he took immediately after graduating college and in which he performed several software and service-related roles.

NOVEMBER 2019

91

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EMPOWERING THE ART OF RETAIL

toshibacommerce.com

Toshiba is proud to work together with partners like Getronics and Retail Business Services to lead the way in delivering more customer-focused shopping experiences.

Through these dedicated partnerships, we are transforming retail by creating unique and compelling customer experiences.

INNOVATION TRANSFORMS THE CHECKOUT EXPERIENCE AT AHOLD DELHAIZE USA BRAND STORES Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company, is a leader in the supermarket industry and well known for its eye toward innovation, passion for great food and dedication to delivering value to its customers. Retail Business Services had a goal from its local brand partners - to increase throughput, front-end lane utilization and improve the customer’s experience. Based on long-term relationships and proven capabilities, Retail Business Services turned to Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions and Getronics, plus other key partners to achieve their goals and vision for its stores. The result: a unique convertible lane that transforms checkout.

All lanes open, all the time.

Retail Business Services came to its partners with a clear vision: all lanes open, all the time.

With convertible dual-use checkout lanes, Retail Business Services was able to provide a technology solution to its brand partners to make the most of the square footage in stores by replacing attended lanes that were only used some of the time, with lanes that could be used 100% of the time for either self-service or cashier-led experiences. Through this solution, the stores can reduce lines during checkout and give customers the ability to choose the way they experience checkout; whether they want the personal touch of a cashier-attended lane, or the convenience and privacy of a self-checkout lane – all while preserving the speed and full function of their existing attended lanes.

“Our partnership together goes back many years, but this project exemplifies our relationship as trusted partners and leaders in the industry. Our commitment was not only to project success, but also positive impact on store operations and bottom line results,” said Bill Campbell, VP, Head of Americas at Toshiba.

Leading Together To achieve this, Toshiba leveraged their extensive retail store knowledge to contribute software development and hardware engineering expertise, Getronics acted as the Systems Integrator providing project management, engineering and software testing capability, and another existing partner designed the customized cabinet.

The challenge? Create software functionality that allowed store associates to switch modes from Toshiba’s Checkout Environment for Consumer Service (CHEC), a software application designed to optimize self-checkout, to their Toshiba POS Application. To ensure cashier-led transactions continued at full speed, Toshiba modified existing software application functionality to suit unique specifications.

Toshiba leveraged its TCx™ Elevate digital platform ensuring a seamless end-to-end solution to power the front-end allows cash tender during both transaction types.

Toshiba customized communications to create a unique solution with multiple applications and hardware devices.

Close collaboration among the teams was the key to the successful design, development and deployment.

“We are delighted to have contributed to the teamwork, integration and collaboration that supported Retail Business Services vision for helping their store brand partners transform their front-end,” said Aaron Hagler, Getronics’ Vice President of Software and Retail Solutions.

To perfect the solution, Retail Business Services conducted prototype, lab, and in-store pilots, and gathered feedback from shoppers and associates. With this valuable insight in hand, the team refined functions to reduce operational risk in the rollout and prove value to the business.

Through extensive partner collaboration, we deployed an innovative technology solution that supports our strategy, Leading Together, while delivering our promise of a better place to shop.”

Paul Scorza, EVP, Information Technology and CIO for Retail Business Services.

When the rollout began, Retail Business Services ordered approximately 40 lanes. Less than a year later, they have placed over 435 dual-use lanes in 175 stores across Ahold Delhaize USA’s local brands, including Giant Martins (Carlisle, Penn.), Giant Food (Landover, Md.) and Stop & Shop.

These convertible lanes have been met with glowing reviews from shoppers and cashiers alike. Shoppers have reported they appreciate the ability to choose their checkout method and skip the line while using the input belt to load large orders. Cashiers can scan a shopper’s cart quickly, with the added security and accuracy of cash recyclers for cash tender eliminating the complexity and time required to manage cash.

In the end, Toshiba and Getronics stepped up as trusted partners and industry leaders to collaborate with Retail Business Services and partners to create a solution that exceeded expectations and delivered meaningful business value to the companies of Ahold Delhaize USA.

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“There’s a pull now where the stores are asking for innovation. Customers are demanding tech” — Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company 95 The merger, he says, was an opportunity to confirm the company’s power of growth. While it did demand lengthy rationalization, bringing together the two IT systems, was a successful endeavour. The key was finding synergies. The merger ultimately allowed the corporation to increase investments in IT infrastructure, apply innovative initiatives, and bring new technology into its physical stores. “Ahold Delhaize USA recognizes the value of IT,” says Scorza.

Collaboration is at the centre of success at Ahold Delhaize USA and Retail w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

USTGlobal

®

New Retail Experience With Frictionless Checkout Store (FCS)

Today’s customers are looking for an incredible shopping experience inside the store that mirrors the online experience of shopping in a frictionless environment and virtual assistance that makes their shopping fun, interesting and engaging.

UST Global Digital Retail team is constantly working on bringing innovative, practical, and cost-effective solutions for engaging customers while they are inside the brick-and-mortar store.

Towards this, we have launched and implemented multiple interactive touchpoints that improve category margin, sales and leave the customer with a WOW experience with a reference to a supermarket chain.

We see tremendous value of rolling out the solution across globally in convenience stores, universities, offices, fulfillment centers, and dense metropolitan cities.

UST Global aims to be a global partner in New Retail

Frictionless Checkout Store (FCS) is a cornerstone of our digital strategy to support the “New Retail” Patented technology enables end-to-end smart store solutions that offer personalized shopping experiences to the customer as well as improved store operation and labor efficiency An innovative shopping solution for brick-andmortar stores using computer vision, machine learning, and IoT UST Global along with its strategic partners including Intel, are behind implementing ‘FCS’ solution for the first store at the RBS office in Quincy,MA Vision sensors track which products customers pick up and put back, virtual baskets are updated accordingly Redefines the way people shop by eliminating the pain points of checkout lines and cashiers with algorithms, and customers’ digital accounts are automatically charged after exiting the stores

ust-global.com

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE NEXT GENERATION OF GROCERY RETAIL’ 97 Business Services. “You can’t get

have a good idea of what the brand

anything done without good partners,”

represents. Retail Business Services

affirms Scorza. From partnerships

develops tech in house whenever the

with local brands to collaborations

market fails to supply. Among this is

with other tech companies, these are

frictionless checkout, which allows

an integral part of Retail Business

customers to shop in-store without

Service’s business strategy. To ensure

having to pay at a checkout lane. Using

a strong partnership with local brands,

a mobile phone or scanner, they have a

Retail Business Services created the

preselected payment method associ-

Business Relationship Manager (BRM)

ated to their loyalty card and can leave

role, an account manager that works

through a special lane as soon as

out of local brands’ headquarters,

they are finished picking their goods.

attending staff meetings, and feeding

Scorza compares it to using an EZ

information back to developers and

pass when driving on toll roads.

service providers so the IT team can

Partnerships have allowed Retail w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

Verizon k business Digital transformation never stops.

That’s why businesses need a trusted partner to help them prepare for what’s next.

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They rely on us to keep them ready for every step along their digital journey.

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keeps s

© 2019 Verizon

Don’t just compete. Thrive.

When all of your retail operations are connected, from your back office to the front end, from POS to payments to loyalty programs, you gain the freedom to think ahead. So you can meet customers in every moment. And stay ahead of the curve—and your competition.

Learn how, together, we can help you do more than compete; we can help you thrive. ncr.com/retail

Business Services to keep on top of IT innovation. “One of the things you do as an IT organization is staff all the work you have to do,” he says.

“You want a flexible workforce so that they can bring in skills that you may not have. I generally run 15-20% of my workforce using that flexible resource.” When it comes to project management needs, Retail Business Services turns to Apex and Sevenstep.

To run a data center to support the

“ One of the things you do as an IT organization is staff all the work you have to do, and you want a flexible work-force so that they can bring in skills that you may not have” — Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company

applications for Giant Food, GIANT/ MARTIN’S and Stop & Shop, both for application maintenance and support,

101

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Paul Scorza Paul Scorza is the CIO and EVP of Information Technology for Retail Business Services. Scorza has 40 years of experience in IT. Before joining Retail Business Services, Scorza was EVP, IT and CIO for Ahold USA. Prior to that, he spent 32 years at IBM in leadership positions including VP of Global Delivery, VP and Transformation Executive for Finance, Global Financing, Technical Support, and Application Portfolio Management, VP Americas, and Application Solutions Delivery Leader. Scorza holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a combined MBA and an M.S. degree in computer science from Marist College.

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Retail Business Services relies on DXC.

to change over POS systems six and

DXC has a decade long relationship

half years ago, Getronics was closely

with Ahold Delhaize USA compa-

involved. “I watched them install eve-

nies that has evolved over the years.

rything,” says Scorza. “Getronics was

Getronics and Toshiba have also been

truly a partner in the implementation

important to Retail Business Services

and cared about our business as much

both from a POS system and manu-

as we do.” The company also works

facturing standpoint. Toshiba runs

with Salesforce on its IT infrastructure.

point on the system for Giant Food,

“Salesforce is another great IT partner,”

GIANT/MARTIN’S and Stop & Shop,

affirms Scorza. “We have used their

while NCR focuses on Food Lion and

Mulesoft software for data integration

Hannaford. Getronics and Toshiba

and each brand has access to their

helped develop the customized code

Marketing cloud platform. Both tools

Retail Business Services needed

provide access to key information to

within the loyalty scheme that gave

drive business at each local brand.”

customers points off gasoline. When

Retail Business Services also works

legacy company, Ahold USA, needed

with other key partners, such as w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

103

Wipro for support and development

wedded to a ‘must be invented here’

resources with key tools,

mentality,” says Scorza. “People

like Kronos.

stepped up as trusted partners.”

When Retail Business Services

The goal, Scorza says, is to ensure

wanted to develop a dual lane system

customers have a good experience

that could double as a self-checkout or

when they visit the stores. To keep

associate checkout lane, it partnered

up with innovation, Retail Business

with Toshiba and Getronics. Toshiba

Services uses a “fast follower” phi-

provided software development

losophy as well. “We don’t always want

and hardware engineering expertise;

to be cutting-edge,” explains Scorza.

Getronics brought software test

“Sometimes we let other people do the

capability and project management.

cutting-edge stuff, spend lots of money,

Ultimately, after prototyping, lab

and then we follow closely behind

work, and in-store pilots, the pro-

with something we know works more

ject was a success. It is in 145 retail

efficiently and at a fraction of the cost.”

stores and 380 lanes. “This was a

Retail Business Service’s lunchbox

good success story. No one was

frictionless store is similar to Amazon Go. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

105

wipro.com

Creating MEaningful Experiences Re-imagining Shopping Journeys Digitalizing Retail Unleashing Hyper–efficiency

Wipro helps retailers deliver superior customer experience and realize better business outcomes through its deep capabilities in Digital, Cloud, Engineering, Cyber-Security, Intelligent Automation, Analytics & Personalization.

107 Customers walk into a store, scan in using an app, pick what they want, and leave; no scanning of products required. UST Global was a key partner in the development of the frictionless pilot store technology.

The world’s relationship with IT has changed in recent years, says Scorza.

When trying to implement wireless capability in-store half a decade ago, he was met with some resistance. “In 2013, we created any kind of innovative solution because you couldn’t get the stores to adopt it,” says Scorza.

“The industry just wasn’t ready. I was always trying to push solutions out w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

R E TA I L B U S I N E S S S E R V I C E S , A N A H O L D D E L H A I Z E U S A C O M PA N Y

“ You can’t get anything done without good partners” — Paul Scorza, Chief Information Officer and Executive Vice President of Information Technology, Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA company 108

NOVEMBER 2019

2018

Year founded

$44bn

Parent company, US segment, 2018

2,700

Approximate number of employees there. However, knowing this was com-

that customize in-store experiences.

ing, we partnered with Verizon to put

“We’ve got a bright horizon here,”

wireless capability into all Ahold USA

believes Scorza. “There’s so much

stores. This was their first entry into a

technology in areas you’d never expect

grocery store and Verizon did a great

there to be. You get out of college with

job partnering with us to make it hap-

a computer science degree and start

pen.” It’s completely the opposite now.

looking for IT companies. Never in my

It’s a pull versus push. There is a pull

wildest dreams would I have imagined

now where the stores are asking for

I would enjoy IT in a retail company. It

innovation. Customers are demanding

has been incredibly exciting here.”

tech.” This change has allowed Retail Business Services to shift its focus to creating an omnichannel experience.

Artificial intelligence is the next step, Scorza affirms, prediction models w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

109

110

Tivity Health: Digitally transforming healthcare solutions WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

MIKE SADR

NOVEMBER 2019

111

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T I V I T Y H E A LT H

Paul Edmisten, SVP and CIO at Tivity Health discusses the evolution of the company and its journey towards digital transformation

F

ounded in 1981, Tivity Health is a leading provider of healthcare solutions for fitness, nutrition and social isolation. “Tivity

Health works hand-in-hand with its members, clients, partners and customers to create everyday opportunities for long-lasting health and vitality,” 112

says Paul Edmisten, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer.

“Tivity Health’s goal is to be the leader in transforming healthy living for adults by empowering and engaging them to live their best lives through nutrition, fitness and social connection,” says Edmisten.

Formerly known as Healthways, Tivity Health was “among the boutique darlings of the Nashville healthcare community, focused on disease management in the early years and transitioned to total population health and well-being,” comments Edmisten. “Healthways had been successful growing and transitioning the business over the first three decades, until they experienced performance challenges leading up to 2014.” Throughout 2014 and 2015 the company went through tremendous change from the board, to CEO and throughout the NOVEMBER 2019

113

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PERSONALIZING CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT AT SCALE ACROSS HEALTHCARE Healthcare organizations are increasingly treating consumer healthcare as a holistic journey.

Consumer expectations have risen, driven by their experiences with digital technology in other industries. Today’s always-on, connected consumer interacts with brands across multiple channels and devices, and they expect a brand to know them across dynamic journey stages.

Likewise, the always-on consumer’s health journey exists outside of the typical healthcare ecosystem. An individual’s actions, behaviors, and environment play enormous roles in continued health. Factors such as diet and exercise, access to parks and green space, and even how much natural light a person is exposed to throughout the day are known as social determinants of health, which can account for up to 40 percent of a person’s proclivity toward long-term health.

Healthcare companies are now starting to use social determinants of health data to help guide consumers along their healthcare journeys; this is key with the total healthcare experience being a continuous path that reflects always-changing behaviors and environmental patterns.

KNOW ALL THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT A HEALTHCARE CONSUMER Personalizing the consumer healthcare experience to shape a healthcare journey at an individual level is accomplished through the use of data. By ingesting and combining first-party, second-party, and third-party consumer data onto a single platform, a healthcare organization creates a unified consumer profile, or golden record, that lets the organization know everything there is to know about a consumer and informs the next-best action, or recommendation, that will help propel the consumer on the path toward continued health. The RedPoint Customer Data Platform™ connects all available data sources to create an accurate golden record that is updated in real time.

With automated machine learning and an intelligent orchestration layer, the platform recommends a next-best action or message for an individual consumer while being contextually aware of where they are in their journey.

A NEXT-BEST ACTION AND AN ENGAGED CONSUMER Data sources that create a golden record could include data from a connected device that monitors sleep and exercise patterns, for example. It could include a device that monitors a consumer’s vital signs, combined with a history of provider and care visits, future scheduled visits, gaps in care, and sources that indicate social determinants of health. The platform’s self-tuning, automated machine learning models continuously update a consumer’s health “score” based on every data source, and recommend the appropriate action in a way that is customized for the particular payers, providers, and consumer in that instance. Because the golden record is persistently updated with real–time data, a recommendation is always in the context and cadence of an individual healthcare journey.

This single point of control over data, decisions, and interactions is the key to providing personalized omnichannel communications with each consumer. A number of health organizations have engaged with RedPoint to deliver hyper-personalized customer experiences to acquire new customers and manage individualized journeys that improve health outcomes, lower costs, and improve consumer satisfaction.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN DRIVE VALUE WITH A SINGLE POINT OF CONTROL, VISIT WWW.REDPOINTGLOBAL.COM OR EMAIL CONTACT.US@REDPOINTGLOBAL.COM.

T I V I T Y H E A LT H

“ Tivity Health works hand-in-hand with its members, clients, partners and customers to create everyday opportunities for long-lasting health and vitality” 116

— Paul Edmisten Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Tivity Health

organization.” In the summer of 2015, Edmisten became involved with the company following Alvarez and Marsal’s partnership with Healthways to restructure the company and to set a course for the future. “As I partnered with the executive management team, the board and Donato Tramuto, CEO of Healthways – and today CEO of Tivity Health – as the newly appointed CIO, we eliminated tens of millions of dollars in operating expenses, and ultimately landed on three options to move the company forward. They included continuing to work with the existing business units and products, managed through continuous change and transformation (the long-haul approach).

The short approach was to shut down underperforming business units of the total population health business, and the third approach was to sell the total population health business.” Small parts of the business were sold leading up to July 2016, when Healthways successfully sold its total population health services business to Sharecare. In January 2017, Healthways rebranded as Tivity Health. “With the launch of Tivity Health and its divesture of the

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘HEALTH IS MORE THAN A STATE OF BEING. IT’S A COMMITMENT TO DOING” 117 total population health business, our

a robust B2C data and technology

financial profile strengthened and

stack that align with Tivity Health’s

grew,” notes Edmisten. “Witnessing

strategy and objectives. Edmisten

first hand and being personally

highlights that, in order to align the mis-

involved in the series of events and

sion, mindset and operating model of

transactions that occurred during this

Tivity Health, the company had to

span of time was priceless. Something

transform the way they defined, deliv-

many never experience in business

ered and engineered its products to

and will never learn in business

create the desired consumer experi-

school,” notes Edmisten. Tremendous

ence. Donato Tramuto, CEO of Tivity

change occurred impacting all aspects

Health shared that “Paul Edmisten

of the company.

played a key strategic role during our

Since the divestiture, Tivity Health

transformation of Tivity Health. His

has evolved transforming its people,

pragmatic and transformational leader-

processes and technology to enable

ship has helped our company adopt a w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

WHEN EXPERIENCE MATTERS Acxiom is proud to be Tivity Health’s strategic partner as we help the company successfully navigate its technology and digital transformation journey.

The customer journey is complex, yet customers still expect brands to know and understand them and provide seamless experiences at every step. Acxiom has been helping the world’s best marketers and advertisers get more out of their data and technology for more than 50 years. We deliver data foundations through data products, identity management, marketing solutions and services, helping clients create the seamless, relevant and meaningful customer experiences marketers and customers dream of.

acxiom.com

product, data-centric and consumerdriven culture within Tivity Health.”

“Tivity Health has been leveraging

the customer journey.

“A big part of our strategic direction continues to be how we leverage data

Big Data for years,” comments

insights generated from our advanced

Edmisten. “What AI and machine learn-

analytics coupled with OMNI channel

ing permits us to do is learn more about

technology to enable, automate and

our members and consumers.

scale our member experience,” says

Traditional statistical approaches only

Edmisten. With these advanced analyt-

get you so far when dealing with Big

ics, Edmisten combined data

Data.” Tivity Health has already bene-

augmentation and artificial intelligence

fited greatly from AI to unearth

to gain insight into how members

important user personas among its

engage with their products and ser-

members with the aim of extending its

vices. “Those who know SilverSneakers

learnings to enhance applications in

love us, the problem is not enough

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Paul Edmisten Paul Edmisten SVP and CIO of Tivity Health, is responsible for innovation, delivery and support of the company’s technolog y and data solutions that enable its Healthcare, Fitness, Nutrition and Social Connection products. In 2015, Paul was leading engagements to improve performance and restructure companies at Alvarez and Marsal. Over 18 months, A&M engaged with Healthways to sell two business units to eliminate costs, resulting in the formation of Tivity Health.

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

119

T I V I T Y H E A LT H

120

people know us,� says Edmisten.

engagement, they continue to innovate

Understanding our members needs

and expand capabilities through wear-

and wants will help us target our

ables, IOT and 5G to enhance

engagement through digital/TV mar-

consumer engagement, improve

keting or our channels that include web,

speed, and the desired outcomes for

call center, mobile and social.

our customers. “Extending our plat-

From a product engineering stand-

form and mobility solutions to integrate

point at Tivity Health, simplicity,

wearables and IOT devices enables our

reliability and scalability are the core

members and consumers to be more

focuses for its solutions. While the

connected, and we can learn more

company continues to refine their core

about their activity and nutrition habits

platforms optimizing the consumer

while enabling the desired consumer

NOVEMBER 2019

experience and loyalty. As the industry and consumers adopt 5G, and basic internet access is extended to rural America, Tivity Health will be able to positively impact millions of people who are suffering from social isolation and loneliness.” Social isolation and loneliness are major concerns leading to a number of health issues in America today. Currently, Edmisten is working on leveraging voice assistants, as well

“ A big part of our strategic direction continues to be how we leverage data, in particular through advanced analytics” — Paul Edmisten Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Tivity Health

as mobile and wearable technology to w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

121

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404.890.0107 stratfieldconsulting.com

“ In this very aggressive economy, talent and skills are hard to find, having a long-time partner in Stratfield gives Tivity Health the ability to meet this challenging demand” — Paul Edmisten Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Tivity Health

and disciplined in the approach that you take. You must align the entire organization around a consumer centric product capability to maximize the impact on customers and the bottomline financial result.”

“We buy and integrate best in class technology solutions to enable our products and services. We partner with industry leading partners that bring best practices in the areas of Marketing Automation, ERP, CRM, Data Augmentation, and Resources/

drive customer engagement and

People. Each one of our partners

deliver online virtual trainers for exer-

brings a very unique capability, and it

cise. “As part of our efforts, we are

has been critical for our success as an

constantly innovating to address these

organization to identify and enable

challenges through IoT, mobile tech-

those strategic partnerships, establish

nology and wearable technology, as

close relationships and align on clear

well as creating automated independ-

objectives,” says Edmisten. Some of

ent platforms that are flexible and

the key partners include Redpoint,

cloud agnostic.”

Nuestar, Acxiom, Oracle and Stratfield

“As a CIO, I am a big believer and proponent in maximizing the intersection

Consulting to name a few.

An essential part of Tivity Health’s

of data and technology. While that

risk management is information secu-

sounds very simple and, on the surface,

rity. “Our Chief Information Security

straightforward, it’s an art to really per-

Officer, his team and his strategic part-

fect and differentiate the experience

ners are constantly assessing the

and value to a consumer,” comments

threat landscape through an agile

Edmisten. “You have to be intentional

Information Security program focused w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

123

T I V I T Y H E A LT H

1981

Year founded

920

Approximate number of employees

124

NOVEMBER 2019

on identifying and remediating risk.

We are constantly reviewing, researching and evolving our processes and controls to improve our protection level against emerging threats,” says Edmisten.

Looking to the future, Edmisten sees two immediate opportunities emerging for Tivity Health. “With the acquisition of Nutrisystem and the passing of the CHRONIC Care Act, Tivity Health can provide – via a sophisticated supply chain – nutritional options on a large scale to seniors.”

In addition to these immediate opportunities, Edmisten sees emerging key trends in health and fitness that could provide opportunities for innovation at Tivity Health. “Health plans and healthcare organizations have begun leveraging data analytics to provide benefits that are personalized and customer-oriented. Additionally, health plans and organizations are utilizing Big Data to support clinical decision making, precision medicine, readmission prevention, chronic condition management and risk identification,” says Edmisten. Another area of focus for Tivity Health is helping to address w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

125

T I V I T Y H E A LT H

126

the social determinants of health, “the way health plans can have the most impact when identifying and engaging with the right people is through data, algorithms and technology-enabled solutions,” says Edmisten. “Many of our health plan partners have invested in development of predictive models to support those at risk of social isolation and food insecurity to name a few.”

Donato Tramuto, CEO Tivity Health shared “We have a tremendous opportunity within the company as we integrate Nutrisystem, and add a NOVEMBER 2019

“ Tivity Health has been leveraging Big Data for years. What AI and machine learning permits us to do is learn more.

Traditional statistical approaches only get you so far when dealing with Big Data” — Paul Edmisten Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Tivity Health

127

nutrition business unit, into our house

the country. He concludes: “Over the

of healthy lifestyle brands to help

past three years we transformed our

address the social determinants of

people, processes and technology at

health. Paul and his team will be center

Tivity Health, and with strong leader-

stage to enable, automate and scale

ship, talented colleagues and a clear

our combined products and services

vision we have been successful in

to our customers.”

doing so.”

Reflecting on the company, Edmisten believes that “Tivity Health’s biggest strength is its team of colleagues and the passion they have for the company, consumers and customers. Their efforts are truly changing the lives of people around w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

128

Connecting the smart city ecosystem WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

CRAIG DANIELS

NOVEMBER 2019

129

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QUALCOMM

Sanjeet Pandit, senior director, business development and head of smart cities at Qualcomm technologies, Inc., discusses the fragmented smart city ecosystem and how cities can benefit from innovative technology 130

F

ounded in 1985, Qualcomm Inc. is a leading multinational company that engineers, researches and develops semiconduc-

tor and telecommunications equipment used in thousands of products around the world. Its single goal is to invent breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects, computes and communicates. “Qualcomm is a deep—down systems company, that looks at solutions with a systemic view. Making sure that not only the latest technology and inventions are implemented but that user experience is always kept in mind to deliver robust, sustainable and systemic solutions,� comments Sanjeet Pandit, senior director, business development and head of smart cities at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

NOVEMBER 2019

131

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QUALCOMM

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘ROBOTICS, 5G, AND AI IN THE INVENTION AGE’ 132 Pandit began his career in 1996 as

in one year, with its ecosystem part-

an engineer in the infrastructure divi-

ners robust practices. “When I entered

sion of Qualcomm, responsible for

this program, I realized that the smart

CDMA optimization of networks. In

cities space was extremely frag-

1999, Qualcomm’s infrastructure divi-

mented,” said Pandit. “When I wanted

sion was sold to Ericson where Pandit

to go and see what was happening in

began heading the Asia—Pacific

a given city, there was no single point

CDMA infrastructure sales and was

of contact covering everything it was

named salesman of the year in 2005.

implementing.” Additionally, Pandit

In January 2007, Pandit returned to

realized “there was no single database

Qualcomm heading the carrier rela-

which showed all the players that were

tions for international markets and

working on Smart City deployments.”

continued in this role for 12 years.

In response, Pandit set out to develop the

Last year, Pandit took over as Head

Qualcomm Smart Cities Accelerator

of the Smart City Division establishing

Program: “the glue between all

NOVEMBER 2019

133

1985

Year founded

$22.73bn+ Approximate revenue

35,959

Approximate number of employees w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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“ I don’t know how AI is going to shape up and change the landscape of smart cities, but I would say it is going to be the next big thing for the industry” — Sanjeet Pandit, Senior director of business development and head of Smart Cities at Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

imagined in 1996 that I would be able to order things on the internet to be delivered the next day. That’s where AI is today, and it’s only in its initial

ecosystem providers” to connect its

stage. I don’t know how AI is going to

members in their search for smart city

shape up and change the landscape of

solutions and relevant expertise.

smart cities, but I would say it is going

Smart cities are continuously evolv-

to be the next big thing for the space.”

ing. Key trends Pandit is seeing emerge

Pandit warns that the smart city revolu-

within the industry include surveillance,

tion isn’t going to be immediate. “You

edge computing, base computing, asset

won’t wake up one day to a different

management, public security, public

city; it will be a transition.” Gradual

WiFi and most importantly ‘smart tourists’, “We’ve seen a lot of cities utilizing one—stop apps for attractions, coupons and transport etc,” he explains.

Looking to the future, Pandit sees the next big thing for smart cities being artificial intelligence (AI). “I never w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

135

deployment of systems with faster

zone’ – a secure zone where users can

speed, high reliability, low error and low

implement code and make secure trans-

latency will be implemented to create

actions. “This is something that we take

a high—quality framework and infra-

very seriously. We have implemented

structure for the overall deployment

unique algorithms and methodologies

of automotive, 5G and mission critical

that people can invoke and utilize when

applications to create an integrated

it comes to security on the silicon itself,”

system where everything is connected.

commented Pandit.

For Qualcomm, security is given

Pandit does, however, acknowledge

the highest importance. Within its

that, although the deployment of

chip sets the company has ‘the trust

technology will help sustainability,

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

137

Sanjeet Pandit Mr. Sanjeet Pandit is the Global Head for Smart Cities practice at Qualcomm, Inc USA and responsible for Carrier and Ecosystem relationships in this domain. His expertise in the telecom industry spans over 20 plus years. He specializes in the areas of Smart City design, creation of Smart verticals, digital transformation and go to market strategies creating an experience that would benefit public private domains and citizen engagements. Sanjeet has worked and created relationships with the Smart city ecosystem partners, resulting in multiple Smart City projects Globally. He joined Qualcomm in late 1996 and moved to Ericsson in 1999 following the sale of the infrastructure division of Qualcomm, moving back to Qualcomm in 2007. He has held various senior positions at Qualcomm and was responsible for APAC and India business development prior to leading the Smart city vertical.

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

QUALCOMM

“ Our biggest success to date is making what people thought impossible, possible. From CDMA to EVDO data speeds, IT and even 5G we have proven everything is possible” — Sanjeet Pandit, Senior director of business development and head of Smart Cities at Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

138

NOVEMBER 2019

139

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Smart Lighhng Photocell replacement that provides advanced light control, utility grade metering,tilt/vibraaon sensing, connections to smart city 3rd party sensors, public WiFi and location based services.

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Simply Deployed Fixture-agnostic, with flexible mounting capabilities, enabling ease of upgrades for infrastructures without utiiizing NEMA sockets. Innovative architecture to suit a variety of use cases and backhaul options while solving location/zoning approval.

TM

Visit ubicquia.com or contact smart@ubicquia.com Copyright © 2019 Ubicquia LLC. All rights reserved. Patent pending technology

141

efficiency and security, “deploying

number of separate projects such as,

technology for the sake of it is not

smart railways, ports, water parks and

something that Qualcomm promotes.

surveillance. One new project in the

When we deploy technology, we do so

discussion phase is the creation of a

with two things in mind: system—level

smart campus at the University

approach and how the technology will

of California, San Diego. “We are

benefit the city.”

trying to see how we could leverage

Currently, Pandit is working on

some of the new inventions and

a number of projects worldwide

technologies to create a framework

including a partnership with UROS

within the campus for smart park-

to develop smart water cycles and a

ing, smart transportation, smart w w w.busi ne ssc hief. com

QUALCOMM

142

NOVEMBER 2019

classrooms, remote learning, campus—wide WiFi, security surveillance and energy management.” To ensure these deployments are reliable, have low errors and low latency, the project would also involve a transition to 5G. Another significant project for Pandit, is Qualcomm’s recent implementation of surveillance solutions and public city WiFi in Mexico to improve connectivity. To complete the implementation, Qualcomm worked with JUGANU. The biggest thing Qualcomm does to ensure it stays ahead of trends is being first to market and having a solid research and development team. “We anticipate what needs to be implemented and work closely with standards bodies,” says Pandit.

Qualcomm invests heavily in its team, particularly in the development and creation of new IP. “Whatever we build we try to advance our developments to be more robust and sustainable so that they are beneficial in the long run,” continues Pandit.

Reflecting on the company, Pandit feels Qualcomm’s biggest strengths are its innovative mindset, its ability to stay ahead of its competitors, its w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

143

QUALCOMM

144

“ There is a lot to be done, and we cannot do it alone […] we require the ecosystem partners to deploy and adapt to the technologies we have developed at Qualcomm” — Sanjeet Pandit, Senior director of business development and head of Smart Cities at Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

NOVEMBER 2019

145

end—to—end system perspective, its

adapt to the technologies we have

culture and its people’s ability to deliver

developed at Qualcomm, which is one

complex technology. “Our biggest

of the reasons why the Smart Cities

success to date is making what peo-

Accelerator Program is so beneficial, it

ple thought was impossible, possible.

brings the entire ecosystem together

From CDMA to EVDO data speeds, IT

under one roof,” concludes Pandit.

and even 5G, we have proven that everything is possible,” enthuses Pandit.

“There is a lot to be done, and we cannot do it alone. IoT is an extremely fragmented space; we require the ecosystem partners to deploy and w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

146

HOW T5 DATA CENTERS IS WINNING THE QUEST FOR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE FOR ITS HYPERSCALE AND ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS WRITTEN BY

DAN BRIGHTMORE

NOVEMBER 2019

PRODUCED BY

TOM VENTURO

147

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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

T5 Data Centers is tripling its staff to support new projects for hyperscale, enterprise and colocation customers both in construction services and facilities management.

T

5 Data Centers (T5) is focused both on real estate assets and supporting services across the global data center

arena, serving hyperscale, enterprise and coloca148

tion customers. A developer of high-quality data centers in the best markets in North America, and worldwide, T5 offers a range of services to meet the needs of the most demanding companies. “That’s why we created our Facilities Management division (T5FM) and our Construction Services division (T5CS),” explains T5’s President & CEO, Pete Marin.

T5CS was established in 2014 and offers specialized construction services for missioncritical facilities and renewable energy solutions.

The division excels with turnkey data hall construction, facility infrastructure upgrades, equipment procurement, project management and consulting, and green energy projects. With more than 200 mission-critical projects completed across the US, T5CS currently operates in 41 states.

NOVEMBER 2019

149

$100mn+ Approximate revenue

2008

Year founded

400

Approximate number of employees

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

“ The leading hyperscale users are building large solar arrays, so we’re developing that expertise and see it as complimentary business and part of the symbiotic relationship with everything we’re doing across the industry” 150

— Pete Marin, President & CEO, T5 Data Centers

Those green energy projects are supporting hyperscale and enterprise data center operators. “We’re ready to meet the demands of the latest initiatives,” assures Marin. “The leading hyperscale users are building large solar arrays, so we’re developing that expertise and see it as complimentary business and part of the symbiotic relationship with everything we’re doing across the industry. We are providing construction services to groups that actually own the purchase power agreements, and we’ll also look at investing in those in the future.”

T5 has partnered with Cherry Street Energy to expand its renewable energy expertise by adding solar array installation to its growing list of general contracting support services.

This will also help further develop T5’s leadership position on an important initiative gaining increased traction in the mission-critical industry. “The solar industry has come a long way over the last five years,” says Robbie Sovie, Executive Vice President for Development & Construction at T5.

“The systems have become more efficient economically and the footprint efficiency has also improved,

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘T5 DATA CENTERS – PETE MARIN, PRESIDENT & CEO, 2018 YEAR-END MESSAGE’ 151 allowing more watts-per-square-foot

design is so important; we always

in a given area. We anticipate green

make sure we utilize energy in the

energy will continue to expand within

most efficient way. If we have those

the mission-critical sector. We’re very

initiatives, then our customers are

excited to support Cherry Street

going to gravitate towards us because

Energy, and additional clients as

we compliment those initiatives. We’re

we implement solar solutions across

driving towards renewable energy to

North America.”

support data centers and help them

Among these projects will be the largest solar installation yet seen in

become more sustainable.”

T5’s award-winning Facilities

the state of Georgia. “We’re always

Management and Operations division,

focused on improving the plans and

T5FM was also formed in 2014 and

reducing the amount of wasted power

now provides third-party mission-

that goes into a data center,” confirms

critical data center management and

Marin. “That’s why cutting-edge

operations services, including remote w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

Nationwide Landscape Civil Engineers Architectures Planners Mission Critical Specialist: Lawson Fanney, P.E. Lawson.fanney@kimley-horn.com 404.201.6132 | 678.333.3387

NOVEMBER 2019

hands, property and asset management,

Right now, we’re focusing on the

consulting, and training.

piece of gear that gets replaced the

The technologies T5 leverages in its

most, and that’s the battery. Knowing

data center operations help support

when they need to be refurbished

its mantra: ‘Forever On’. For a

or replaced, saves money and can

company in the space and cooling

reduce waste.” He believes we’ll see

business, Marin notes that T5 is also

more data analytics tools deployed in

in “the guaranteed lights will never go

the data center and T5 will embrace

out business”. Put simply, reliability

that, while improving BMS (Building

is everything. “We need to monitor all

Management System) and EPMS

of those systems,” maintains Marin.

(Electrical Power Management

“Among the technology initiatives

System) capabilities to guarantee

we utilize is predictive analytics.

100% uptime. T5 has served leading

Being able to predict when a piece of

companies in IT, finance, insurance,

equipment is going to fail is vital.

health care, and telecommunications,

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Pete Marin As President & Chief Executive Officer of T5 Data Centers, Pete is responsible for setting the overall strategy of the firm, maintaining client relationships, capital management, and creating and executing the firm’s vision for growth. Pete has more than 20 years of experience in the data center sector ranging from development, securing debt and equity capital, to tenant representation including site selection and incentives. Pete’s understanding of end-user needs has enabled T5 Data Centers to reduce project cycle-time and cost, which leads to successful relationships, and repeat business.

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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

building a strong reputation for data center reliability as a serial recipient of The Uptime Institute’s Continuous Uptime Award for uninterrupted service.

T5’s Senior Vice President & Director of Sales, David Horowitz notes that, even though the data center industry is still in its infancy, five to 10 years from now many of the legacy facilities will be considered outdated.

He adds: “As enterprises continue to look to monetize their data centers, either by shifting to the cloud or adopting the wholesale outsourcing 154

model, being smarter in how we design our buildings and by utilizing improvements in technology will be a key factor for us when planning the future for T5.”

T5 has been investing in that future through its alliance with QuadReal.

The global real estate investment, operating and development company boasts a $27.4bn portfolio spanning across 23 major cities worldwide and was established to manage the real estate program of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), one of Canada’s largest asset managers with a $145.6 billion portfolio. In the past year T5 and NOVEMBER 2019

QuadReal have joined forces by launching a $2.5bn fully integrated platform to develop, acquire and operate data centers. “We were able to raise capital with QuadReal with a long-term view across our differentiated platform of assets and services,” explains Horowitz.

QuadReal had been looking to invest in the data center industry for several years. Horowitz notes the company was attracted to T5 above its competitors for a very good reason. “We offer a full suite of data center services and solutions: asset-based development and leasing, construction services, and facility management and operations.

That’s our true differentiator that no other competitor in the data center business can offer.”

Marin adds: “There’s plenty of capital out there looking to invest in the data center space, but there’s a very short list of qualified management teams. Most of the providers are just aiming to construct and lease buildings, few also have the expertise to operate them. Our alliance with QuadReal is a game-changer for current and future customers in the w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

155

T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

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enterprise and hyperscale markets, allowing us to build the world’s most advanced and customized data center facilities faster and at scale.”

T5 is equipped to take on the challenges of a demanding marketplace. Marin explains it’s natural for the customer to want the highest quality product at the most competitive price. “Construction costs are increasing,” he adds. “We’re seeing upward pressure on labor costs but in the end, it’s all about our processes and our team. We have a tried and tested approach to managing the

“ We offer a full service: asset-based, construction services, and facility management and operations platform.

That’s our true differentiator that no other competitor in the data center business can offer” — Pete Marin, President & CEO, T5 Data Centers

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

David Horowitz David is Senior Vice President, Director of Sales for T5 Data Centers. David is responsible for overseeing business growth and promoting T5 Data Centers’ global portfolio and full services capabilities. David’s role includes developing the go-to-market strategy for new markets and leading the national sales team with its strategic initiatives. David has led multi-market searches for some of the world’s largest companies and has closed over 300MW and more than $1bn of data center real estate transactions. Prior to joining T5, David spent 10 years managing data center practice groups for commercial real estate firms.

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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

C OM PA N Y S TAT S

• T5FM active in 15 US markets • T5 operating 28 data centers – mix of owned and third-party assets • 600MW of IT load managed • 200 mission critical projects completed across the US by T5CS

158

• $2.5bn platform launched with QuadReal to develop, acquire and operate data centers

NOVEMBER 2019

people at each of our facilities and the strategy we have for delivering our products and services has proven to be successful.”

That success is leading T5 to nearly triple its staff (from 150 to 400) to support new projects. “After building data centers for more than a decade, we are seeing changes in the market, and so we are adapting our operations and scaling to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” says Marin.

T5 is committed to supporting veterans and “we were among the first in the data center industry to recruit former nuclear personnel from the navy,” he reveals. “We find that within that talent pool we’ve been able to identify great candidates to be retrained for the data center business.”

In August this year, T5 was nominated among the top ten places to work in Atlanta, so clearly Marin and his team are on the right path. “We’re a small, private company,” reflects Horowitz.

“But we have the communication and the collaboration across the business from our investors, down to the folks in the field, fueling a culture I believe is superior to any of our peers in the industry. We’ve developed this from w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

159

T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

CPGbeyondthecloud.com

the ground up by giving everyone on our teams a voice in how we grow the business, implement change and introduce tools to improve our assets while empowering them to speak to our customers.”

And, thanks to T5’s ability to provide customized real estate development solutions, the customers keep coming.

“After an extensive national search by a large Fortune 100 company, we were awarded a demanding build-tosuit project designed to meet a client’s exact specifications,” explains 161

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘HOW T5 SECURES LA COUNTY DATA’

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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S

162

“ Our alliance with QuadReal is a game-changer for current and future customers in the enterprise and hyperscale markets” — Pete Marin, President & CEO, T5 Data Centers

Horowitz. “Because of our collaborative and transparent approach, the project was a great success and we exceeded expectations on all fronts – budget, schedule and now the operations on an ongoing basis.”

Moving forward, T5 will continue to ramp up its efforts. “We’ve been busy acquiring additional land holdings by investing out of our new venture with QuadReal to kick off developments,” reveals Marin. “We’ve purchased land in Portland, Oregon, in Atlanta, Georgia, and we’ve got land holdings

NOVEMBER 2019

QuadReal & T5 – a data center alliance “The data center market continues to experience very strong growth, driven by the accelerating digitalization of information,” says Jameson Weber, Head of Special Situations for QuadReal. “This strategic investment ($2.5bn) puts us in a very unique position to participate in this growing market alongside a

trusted company with a proven track record in data center development, construction, and management. T5 Data Centers is the logical partner to help us build a long-term business in tech-related real estate while ensuring our users receive the highest levels of service and security for their mission-critical data.”

163

in Charlotte and in Colorado. We also

they too grow their footprint and, from

have an active data center in LA and

an operational perspective, put our

we’re getting ready to launch a new

T5FM stamp on those facilities and

project in Dublin, Ireland.” Meanwhile,

reap the rewards from the strong

the company will also focus on

platform we’ve built over the past

growing its services while looking for

decade.” T5’s platform for excellence

M&A opportunities that will support

in the data center industry looks set

the scaling of T5’s platform. “Right

to march forward, forever on.

now, we’re on target to boost our employee levels to 400 and I can see that growth triple in the coming years,”

F o r e v e r On .

says Horowitz. “We have a lot of growth in front of us. We’re ready to support the top hyperscale users as w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

164

NOVEMEBER 2019

165

Redefining healthcare through innovation WRITTEN BY

PRODUCED BY

MATT HIGH MIKE SADR w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

PA R T N E R S B E H AV I O R A L H E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T

Partners Behavioral Health Management is changing the way that healthcare is delivered, as Jamie Gianna explains

T

ransformation. It is a word that’s rapidly becoming synonymous with any multitude of industry sectors worldwide. And while

any transformation represents a game-changing journey for a business and its employees, few have the potential to be as significant as that which 166

Partners Behavioral Health Management is undergoing. The North Carolina-based managed care organisation (MCO), established around seven years ago, is currently in the midst of a digital transformation journey that has the potential to change how healthcare in the United States is defined and paid for.

It is, confesses Chief Information Officer Jamie Gianna, both an “exciting and scary time” for the organisation and the state of North Carolina. North Carolina pioneered a public Medicaid managed care system for behavioral health and intellectual/ developmental disabilities in 2011. Next year, the state will move to an integrated healthcare approach for all individuals who rely on the public system for care. “We are right in the middle of developing and introducing many things that no one else has previously done before or even considered in terms of NOVEMBER 2019

167

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PA R T N E R S B E H AV I O R A L H E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T

“ We are leveraging the very latest and most innovative technologies that will position us as a true leader in managed healthcare”

168

— Jamie Gianna, Chief Information Officer, Partners Behavioral Health Management

the way in which managed healthcare services are provided. In doing so, we are leveraging the very latest and most innovative technologies that will position us as a true leader in managed healthcare, both in North Carolina and beyond.”

Gianna is responsible for leading Partners’ digital transformation.

He sits as a member of the Partners Operational Leadership Team, and rather succinctly describes his work as “trying to understand the organisation’s strategic targets based on the information and direction we get from the North Carolina General Assembly and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; while finding the right tools to fit and to meet those requirements.” In reality, Gianna is charged with strategic planning, leading mission-critical business initiatives and organisational objectives, and driving change that will result in improved customer service and go a long way towards achieving better healthcare provision for the population of North Carolina.

Partners is a public, regional managed care organisation, overseeing

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘PARTNERS | SUCCESS STORY: ILIANA’ 169 mental health, substance use disorder

of the whole person, which is a big

and intellectual and developmental dis-

driver behind our transformation.”

ability (I/DD) services available through

The purpose of Partners’ digital trans-

Medicaid, state and county funding.

formation, explains Gianna, is a focus

The organisation, Gianna explains, con-

on understanding the overall health and

tracts with care providers to ensure

healthcare needs of specific popula-

that treatment options are available

tions through leveraging technologies

for eligible residents across the state.

such as procurement platforms, predic-

“North Carolina is a large state,” he

tive analytics tools, and the integration

says. “The population is close to 11

of the organisation’s services network

million, and one in every 10 is eligible

so that it can manage the right services

for publicly-funded behavioral and I/DD

at the right time for its health plan

managed care. However, the system

members. “First and foremost, we

currently in place focuses on a portion

recognise that we need to be very agile

of a person’s wellbeing, instead

and mobile,” he notes. “The first target w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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was driven from a population health and

Office 365 – so that, at any place and

predictive analytics perspective, which

at any time, anyone within Partners’

focused on understanding what our

executive team could access all the

total cost of care looks like, what do the

data and information. The transforma-

state’s population and demographics

tion journey is still ongoing, with Gianna

look like, and how that fits into the wider

outlining steps two and three, as well

financial and health strategies that we

as a longer-term vision. These steps

have. Having the ability to really get our

include “sourcing a trifecta of procure-

arms around that data and turn it into

ment management tools, including tools

something useful, meaningful and with

for population health and predictive

real purpose had to be the first step.”

analytics that can create health risk

To do this, two years ago, the organisation moved to the cloud – specifically,

scores, as well as portals for users and a platform that allows integration across 171

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Jamie Gianna Gianna is known for a tireless work ethic, energetic presentation, and hands-on approach to consultative solutions. Gianna has blazed a trail of achievement across industry sectors including healthcare, insurance, finance, legal, professional services, and professional sports.

While he is an accomplished C-Suite executive, he is best known as a proven player with a history of reliable, dependable performance, innovative and future looking solutions — leveraging leadership and technical expertise. He has an MBA from the University of Maryland and engaged in his doctorate in Organizational Management. He currently resides in Charlotte, NC.

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PA R T N E R S B E H AV I O R A L H E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T

“ First and foremost, we recognised that we needed to be very agile and mobile” — Jamie Gianna, Chief Information Officer, Partners Behavioral Health Management

172

NOVEMBER 2019

173

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PA R T N E R S B E H AV I O R A L H E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T

2013

Year founded

$326mn Approximate revenue

460

Approximate number of employees North Carolina’s ‘healthcare universe’.

We have been able to find and apply all the tools we need,” he states. “We are in the process of implementing them – the first ‘finishing line’ is imminent.”

The scale of change within the state has placed North Carolina at the forefront of healthcare reform which, according to Gianna, “is what everyone is trying to achieve. The whole purpose – initially – is to collect and analyse as much data as possible, to really be able to understand exactly what the costs involved are and to ensure that every member can be cared for to the very best standard. That target NOVEMBER 2019

is phenomenal, and if we pull it off it will be huge.”

Somewhat understandably, such change has required a significant realignment of structure and resources internally. This, says Gianna, hasn’t been easy and has proved a challenge at times. “We’re an organisation that, for some years, has had a lot of processes. We haven’t used specific tools and systems and have required people to really get on board with the new tools and understand the scope of the change. It’s all about introducing a new perspective. It is, after all, a fundamental aspect of being human: you either change and progress, or you don’t.

Of course, it helps to know that the endgoal of our transformation is to achieve something truly good for many people.

Working in healthcare and understanding the impact on the families we serve definitely changes the way in which you approach your work. Everyone on my team could go and work in other places and quite easily be very comfortable, but we’d never have the same sense of satisfaction that we get from helping people’s lives. That’s what matters the most.” w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

175

PA R T N E R S B E H AV I O R A L H E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T

176

“ I would love to be able to collaborate with other organisations and to share the lessons learned across the state so we can deliver the very best standards of care” — Jamie Gianna, Chief Information Officer, Partners Behavioral Health Management NOVEMBER 2019

As with any transformation journey, there is still a lengthy road to travel for Partners. The organisation is on the cusp of achieving significant change yet, for Gianna, other technologies could also come into play in the future. “I’m already considering how we could use AI and machine learning for managing and analysing our data, for example.

As we move through our journey, we will collect so much data. We are already focused on how we really leverage the technologies available to provide the best possible answers for that data.

There is still a great deal to do but, looking further ahead, I would love to be able to collaborate with other organisations and to share the lessons learned so we can deliver the very best standards of care.�

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178

NOVEMBER 2019

179

Looking across industries for inspired innovations WRITTEN BY

OLLIE MULKERRINS

PRODUCED BY

BEN MALTBY

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

INNOGY SE

innogy is using digital innovations to speed up the green energy transition and help 23mn customers become more sustainable 180

I

nnogy is a large-scale energy provider based in Essen, Germany, currently serving 23mn clients across Europe.

The company spans three major industry demographics: retail, grid infrastructure and renewable energy production. It has also started to expand into the e-mobility market with one of the largest charging point networks in Europe and a worldwide number of 34,000 charging sites. Since innogy was carved out from RWE and listed on the M-DAX separately in October 2016, the business has been driving digital transformation as a key part of its strategy. Kuldip Singh, Digital & Data Director Retail International, and part of the Retail Leadership team, sat down with us to elaborate.

NOVEMBER 2019

“ Keep this planet a great place to live, not only for the current generation but for many to come” — Kuldip Singh, Digital Director Retail International, Retail Leadership team

181

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INNOGY SE

2016

Year founded

€36.9bn Approximate revenue

“We want to play a leading role in the global green energy transition and we believe that digital and disruptive new technologies are going to be at the heart of speeding up this process,” explains Singh. “Digital transformation is really at the heart of our customer facing business. We’re constantly looking for ways to optimise our end-to-end

42,000

182

Approximate number of employees

customer journeys — seeing where we can give our clients a ‘digital delight’ as I like to call it - as well as exploring new business models which are data-driven, platform-based, and highly scalable in nature.” innogy is, next to its core business of supplying electricity and gas to its customers, making services available to help customers install and maintain sustainable energy solutions such as photovoltaic (PV) panels, insulation of houses, smart home devices and e-thermostats, all with a view to “make society more sustainable.”

As part of the Retail Digital Program, the focused use of digital innovations such as AI is able to grant customers a seamless and insightful journey into sustainable solutions for their home or business. “A beautiful example

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘HELLO, I AM INNOGY’ 183 is the application of data analytics

experience, completely online: enter

and artificial intelligence algorithms to

your ZIP code and house number and

make the whole journey of orientating

an algorithm calculates how many pan-

and selecting solar panels easier for

els can go on your roof, how productive

customers: looking at whether your

they will be, your payback time and

house is able to have solar panels on

investment needed, including a rental

the roof, as well as buying or renting

option,” says Singh.

them. What we have done is to bring

A key driver of the Retail Digital pro-

lots of data points and sources together

gram is our Leadership Team Digital

(through selected partners) and have

that consists of the key six markets of

thereby been able to give the customer

innogy with their local heads of digital,

a complete online journey. Several years

driving a joint roadmap and enabling

ago, this journey could have taken several

the delivery of selected digital value

months due to uncertainty. Now, we have

pools with great scaling opportunity

narrowed that down to a one-click

across all these markets. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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Enabling the Connected Energy Customer Through Cloud and Voice Services For more than a century, electric utilities have focused on the sale of a single commodity. The proliferation of distributed and renewable energy resources, advanced analytics and increasingly connected homes and businesses is now opening up the opportunity for utilities to think and act less like traditional providers of electricity and more like innovative retailers with an array of products and services that empower and delight customers, all while ensuring the safe and reliable delivery of power.

Simply put, the pressure to deliver increasing value for utility customers is mounting and non- utility players are willing to step in as intermediaries if the incumbents fail to act. Electric utilities intent on maintaining their customer base – and revenue flows – must transform how they interact with increasingly connected energy consumers.

With the proliferation of distributed solar, electric vehicles and energy storage, along with the adoption of devices such as smart speakers and Wi-Fi thermostats, utilities can leverage advanced cloud analytics to build and strengthen their customer relationships – while simultaneously working to build a more resilient digital grid.

Just as Amazon makes use of consumer insights to create new, highly valued offerings for its customers, next-generation electric utilities can likewise transform themselves into digital organizations that rely on advanced cloud analytics to learn far more about their customers than they ever could before, and then tailor services to improve their customers’ lives.

The convergence of digitalization and decentralization provides an opportunity for utilities to tap into the capabilities of machine learning and artificial intelligence to build upon their role as a 24/7 core service provider in people’s lives. Unlike past transformations in the utility industry, redefining the customer experience through cloud analytics can start to bear fruit in months, rather than years.

For some of the largest utilities around the world, such as Centrica, Enel and Pacific Gas & Electric, the journey to the cloud is already well underway. But there is ample opportunity for utilities of all sizes and under all regulatory frameworks. For energy providers that have not yet mapped out a transformative customer experience, now is the time to embrace an agile platform and chart a course.

Making the most of the cloud requires much more than just a technology change; it requires evolving processes and transforming the business culture.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) gives power and utility companies the foundation to focus on delivering the best customer experience and achieve operational and cost efficiencies while meeting demand securely and reliably; the flexibility to evolve their business model and innovate in a rapidly changing industry; and the critical business insights to transform the industry. AWS Power & Utilities solutions address the industries four core business categories and are centered around IT and OT Transformation, Workforce & Asset Management and Customer Engagement. These are underpinned by Data Insights and core cloud services consisting of database, edge technologies, AI/ ML, IoT, analytics and voice services.

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Learn More

INNOGY SE

“ Digital transformation is really at the heart of our business” — Kuldip Singh, Digital Director Retail International, Retail Leadership team

186

An important pillar of the Retail Digital

a seamless and consistent mobile

program is the delivery of a joint Mobile

experience within all innogy brands,”

Strategy across markets, in which innogy

says Sebastian Schmelz, Team Lead

realises smarter and faster app develop-

Digital Program.

ment, improved life-cycle management

To achieve a comprehensive view

and best practice sharing in all aspects

of a client’s needs, innogy has worked

including a joint asset library for UX

with several partners outside the energy

and design. “We work closely with

sector to integrate innovative technol-

all our markets to give customers

ogy into its platforms and processes.

NOVEMBER 2019

Through tried and tested applications,

Through adaptation and innovation,

developed in other industry sectors,

innogy is catering to businesses and

innogy avoids reinventing the wheel

individuals looking for sustainable

when it comes to meeting the demands

energy solutions. As the global industry

of its business. A successful example

becomes more interconnected,

is AI-based online experimentation

customer expectations are founded

to improve the sales funnel for innogy

on the achievements of disparate

products and services. By testing a

sectors. The Amazons and Googles

multitude of changes in the different

of the world are setting those expec-

online pages, innogy can in a short

tations and, by looking at them for

period of time increase sales conver-

forward-thinking and rapid innovation,

sion significantly, as proven by great

innogy is able to stay ahead of the curve

impact achieved by the energiedirect.nl

within the renewables energy industry.

digital team. This way of working (“testing

Singh explains: “We should not be

and validating customer flows at scale

benchmarking ourselves against what

using AI based tooling�) is now being

energy companies are doing, but rather

scaled to other innogy markets, too.

look at what other industries that are

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Kuldip Singh Kuldip Singh is a digital executive with a strong grounding in digital technology adoption and digital business scaling.

He has been a digital executive in CXO roles in reputed global media companies and is now leading the digital transformation at innogy in the international retail business.

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

187

Empowering those who power our world Wipro is helping Utilities across the globe move towards a sustainable energy future. Get started on your digital transformation journey today.

Click here to know more

INNOGY SE

190

NOVEMBER 2019

“ We can be more relevant, more personalised, and more real-time in our offering” — Kuldip Singh, Digital Director Retail International, Retail Leadership team

clear roadmap to further improve our

forecasting, which is a very important aspect of energy management,” states Carsten Kleewald of the Retail Energy Management team.

In addition, innogy uses the AWS

ahead of us are doing as also the big

data analytic solutions for a “Full

tech companies.”

Household View” platform in the Dutch

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has

and Belgium markets. The platform

been able to provide intricate AI,

provides the Essent business with the

originally used in its online services,

opportunity to do real-time personalisa-

to provide an efficient data farming

tion using customer profile data and

solution. “AWS is a partner we are

actual online behavior combined with

working with very closely to see how

a best-offer matrix. This allows for

we can leverage advanced analyt-

accurately advising on which products

ics and artificial intelligence in several

could have the most relevance and

complex use cases and, by work-

impact for a customer. The Essent

ing with them, use algorithms to be

Commercial Director Boudewijn den

predictive,” Singh explains. One of the

Herder is working very closely with

very impactful use cases is centered

Singh’s team on this and states: “I

around retail energy management

believe we can nurture customer

and demand forecasting. “By using

relationships much better with this

the Amazon Sagemaker DeepAR

kind of technology that can enable

forecasting algorithm in a success-

us to work in an omnichannel approach.

ful pilot, we were able to develop a

We can be more relevant, more w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

191

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INNOGY SE

“ We should not be benchmarking ourselves with what energy companies are doing” — Kuldip Singh, Digital Director Retail International, Retail Leadership team

194

NOVEMBER 2019

personalised, and more real-time in our offerings, whenever that needs to be done.”

Singh adds: “We apply digital innovations to our sustainability products and services with the clear ambition to keep this planet a great place to live and work, not only for the current generation, but for many generations to come.”

The acquisition of innogy by E.ON has also given it a much wider scope to expand. “Together with E.ON, innogy is going to be even bigger; we will grow from 11 to 15 countries, in which we service 50mn+ customers with more than 70,000 employees. I believe that we are even better set up for scaling digital in the future,” says Singh. “My intention is to build upon the good things we’ve done in this retail digital transformation and, of course, learn from the great things that E.ON is doing and ensure that together one plus one becomes three.”

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195

196

Stora Enso: the future of manufacturing just got smarter WRITTEN BY

DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

MANUEL NAVARRO

NOVEMBER 2019

197

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STORA ENSO

Stora Enso’s digitisation programme is realising the benefits of automation and 5G to optimise efficiency, flexibility, and availability in production

S

tora Enso is among the world’s oldest companies with more than 700 years of heritage, encompassing mining, iron and

wood activities, stretching back to the 13th century.

Today it focuses on all of the possibilities to manu198

facture a diverse range of products made from renewable materials with the forest and the trees as their foundation.

Marko Yli-Pietilä, Head of Smart Operations at Stora Enso, is in charge of driving the digitalisation and transformation programmes allied to global smart operations in all areas of the business: consumer board, bio materials, paper, packaging solutions and wood products. “The Smart Operations team is responsible for accelerating digitalisation in our operations, but that is only one part of Stora Enso’s overall digitalisation programme. We also look at digitalising the customer interface, supply chain digitalisation and back office digitalisation with HR and finance processes,” he says. “In addition to this, we work with the startup community to develop new digital solutions as well NOVEMBER 2019

199

as nurturing our own internal startup initiatives to develop new digital products.” One of those successful solutions is the new retail solution for unmanned retail, which was launched during 2019.

The digitisation of Stora Enso’s manufacturing fleet comprises around 100 production lines across many factories and is vital to achieve higher operational efficiency.

“Operationally, we manufacture a diverse range of wood-based products. We’re also producing many w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations supports a path to this future, offering data-driven decision guidance for a mill’s human operators, a key first step towards more autonomous operations.

ABB is proud to support Stora Enso’s digitalization journey ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations Designed to unite autonomous digital technologies and decision making, ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations is built on ABB Ability™, ABB’s unified, cross-industry, digital platform that securely collects data on the health and performance of equipment from onsite smart devices and operation-critical systems.

ABB experts monitor this data remotely while applying advanced data analytics to isolate trends and pinpoint issues. The result is actionable recommendations that address potential problems, advise on preventive maintenance priorities, and illuminate ways to improve performance.

ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations is a true Industrial Internet of Things application and is part of the company’s portfolio of ABB Ability™ digital solutions. Collaborative Operations provides performance management, remote monitoring and preventive analysis technologies to improve security, efficiency and productivity. ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations for paper mills identifies and addresses production, quality and cost issues

that can inhibit peak performance. This improves return on capital. In particular, ABB’s solutions are helping to: • Centralize and streamline operations. By applying remote connectivity and analytics to process and equipment data, producers can empower teams in centralized control rooms, which have the automated tools and visualization capabilities to help teams make decisions and process improvements, throughout the mill and also the enterprise.

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The future, today Whatever the specifics of an operation or solution, ABB is supporting and guiding the pulp and paper industry on its journey toward ever more effective use of digitalization, creating next-level operations and realizing significant cost benefits. With its forward-thinking approach and industry-leading solutions, such as ABB Ability™ Collaborative Operations and ABB Ability™ Advanced Process Control, ABB is ready to be your partner in shaping the future, today.

STORA ENSO

completely new products, such as fiber- based composites,” says Yli-

202

“ The Smart Operations team is responsible for accelerating digitalisation in our operations, but that is only one part of Stora Enso’s overall digitalisation programme. We also look at digitalising the customer interface, supply chain digitalisation and back office digitalisation with HR and finance processes” — Marko Yli-Pietilä, Head of Smart Operations, Stora Enso

NOVEMBER 2019

Pietilä. “My role is focused on smart operations, which means the digitisation of production and maintenance needed to keep our factories running efficiently also in future.”

Stora Enso started investing in its digitisation programme three years ago and has now completed around 160 different projects including artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, machine learning (ML) and virtual reality (VR). “We’ve tested almost all of

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘DRONE WOOD YARD INVENTORY’ 203 the technologies on the Gartner hype

Whatever you need to do in your work

curve,” reveals Yli-Pietilä. “We’re using

here, you can do while on the move.”

big data and examining different kinds

Yli-Pietilä believes people are a hugely

of wearables, including smart glasses.”

important aspect of this transforma-

He adds that analytics is probably the

tion. “They need to learn new skills to

strongest area of focus at present. “We

understand how analytics works and

have company-wide mobile maintenance

be familiar with different mobile tools,

tools available both for maintenance

because there will be many applications

personnel and operators when they do

used in the field, and also in different

maintenance-related tasks. Our peo-

operating rooms. It’s very important

ple can also do safety notifications on

we create a unified user experience to

the move, and we also visualise things

teach users,” he says of the company’s

already in 3D formats. The use of 3D

quest to develop unified UIs.

models makes it’s very easy to under-

To support these transformation

stand where things are happening.

goals the company has created a Stora w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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Advanced analytics provide good tools to evaluate indicators signaling a need for predictive maintenance, such as temperature and vibration measurements or energy consumption.

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STORA ENSO

206

Enso design concept called SEEDS

an environment capable of fostering

(Stora Enso Design System). “SEEDS

a collaborative ecosystem. “We aim

is a publicly available set of instructions

to build data assets, like the Stora Enso

and code which enables designers and

IIOT platform, which our partners can

developers to build a user experience

access. In that way we can use the

aligned with Stora Enso requirements,”

same data in the applications they

explains Yli-Pietilä. “The companies we

co-develop with us and deliver to us,”

partner with in the digitalisation area

explains Yli-Pietilä.

can access these assets to help them

Three years on and the success of

develop the services they are deliver-

Stora Enso’s approach is already

ing to us.”

apparent with the company achieving

Stora Enso works with a variety of

second place for ‘Best implementation

partners, from agile startups to larger

of IIoT on the shop floor’ at the 2019

companies, with a focus on creating

Industry of Things World Award. “We

NOVEMBER 2019

are the first company in our industry

Stora Enso’s efforts to achieve key

to have implemented 5G to enable

targets such as “optimising efficiency,

real-time 360° camera solutions in

flexibility, and availability” in production.

our production environment,” says

During the acceleration of its digital

Yli-Pietilä. “This allows experts all over

transformation, Yli-Pietilä reflects on

the world to monitor certain areas

the biggest challenge he and his team

of the production and give guidance

have had to overcome over the past

when needed – ultimately making our

few years. “Handling the massive

production environment more efficient

amount of data we generate in the

and safer.” The 5G solution will support

process industry is always a challenge,”

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Marko Yli-Pietilä I spent more than a decade at Nokia, in a variety of telecommunications roles and then worked in data management, and data warehousing,” recalls Stora Enso’s Head of Smart Operations, Marko Yli-Pietilä. “This experience was perfect preparation for my role at Stora Enso.” Communication and data will be the cornerstone for the 5G revolution, one that Yli-Pietilä is excited to welcome in with the wealth of opportunities it will provide for efficiency and productivity. “My background helps to understand what you can actually do with the data and how you need to organise the data in order to have it in use in the best possible way. And with my experience in management consulting, I appreciate the value in combining digital assets or data assets, how you use the data across distances, and how you then transform this data into something valuable.” He believes organisations can utilise the new capabilities offered by digital transformation to achieve many business targets including revenue growth, better operational efficiency and improved customer experience management.”

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207

STORA ENSO

700+

Years of history

€10.49bn Approximate revenue

26,000 208

Number of employees

NOVEMBER 2019

209

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

sustain peak performance.

Benchmark your actual process and asset performance data against your expected performance with Honeywell Forge for Industrial, for better decisions that impact reliability, safety and profitability.

For more information, please visit: www.honeywellprocess.com/iiot

he admits. “We’re constantly looking at how we can get the data to be available for these advanced intelligent applications and is why we decided to build a Stora Enso IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) cloud-based platform. We are using a lot of resources to organise the data in the cloud so that we can have this integrated data asset in use by these applications that we are building in collaboration with different vendors.”

When Stora Enso needs to communicate across operations in real-time this is achieved by the close proximity of its digital tools to the production

“ SEEDS is a publicly available set of instructions and code which enables designers and developers to build a user experience aligned with Stora Enso requirements” — Marko Yli-Pietilä, Head of Smart Operations, Stora Enso

line. Now, Yli-Pietilä is keen to take things a step further. “We want to predict what will happen in the future, and

reliability. “We want to be able to

we also want to prescribe. We’re trying

advise people to take actions to make

to do prescriptive analytics, not just to

the future look like we want it to look,

tell users what will happen in the future,

with product quality, machine perfor-

but also advise them what they need to

mance, and the reliability of equipment

do to perform in their work in the best

related to the maintenance,” confirms

possible way. We’re building prescrip-

Yli-Pietilä.

tive analytics solutions using AI and

“How we measure the success and

ML, because then you’re not actually

performance of these tools is actually

in real-time — you’re in the future.”

through the business KPIs that we use

Stora Enso already has AI-based

to measure our operational efficiency

applications in use that can see

in general. We start following up those

12 hours into the future with good

business KPIs, so that our digital w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

211

STORA ENSO

SU S TA I N A B I L I T Y AT STO R A EN SO

Stora Enso supports all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); the following three goals have been identified as the most strategic to the business: SDG 12: The use of renewable materials.

Involvement in the bioeconomy and circular economy.

Innovating to improve resource and material efficiency.

212

SDG 13: Renewable materials are an important part of the carbon cycle. They grow back and keep absorbing carbon dioxide and storing carbon.

Identify and analyse carbon risks and opportunities to establish their financial and non-financial impacts, the likelihood of their occurrence, and their root causes.

Stora Enso the first to set ambitious science-based targets for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions in 2017.

SDG 15: 100% of Stora Enso’s main raw material, wood, comes from sustainably managed forests that grow back.

Safeguarding forest biodiversity.

As wood is its most important raw material, Stora Enso’s key risks cover forest and land use.

NOVEMBER 2019

transformation becomes a normal part of our business development also linked to profit and operations improvement.”

Yli-Pietilä explains how prescriptive tools can help maintain ongoing production quality. “Paper is produced at around 100km per hour and you need to be able to adjust the process in real-time to maintain the quality our customers expect. Those tools require calculation and predictive capabilities for us to be able to advise the operators that are running the machine to do the process changes necessary to keep production at the optimal level for as long as possible.” The company is also considering testing more flexible and intelligent robots, such as exoskeletons, to assist production workers. Elsewhere, testing is underway to examine the potential benefits of audio analytics. “Based on the sounds we are hearing, we’re analysing how machines are running and if there’s any evidence of a potential malfunction in the future,” he explains.

Across its business development the two most important trends for Stora Enso are climate change and sustainability. “After all, we are in the w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

213

STORA ENSO

214

business of replacing fossil-based material with materials that are made

“ We’re building prescriptive analytics solutions using AI and ML, because then you’re not actually in real-time — you’re in the future” — Marko Yli-Pietilä, Head of Smart Operations, Stora Enso NOVEMBER 2019

out of wood,” says Yli-Pietilä. “We have been transforming our product portfolio for years towards that goal.”

Though in smart operations Yli-Pietilä’s team have focused on the operational efficiencies of the manufacturing fleet, their efforts are still contributing to sustainability targets with energy efficiency for example. “We are very keen to develop our water treatment processes to be more sustainable every day and CO2 is something we

215

are looking at really carefully and how

and availability of the machinery

we can bring those numbers down to

because by increasing the automation

contribute positively to our climate

level we can then affect these key KPIs

change targets,” he confirms.

positively. While we’re doing this, it

With automation levels in its mills

automatically makes the workplace

already high, Stora Enso aims to raise

safer every day.” With automation on

automation levels further while making

the rise, Yli-Pietilä believes the concept

work safer. “If we can automate more of

of ‘dark mills’ is firmly on the agenda

the potentially dangerous operations,

for helping to build a sustainable future.

we will also be increasing our overall

Digitisation has unlocked the door;

operational efficiencies (OEE),” adds

Stora Enso is taking steps to shape the

Yli-Pietilä. “OEE is our most important

corridor beyond.

KPI when it comes to operations. We will then look at performance, quality, w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

216

Teaching emerging technology and adaptable mindsets at the STC Academy NOVEMBER 2019

217

WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

JAMES PEPPER

STC ACADEMY

Dr Moudhi Aljamea, General Manager of the Digital School at STC Academy, talks innovation in education, and how she is helping to reinvent the culture of Saudi Arabia’s largest telco

T

he technology landscape is always changing. New technologies like quantum computing and 5G surge into the mar-

ketplace, while trends like cloud and IoT adoption 218

barely transition into the mainstream. As it was theorised by Charles Darwin, “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is a time of upheaval and rapid advancement, as the nation continues its supercharged adoption of digital technologies and strategies in preparation for Vision 2030 - the central goal of which is to reduce the Kingdom’s dependence on oil and petrochemicals, diversify its economy and develop sectors like health, education, infrastructure, recreation and tourism. “This is an exciting time for us in Saudi Arabia. I think that, with the support of our company and our government, we will reach the goals we are aiming for,” enthuses Dr Moudhi Aljamea, General

NOVEMBER 2019

219

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STC ACADEMY

“ Because I have this mixture of technical and academic backgrounds I found the idea of working in a corporate academy very interesting”

Manager of the Digital School at the STC Academy.

As General Manager of the Digital School in the STC Academy, Aljamea is at the centre of a digital operation that will have a perceptible effect on the Saudi telecommunications space for decades to come. We sat down with her to find out more about her role in reinventing the culture of the Kingdom’s largest telco.

“My father was an electrical engi-

220

— Dr Moudhi Aljamea, General Manager, Digital School, STC Academy

neer, and my uncle was the person who introduced the Arabic language to computing, so I come from a very technologically-oriented family,” she

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘TC – GITEX 2019’ 221 recalls. After obtaining a bachelor’s in

I have this mixture of technical and

Computer and Information Systems

academic backgrounds, I found

from King Faisal University, and

the idea of working in a corporate

following a stint running her own

academy very interesting,” she

software business, Aljamea accepted

remembers. “I think it’s a known prob-

a government scholarship to travel

lem that there’s this gap between

to London where, after completing

academia and industry. Working at

a Masters and obtained her PhD

the Academy presents the opportu-

in Computer Security from King’s

nity to do both at the same time and

College in 2016. Specialising in algo-

help fill this gap, which is exciting.”

rithm design for cyber security, she is

The role of the STC Academy as an

a certified Ethical Hacker, a veteran

education provider to the company’s

of working in academia, and became

executive staff presents Aljamea and

the first woman to join STC’s execu-

her team with an interesting set of chal-

tive team in February 2019. “Because

lenges. “They are almost all experts w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

STC ACADEMY

222

in their own field,” she explains. “It’s

with STC’s partner companies. “We

not like working with a student, or in a

don’t use off the shelf programs from

university, or running a training course.

third party vendors; we always cus-

They’re executives that are taking time

tomise our programs. The customer

out of their busy days, so in order to

experience of our clients within the

engage them, they need to see some-

program is paramount, so the STC

thing worth leaving work for.”

Academy makes sure that what we

In order to create educational

are delivering is custom tailored to our

courses that engage STC execu-

executives,” Aljamea explains. “We try

tives, the STC Academy’s curriculum

to avoid traditional methods of deliv-

is focused around introducing them

ering courses, instead focusing on

to new technologies through highly

interactivity. We’re designing cyberse-

customised and immersive training

curity labs, for example, in order to run

courses developed in conjunction

simulations that allow our executives to

NOVEMBER 2019

2018

Year founded

10.8mn+

Revenue in Saudi Riyal, generated by STC

47

Number of academy employees

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Dr Moudhi Aljamea Dr. Moudhi Aljamea has a PhD in Computer Security Algorithms Design from King’s College London, Dr. Aljamea currently is the General Manger of the ICT School at STC Academy (Saudi Telcom Company). She is the first Saudi woman to occupy an executive position in the company and has vast experience in cyber and information security.

Prior to joining STC, she was the president of an entrepreneurship unit and business incubator and an assistant Professor in cyber security at Imam Abdurrahman Bin Faisal University, she is considered as one of the Saudis experts in the computer security field.

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223

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225 live through the experience of a cyber attack.” Increasing cyber threat awareness and readiness in its executives is a top priority of STC and the Academy.

“The more connected we become, the more we are exposed to cyber risk.

The weakest link in every system is the human aspect, so, as an executive, increasing awareness of this type of threat is critical,” Aljamea says.

In addition to cyber security, Aljamea explains that the Academy’s program also delivers education in the fields of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). “I have a vision that

“ We try to avoid traditional methods of delivering courses, instead focusing on interactivity” — Dr Moudhi Aljamea, General Manager, Digital School, STC Academy w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

STC ACADEMY

226

NOVEMBER 2019

every employee at STC should have at least a basis of knowledge regarding cyber security and data analytics. It doesn’t require a technical background; it’s something that they should know about. So, one of the things we’re doing is developing our executives knowledge of data analytics,” she says. “We also focus on AI. We just launched an AI competition for our employees to encourage them to come up

227

with, develop and prototype an idea relating to AI.” Across

“ You never know what the future will bring.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll be dealing with new technology that we don’t know anything about today” — Dr Moudhi Aljamea, General Manager, Digital School, STC Academy w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

STC ACADEMY

228

NOVEMBER 2019

multiple digital disciplines, Aljamea and the STC Academy is constantly pushing to increase engagement in digital sectors and new technologies.

Aljamea notes, however, that the rapidly changing pace of technology means that, more important to the Academy and STC as a whole than educating executives on technology applications, is helping cultivate an agile perspective and approach. “You never know what the future will bring.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll be dealing with new technology that we don’t know anything about today.” As a result, while introducing its executives to new use cases for technologies such as 5G, quantum computing and AI, the deeper goal is to develop an executive team to whom adaptability is a second nature survival trait.

Looking to the future, Aljamea is confident that although “what our executives are learning today might not be important tomorrow, with this agile mindset, they can easily adapt to whatever tomorrow may bring.”

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230

NOVEMBER 2019

231

Answering the questions of a fast-changing world WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

NATHAN HOLMES

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AT O S

Uli Braun, CTO, Asia Pacific, at IT service provider Atos, discusses the ways in which Atos is future-proofing companies in Asia and beyond

A 232

s a global IT services and solutions leader, Atos has experience in digital transformation across the world. Its services are

tailored to the areas in which they are offered, a function performed in Asia Pacific by Uli Braun, CTO for the region. Braun’s role sees him lead several complementary departments in the Asia Pacific region. “As CTO, I’m leading portfolio and pre-sales for Asia Pacific and I’m also in charge of analyst relationships in the region. Basically, we take our global portfolio, apply it to the Asia-Pacific market and make it work in a local context.” It’s a region that brings its own unique set of challenges and possibilities, as Braun explains. “There’s two key challenges. Firstly, more than any other, AsiaPacific is large, complicated and extremely diverse.

Adapting to the economic and cultural diversity is a real challenge. Secondly, there are low cost

NOVEMBER 2019

233

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We are continually looking to improve our customers’ experience. We know customers see our investments in innovation as an investment in their futures. Our customers want services that grow and change on pace with their needs. They want all of their infrastructure to be delivered on-demand, as a service by API. And experience is a critical factor: Ease of use, interoperability, and a risk-free, smooth upgrade path drive our long-term strategic relevance.

This is why we started talking about the need for a Modern Data Experience.

Why are we investing in a Modern Data Experience?

We see our customers facing multiple challenges, including executing ambitious plans for digital transformation. Technology leaders are rejecting excessive system complexity and technical debt that hinder infrastructure modernization efforts.

The approach to Ops is changing: DevOps and AIOps are enabling companies to focus on managing

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And they’re hiring more developers. CIOs have a mandate to develop cloud initiatives that drive corporate value while addressing application performance bottlenecks. And every business wants to extract more intelligence from their data.

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WRITTEN BY CHARLIE GIANCARLO

CHAIRMAN AND CEO, PURE STORAGE.

ABOUT PURE STORAGE Pure Storage (NYSE: PSTG) helps innovators build a better world with data. Pure’s data solutions enable SaaS companies, cloud service providers, and enterprise and public sector customers to deliver real-time, secure data to power their mission-critical production, DevOps, and modern analytics environments in a multi-cloud environment. One of the fastest growing enterprise IT companies in history, Pure Storage enables customers to quickly adopt next-generation technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, to help maximize the value of their data for competitive advantage. And with a certified NPS customer satisfaction score in the top one percent of B2B companies, Pure’s ever-expanding list of customers are among the happiest in the world.

AT O S

“ Analyse the data, find the question, augment whatever is missing and then generate value from it – that’s the sequence”

markets where it can be very difficult to obtain the prices that we must charge in a global context for leading edge technology solutions. As a result, we deal mostly with multinational corporations.”

The service that Atos offers goes beyond a simple hands-off IT transaction. “It’s a business conversation,” says Braun. “We need to first understand the customer’s business, and then match the IT challenges that they face with a solution that we as a company can offer them.” In Braun’s

236

experience, some of the biggest difficulties clients are running into stem from legacy systems. “In this region it’s most likely the biggest challenge of all, because it prevents IT departments from becoming more agile and business-focused. That legacy burden is very heavy, and it’s very difficult to fix for companies that are operating systems dating back to the 1980s or 90s.” Coming hand in hand with outdated systems can be legacy ways-of-thinking. “It’s not just a question of infrastructure. It holds back the entire business transformation, because the case is made NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘CONNECTING THE DOTS’

that ‘we have always been doing it

transformation. Whether imple-

this way, it has always worked, so

menting private, public or hybrid

why should we change to something

multi-cloud models, it’s a technology

else?’ That resistance to change can

that can significantly increase agility

be quite significant, because many

while reducing capital expenditure.

organisations are still very tradition-

But Braun is clear that the case for

ally structured. Quite often, the CIO

cloud is far more comprehensive.

reports to the CFO and IT is seen as

“Cloud computing enables you to do

a cost centre rather than a business

things faster and with less of a time

enabler. There’s nobody who owns

commitment. In the past you had to

the digital agenda.”

get the budget for a project and you

Atos is well placed to solve such

were then stuck with it for five years

challenges. One of the premier solu-

because you had invested in hard-

tions Atos can offer is in the cloud

ware, software, whatever it may be. w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

237

The cloud is not just infrastructure.

provide. Of course, Atos also offers

Yes, it’s storage and compute and

its own suite of cybersecurity prod-

memory and these kinds of things.

ucts extending beyond this basic

But it’s also APIs to tap into functions

level of protection. “We are a large

that you otherwise would have to

cybersecurity vendor with our own

build from scratch. Entire application

cybersecurity products. We have a

systems can be deployed in minutes

business unit that produces secure

or hours, versus weeks or months in

phones, chip sets, security products,

the past.”

identity management systems, as

The cloud also offers the atten-

well providing security monitoring

dant the benefit of improving

services. My standard answer to

cybersecurity beyond the level that

a client who asks why they should

internal servers and data centres can

come to Atos for cybersecurity is 239

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Uli Braun Uli Braun is leading Atos’ technology strategy, portfolio and presales organisation in Asia Pacific. As part of this role, he is responsible for the technology and service roadmap and its application to real-world customer situations.

Prior to joining Atos, Uli has been leading Dimension Data’s consulting services in Asia Pacific, focusing with his team of technology consultants on advising enterprise clients on IT strategy, cloud migrations, virtualisation and cybersecurity. Braun previously worked at HP Enterprise Services where he has been leading HP’s network services in Asia Pacific and held various roles in service delivery, presales and transformation since 1996.

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“ Cloud computing enables you to do things faster and with less of a time commitment”

combination of various data sources.”

But data remains meaningless when not interrogated by the correct questions. Sometimes these questions are self-evident, but often they prove more elusive. “Sometimes we don’t know the question. We can only find out what the question is by exploring the data. That’s why it’s complicated, and that’s why you need the expertise companies like Atos bring to

that we run the IT integration for the

the table. Analyse the data, find the

Olympic Games. It is one of the most

question, augment whatever is miss-

visible events in the world and yet

ing and then generate value from it

we have had zero security incidents

– that’s the sequence.”

since the partnership began.”

Data, meanwhile, is the lifeblood

Atos always has an eye on the future of technology to ensure that

to many a modern organisation. Atos

what it is offering is future-proof.

specialises in ensuring that maxi-

“There are two areas where most of

mum value can be created from the

the R&D spending goes. One is in

data which clients have as well as the

cloud computing, and the other is in

data they do not. “Without data, there

AI and machine learning technolo-

is nothing to generate additional

gies – that’s across the spectrum from

business value from. Today, you don’t

hardware, such as IoT and edge

have to own all the data anymore,

devices, all the way to the software

because you can buy it and merge or

and application side. We also have

blend it with the data that you have

a Quantum Learning Machine that

within your own company and then

lets you test and prepare the devel-

generate value from that. The value

opment of quantum algorithms on

is not only in the data itself, it’s in the

traditional hardware.” To ascertain the w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

241

AT O S

The Power of Partnership

Health & Life Sciences Financial Services & Insurance Energy & Utilities

• 100 billion devices are coming online • Data at this scale will change your industry • Adapt now - accelerate your growth • Digital transformation with Dell EMC and Atos • No. 1 in every technology category from edge, to core, to cloud.

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Manufacturing Public Sector & Defense Telecom, Media & Technology Retail Transport & Logistics

Visit atos.net/contactus

243

“ We need to change to stay relevant in the market of the future�

technologies of the future, Braun is part of a 150 member-strong scientific community at the company. Emerging technologies are being deployed in the real world, with Braun giving the example of deep learning being used for claims management in the healthcare sector or quantum algorithms that are used for the development and testing of new pharmaceuticals.

Ultimately, in a rapidly changing world, Atos is ensuring that its clients and itself are in positions where they can thrive in a safe, secure and sustainable w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

AT O S

244

1997

Year founded

£11.bn+ Approximate revenue

110,000

Approximate number of employees NOVEMBER 2019

© RomiREA

CO MPAN Y FACT S

• Atos runs the cybersecurity operation for the Olympic Games • A 150 member-strong scientific community exists at the company

environment. “We have a window of opportunity in the next two years to change the way we are doing things, and the skills our staff can offer to the market. We have about 110,000 employees worldwide, so it’s no small task. We need to change to stay relevant in the market of the future, and we need to be more mature with our clients rather than just sitting there and waiting for them to tell us what they want us to do. We have a responsibility for the future of our clients’ businesses and we need to be partners on their journey into the digital future.”

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246

AI

for Good

WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

NATHAN HOLMES

NOVEMBER 2019

247

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MICROSOFT

Microsoft is using pioneering technology including AI and machine learning to address the world’s most critical challenges

A

ccording to the UN’s Environment Emissions Gap Report 2018, “now more than ever, unprecedented and urgent

action is required” to address the climate and sustainability crisis faced globally. Achieving 248

a sustainable and prosperous planet requires a concerted effort and, in this era, the pace of movement must be accelerated.

Chiefly, this acceleration can be achieved through the driving of collaboration between public-private partnerships, the greater enforcement of policy on a global scale, and, according to technology giant Microsoft, the harnessing of the power of digital technology to combat climate change. Elaborating on this, Mike Chan, General Manager Azure, Microsoft APAC, says: “At Microsoft we are committed to delivering on our environmental goals for sustainability and empowering our customers and partner ecosystem with the technology and tools to deliver on theirs. This starts with data capture, harnessing the power of the intelligent Cloud – a platform of limitless NOVEMBER 2019

249

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MICROSOFT

“ We are committed to delivering on our environmental goals for sustainability and empowering our customers and partner ecosystem” — Mike Chan General Manager Azure, Microsoft APAC 250

compute scale – and driving innovation to meet demanding business challenges and create meaningful impact with speed and agility.”

Microsoft is leading the acceleration of movement in this field. The business, world-renowned for its innovative and pioneering technology, is working more closely than ever with partners and customers to use AI and other digital technologies to address global sustainability challenges. The former, for example, has the power to amplify human ingenuity and extend our capabilities so that we can achieve more, says Microsoft. “Democratising technology is of utmost importance to Microsoft; the power of accessibility and inclusivity in the digital age will transform industries, collectively enabling us to become more productive and jointly solve society’s biggest challenges,” says Sherie Ng, General Manager Public Sector APAC at the company. “With technology, we are empowered to create a future for the greater good – imagine a future with limitless possibilities.”

On a wider level, the company believes in the power of technology

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘AI FOR GOOD’ 251 for the common good to drive soci-

years, investing $50mn in five years to

etal impact, and enable a range of

advance the use of cloud and AI tech-

economic and social opportunities.

nologies in an environmental capacity,

Through partnerships and investments

100% carbon neutrality across the

with the public, private and civic sec-

company’s global operations every

tors – the United Nations and other

year since 2012, and a 20% reduc-

global non-profit organisations – it

tion in product packaging for all new

aims to contribute towards achiev-

devices in 2018.

ing the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Since 2009, Microsoft has made

In April this year, Microsoft announced it would close to double its internal carbon fee to $15 per met-

and met several commitments towards

ric tonne on all carbon emissions. It

environmental sustainability. These

also detailed ongoing plans to further

include a drive to cut operational car-

implement renewable energy and

bon emissions by 75% over the next 11

innovation into its data centres (60% w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

MICROSOFT

252

renewable energy use by 2020). Here, the business is dedicated to building a

and zero-waste.

These achievements are impressive

“responsible cloud of the future�. It aims

enough in isolation. However, core to

to achieve this through measures such

Microsoft’s sustainability vision, is the

as ensuring that 50% of the current

belief that its ambition and the tech-

volume of electricity used by its data

nologies it develops should empower

centres is from green energy sources

others. In 2017, the company launched

such as wind, solar and hydropower.

its AI for Earth Grant initiative, which

In addition, Microsoft is committed

sees it partner with leading environ-

to its sustainable campuses building

mental and research groups to develop

initiative. These, in combination with its

AI, machine learning and cloud-related

smart building technology, will see the

solutions to problems such as climate

company become the first large corpo-

change. Since then, Microsoft has

rate campus to achieve zero-carbon

awarded more than 230 grants to

NOVEMBER 2019

recipients in around 60 countries. AI

that the company conducted with PwC

for Earth represents a US$50 million,

on how the technology can enable a

five-year commitment to put artificial

sustainable future. This suggested

intelligence technology in the hands of

several benefits to greater AI adoption,

individuals and organisations around

including reducing global greenhouse

the world who are working to protect

gas emissions by up to 4% by 2030,

the planet across four key areas – agri-

gains of as much as $5.2tn to busi-

culture, biodiversity, climate change,

nesses through improved productivity

and water. The initiative reinforces the

and automation, and a 4.4% rise on

crucial role that Microsoft believes AI

global GDP by 2030.

will play in the future. Further evidence of this can be found in a research paper

The business is currently working on several related projects with partners 253

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Sherie Ng Sherie leads Microsoft’s public sector business across Asia Pacific and, together with the larger partner ecosystem, spearheads and accelerates the pace of digital transformation for governments, healthcare and education institutions as well as large state-owned enterprises in the region. An industry veteran with more than 22 years of experience in managing businesses in the high tech sector, Sherie is passionate about technology’s role in enabling societal shifts and empowering people for inclusive and sustainable development of societies. Prior to Microsoft, Sherie was the managing director for NICE in Asia-Pacific, where she helped large enterprises embrace digital innovation for business breakthroughs with robotics, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and smart data.

Her previous experiences include leadership roles at Invensys, Singtel, CSG and Lucent Technologies.

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MICROSOFT

254

and customers in the energy sector

entered into partnership with Microsoft

under the banner of ‘tech intensity’,

to migrate Hermes to Microsoft Azure,

which describes using the latest tech-

thus improving inspection times sig-

nology to drive efficiencies and create

nificantly, allowing for the capture and

a more sustainable planet.

use of better data and enabling greater

Close collaboration with Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, for example, has helped to make renewable

predictive maintenance and fewer costly repairs.

According to the World Health

energy more affordable and sustain-

Organization, a staggering 66 people

able. Siemens was previously using its

on average die in road accidents every

Hermes system – autonomous drones

day in Thailand. PTT Global Chemical

coupled with a digital platform – to

Public Company Limited (GC) plans

monitor its wind turbines. The company

to reduce the accident rate on the

NOVEMBER 2019

Bangkok to Rayong route and enable the safety of more than 4,000 employees that clock up around 8,000 trips between the two locations. GC worked with its shuttle drivers, Microsoft and Frontis to design the ‘AI for Road Safety’ solution, which uses facial recognition AI to detect and alert when drivers show signs of risk such as drowsiness and distraction. GC sees the programme as a major component of its intention to contribute to society, especially in Rayong, where the company has a number of factories Elsewhere, water and energy technologies provider Ecolab and energy

“ The power of accessibility and inclusivity in the digital age will transform industries” — Sherie Ng General Manager, Public Sector APAC Microsoft

company Orsted, have implemented Microsoft Azure, as well as its IoT and AI solutions, to make significant leaps forward in improving water conservation and the efficiency of renewable energy respectively.

By 2050, the demand for food is expected to outpace production by over 70%. Farmers need access to better data on their land in order to maximise both efficiency and yield, while at the same time, reducing environmental impact. However, gathering data from farms is difficult due a si a .busi ne ssc h ief. com

255

MICROSOFT

256 to typically low technology adoption rates by farmers, particularly in the developing world, where access to technology is often limited. To address these issues, Microsoft is working to enabling greater precision in farming with the use of AI through Farmbeats.

This uses the company’s machine learning algorithms, together with lowcost sensors, drones, and other data to deliver actionable insights to farmers. Microsoft believes that this data, coupled with the farmer’s knowledge of his or her farm, can help to increase farm productivity while reducing NOVEMBER 2019

environmental impact and out-ofpocket costs.

With transport and buildings making a significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, Microsoft is also focused on ‘architecture for the new world’, or smart cities. In this field, the business has several key innovations around smart buildings and smart energy. Microsoft ICONICS, for example, is a smart building software that collects and analyses IoT sensor data from building management systems to give information on general property status, as well as where improvements can be made to achieve greater energy efficiency and lower maintenance costs.

An example of the company’s work in this sector can be seen in the Taiwanese capital, Taipei. The city has experienced rapid growth in recent years, and thus city planners were looking for methods of streamlining its municipal operations while improving energy efficiency and safety for citizens. Microsoft partnered with local company AAEON to develop an IoT-based solution that would form the basis of a cloud-based monitoring system for the city’s more than 150,000 w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

257

MICROSOFT

street lights. Previously, city officials had followed a reactive maintenance programme, based on citizens reporting light failures before maintenance teams were eventually sent to the location. Instead, the AAEON Lighting Control System enables predictive and preventive maintenance, optimises the duration that the lights are on in order to maximise safety and forms part of a greater holistic ecosystem for a wider smart city concept.

Naturally, such dedication to as important a cause as the world’s 258

climate requires a resolute and single-minded culture within the business. Microsoft believes that every

“ Microsoft believes that every employee must play a central role in transformation and making a difference […] this mindset is fostered under the theme of ‘AI for Good’” — Sherie Ng General Manager, Public Sector APAC Microsoft NOVEMBER 2019

employee must play a central role in transformation and making a difference. The company encourages members of staff to always focus on learning, to take risks and to fail fast – by doing so, it states, they will make a difference and find a deeper meaning in their work. This mindset is fostered under the theme of ‘AI for Good’: combining the company’s technology and expertise in artificial intelligence and data science with the talent and expertise of groups around the world in fields such as environmental science,

1975

Year founded

$125bn+ Approximate revenue (2019)

259

disability needs and humanitarian

global network capable of connecting

assistance to create a more sustain-

billions, even trillions, of datapoints

able and accessible world.

about the global environment. This

In the longer term, Microsoft remains

system, says Joppa, would have

focused on leveraging the power of

“the computing power and machine

technology and innovation. In particu-

learning tools to process them into

lar, according to the company’s Chief

actionable insights that will empower

Sustainability Officer Lucas Joppa,

decision makers in every corner of the

the ultimate solution could come in

globe to put sustainability first. And,

the form of an ambitious and innova-

although parts of this plan may seem

tive “planetary computer”. The scale of

like science fiction, it could be a reality

innovation here would be significant, as

in the near future.”

Joppa explains, revolving around the development and implementation of a w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

260

EDUCATION THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

NOVEMBER 2019

WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING 261

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TOI OHOMAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

FOR TOI OHOMAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, DIGITAL INNOVATION IS IMPROVING REGIONAL EDUCATION, AS RABINDRA DAS EXPLAINS

A

lot can happen in a year. That’s certainly the case for the Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, one of New Zealand’s larg-

est technology institutes that, in October 2018, embarked on a digital journey with a human-centric approach. In just under 12 months, and following the implementation of several innovative technolo262

gies, Toi Ohomai has improved the agility of its operations, created new resources for its students and staff and increased conversion rates.

Head of Information Technology at Toi Ohomai, Rabindra Das, has been instrumental in the rollout of the institute’s digital plan. He explains that the impetus for the change lies in a complex merger that the organisation went through three years prior, in 2016, when two regional institutions in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty – one in Tauranga and one in Rotorua – came together. “It was really driven by a desire to better serve the region as a whole,” says Das, recalling the high unemployment and lower socio-economic demographic in the wider Bay of Plenty area. “It’s so important to us to engage with our local communities so that they have the best opportunity to take part in tertiary education – it’s NOVEMBER 2019

263

“ IT’S ALL ABOUT PROVIDING THE VERY BEST REGIONAL DELIVERY WE CAN” Rabindra Das, Head of Information Technology, Toi Ohomai Institute

w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

Customer driven networking Creating a secure, self-healing network requires the latest technological advancements. Extreme Networks has the expertise in network automation, security, machine learning and analytics to help you drive your digital transformation journey forward.

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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘LEARN BY DOING – TOI OHOMAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY’ 265 all about providing the very best deliv-

delivering new and improved services,

ery in line with the needs of the region.”

to run our organisation more efficiently

Between 2016 and the start of this

and effectively, and have the founda-

year, Das was occupied with the merg-

tions in place to start looking at the new

ing of various disparate systems that

capabilities we needed.”

were used by the two institutes into one

Those new capabilities formed the

central solution. It was, he admits, a

basis of the digital plan that was imple-

challenging task: “We had two organi-

mented towards the end of 2018. In

sations coming together, two IT teams

late spring of that year, as Das explains,

with their own methods of operating and

the institute began considering ways

at different levels of maturity from an IT

in which it could improve student

perspective. We had a limited budget

recruitment and engagement, offer

with which to carry out the merger, so

a better customer experience and

it was a challenge, but we knew that in

connect the staff across campuses

the end we’d be in a position to begin

more effectively. “Our conversion w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

TOI OHOMAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

266

ratios were quite low,” he says. “We

centred around five key strategic goals

used various human-centric design

to support the business. Work under

thinking methods to approach the

these goals included improving and

issue from a different angle. Rather

streamlining the online applications

than set out the problem and come

process, implementing new wifi and

up with a solution, we got out there,

campus network switches across

carried out empathy studies, spoke

all campuses, developing innovative

to students to fully uncover the inhibi-

digital workspaces for staff, and the

tors and problems they faced, and it

creation of a student portal app. “It’s

proved invaluable – it was the catalyst

not just about creating new systems,”

we needed for real change.”

he notes, “it’s about looking more

In response to the feedback, Das

broadly to revolutionise the way that

and his team developed and rolled

we work and empower staff to become

out the institute’s strategic IT plan,

more productive.”

NOVEMBER 2019

267

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Rabindra Das Rabindra is an experienced IT professional with over 25 years’ commercial experience in corporate organisations like Johnson & Johnson Medical, Lucent Technologies and Gen-i (now Spark); the last ten years have been within Tertiary Education at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.

Rabindra is an elected officer for the Rhubarb Committee which is a Bay of Plenty organisation looking to take the Bay to the forefront of innovation, technology and talent development. Rabindra also sits on the IT Professionals NZ Tauranga Committee. Rabindra recently completed a Post Grad in Leadership at the Waikato Management School, and is continuing his learning journey with an online Masters in Management at Massey.

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TOI OHOMAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

268

2016

Year founded

£90mn+ Approximate revenue

750

Approximate number of employees

NOVEMBER 2019

269

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Transforming Your Campus Services into a Personalised Mobile Experience campusM delivers a mobile app and portal that helps institutions deliver on their strategic goals and gives their students a one-stop shop for everything they need.

Personalise your services

campus

+61 402 901 113 www.campusm.com

Understandably, technology played

campusM platform. It was one of

a big part in this revolution. “Regardless

many developments we knew we had

of the hardware we had on site, we

to realise. The students needed a cen-

knew we had to have a really solid and

tral place or hub that they can use to

robust network,” Das explains. “For

find out information in order to network

that reason, one of the first things

and to engage with the institution. It’s

we did was to ensure our campuses

been very well received; I think we’re

were well connected. We provided a

somewhere in the region of 5,000

solid base and ensured a consistent

downloads which is a fantastic result.”

user experience at every location. We

“It’s really important that we don’t

partnered with Extreme Networks

rest on our laurels,” he adds. “The app

to deliver this capability which was a

has been successful, but it’s now a

huge undertaking, but it was delivered

case of ‘what’s next?’. We’re approach-

successfully and without issue. The

ing this by asking those students that

student portal app uses Exlibris’

haven’t downloaded the app why they

NOVEMBER 2019

“WE USED VARIOUS HUMAN-CENTRIC DESIGN THINKING METHODS TO APPROACH THE ISSUE FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE” Rabindra Das, Head of Information Technology, Toi Ohomai Institute 271 haven’t, and to gain as much feedback as we can from those that have. As part of this, and to encourage further uptake, we’re considering using campusM to create an app for our staff too.

A student attendance app is likely to be the first module on the app, which would modernise and streamline how we currently record attendance.”

With regards to improving how the institute’s staff approach their work, Das is keen to highlight the new modern intranet solution that has been rolled out. “We had two legacy w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

TOI OHOMAI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

272

“ REGARDLESS OF THE HARDWARE WE HAD ON SITE, WE KNEW WE HAD TO HAVE A REALLY SOLID AND ROBUST NETWORK” Rabindra Das, Head of Information Technology, Toi Ohomai Institute

NOVEMBER 2019

intranets and an interim one, however, fairly early into the merger process, we all agreed that it was essential to have a single version for everyone to use. Rather than a change, it’s been a leap to an innovative digital workplace that has collaboration tools, communication capabilities and other really great features that have really helped. Any significant change should be started from the top, so measures like this have been

over 100 people using it, and that number is growing as we start moving into a proper deployment phase.”

The last 12 months has seen the institute build a firm foundation on which it can continue its digital journey. Most of the goals originally set, confirms Das, have been met or are currently on track. Looking further ahead, there are plans in place to update the student app further to increase its capabilities in line with a new cohort of students joining. “Elsewhere, we’re looking at additional automation across various systems, as well as integrating things like machine learning and AI, particularly when it comes to interpreting the data that we collect and providing really important in moving forwards.”

analysis or trends. Through combining

“In this vein, our exec team embraced

all these technologies and systems, it’s

being early adopters and were the

all coming together and we’re seeing

‘pilot team’ in terms of introducing

great results, including increasing our

new developments like Microsoft

student conversion ratios this year. We

Teams, and they’ve really loved it,” he

now have the capabilities to expand our

continues. “It’s given us all new ways

offering, and we fully intend to do so.”

of working, and improved things like organisational communication and collaboration. However, most importantly, it’s brought everyone closer together.

What turned out to be a pilot now has w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

273

Tested and true WRITTEN BY

274

DAN BRIGHTMORE PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING

NOVEMBER 2019

275

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REVOLUTION IT

How Revolution IT offers independence from systems integrators and developers to make sure each client gets a quality assured outcome

R

evolution IT was born in 2003 when the company’s trio of directors were working

in London as IT consultants on major projects, including the merger of Glaxo Wellcome and

276

SmithKline Beecham. They noticed that the UK were ahead on project delivery, quality assurance and governance around IT projects. Inspired, they hatched a plan to start an IT business founded on the sole purpose of helping its clients deliver successful projects while ensuring that the software was high quality, secure, and reliable. “There was a real need for independent governance and testing services in Australia at that time,” recalls Jamie Duffield, Director and CEO of Revolution IT. “We felt that it was the right time to revolutionise project delivery.”

Revolution’s current offering spans three business units: Assure – testing, performance, automation, and crowdsourced testing; Secure – application security and cyber security; and Transform – experience design, DevOps, PPM, NOVEMBER 2019

277

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Enterprise DevOps – Build and deliver better software faster Hybrid IT Management – Operate with agility Security, Risk & Governance – Secure what matters most Predictive Analytics – Analyse in time to act Application Security– Secure applications by embedding strong security and best practices into DevOps processes

Revolution IT is a Platinum Micro Focus partner in Australia. Please contact Revolution IT for more information on Micro Focus software solutions coupled with Revolution IT services.

microfocus.com/devops 61 1300 275 738 info@revolutionit.com.au revolutionit.com.au

REVOLUTION IT

“ We mix and match services, tools, training and IP to give our clients innovative solutions to deliver their projects and leave them with long lasting improvements” 280

— Jamie Duffield, Director and CEO, Revolution IT

delivered both onsite and offsite at our labs.” Quality is paramount for Revolution. “You get what you pay for in this industry,” he says of the company’s cheap offshore competitors. He believes they can’t match Revolution’s creativity. “We mix and match services, tools, training and IP to give our clients innovative solutions to deliver their projects and leave them with long lasting improvements.” Duffield adds that Revolution’s independence from the systems integrator and developer means it is entirely focused on making sure the client gets a quality outcome.

“This independence allows us to call

Data Engineering and Data Analytics.

out the quality concerns and repre-

Successfully delivering projects to

sent the client with their best interests

over 700 clients, Duffield believes

at heart.”

Revolution has earned a reputation

Revolution IT has a Test

as a trusted partner because of its

Management Office (TMO) solu-

exceptional offering and unshakeable

tion that establishes a commercially

ability to navigate the complexities in

unbiased central independent model

project delivery. “We are extremely

to ensure consistent quality, testing

adaptable and responsive, with 650

and governance across all develop-

staff and the ability to move quickly

ment activities for an organisation. It

on immediate project demands,”

provides a consistent and repeatable

confirms Duffield. “The engagement

risk-based approach to quality and

models are flexible, including T&M,

testing. Any changes either internally

fixed price, and managed services

or from external vendors go through

NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘GARRY WHATLEY, CIO, CORPORATE EXPRESS ON CROWDSOURCED TESTING’ 281

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REVOLUTION IT

282

the TMO which can itself define the

provides a central point of contact

amount of testing required to adhere

and a conduit between the vendor,

to the organisation’s quality policy.

business and PMO for reporting

“The purpose of the TMO is to

purposes. TMO quality policy can be

provide quality assurance across all

referenced in vendor negotiations,

development activities to allow the

SLAs, milestone payments and ongo-

organisation to accept and deploy

ing vendor management.”

quality solutions into production,”

Innovation around testing has been

explains Duffield. “The TMO manages,

a key component in Revolution’s

approves and assists vendors with

journey over the past 15 years. “We

documentation, testing and quality

developed Crowdsprint as a crowd-

artefacts required during the plan-

sourced testing platform that allows

ning, design and execution phases of

us to test web and mobile applica-

major and minor projects. The TMO

tions using the power of the crowd,”

NOVEMBER 2019

“ We developed Crowdsprint as a crowdsourced testing platform that allows us to test web and mobile applications using the power of the crowd” — Jamie Duffield, Director and CEO, Revolution IT

consistently been the best performing reseller, winning the top award from Micro Focus for the past eight years.

“We’re very happy with their technology,” confirms Duffield. “It allows us to be competitive, because we bundle up a best of breed software and use it to help deliver solutions that are flexible, on demand and deliver real value Our strong relationship with Micro Focus allows us to cut through all the red tape you normally encounter with large vendor organisations that have so many different business units

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Jamie Duffield Mr Duffield has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry and is the CEO of Revolution IT, a leading quality assurance consulting firm which he co-founded with Mike Quill and Hamish Leighton in 2004. He has strong risk, governance and commercial experience with expertise in driving growth through sales, marketing, mergers and acquisitions. Jamie is also a non-executive Director of IntelliHR (ASX:IHR) and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

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283

Ignite Enterprise Productivity with Micro Focus Robotic Process Automation LEARN MORE

Micro Focus enterprise software helps you innovate faster, with less risk, in the race to digital transformation.

Please contact Revolution IT to find out how RPA can drive productivity efficiencies in your organisation.

Revolution IT is a Platinum Micro Focus partner in Australia.

microfocus.com/rpa 61 1300 275 738 info@revolutionit.com.au revolutionit.com.au

y Business users spend far too much time on mundane, repetitive, error-prone tasks. Why not save robotic tasks for robots and liberate human brainpower? Robotic process automation (RPA) uses software robots that mimic UI-based human actions to automate everyday tasks.

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Save robotic work for the robots.

Robots can mimic human actions to perform everyday tasks. They save time. They cut costs. And they free human employees to focus on more important things.

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REVOLUTION IT

286

A B O U T MI CRO FO CU S

Micro Focus helps organisations run and transform their business through four core areas of digital transformation: Enterprise DevOps, Hybrid IT Management, Predictive Analytic and Security, Risk & Governance. Driven by customer-centric innovation, its software provides the critical tools needed to build, operate, secure, and analyse the enterprise.

By design, these tools bridge the gap between existing and emerging technologies — enabling faster innovation, with less risk, in the race to digital transformation. Micro Focus maintains a leading position in the Magic Quadrant for Applica ion Security Testing for its Fortify portfolio based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute.

NOVEMBER 2019

287

“ Micro Focus RPA (Robotic Process Automation) delivers on key capabilities such as scalability, resiliency and security that our customers and partners demanded” — Jamie Duffield, Director and CEO, Revolution IT

explains Duffield. “It’s an amazing solution which allows us to ramp up 1,500 professional testers (from a network of 20,000) who use their own devices to perform the testing in a matter of hours. This achieves quick results and allows clients to test across multiple devices and operating systems for better test coverage.” The solution has been used by major companies such as the airline Qantas.

“We are big in automation, and in Australia this is really kicking off with most of our clients looking at w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

REVOLUTION IT

DevOps and striving for continuous delivery,” continues Duffield, who adds that Revolution is also gaining more traction with RPA (Robotic Process Automation). “It’s an exciting proposition and one we’re starting to get more traction in through our work partnering with Micro Focus.” Micro Focus RPA automates repetitive, error-prone UI-based human actions on legacy apps and integrates them with modern IT process automation in a single product. “The solution 288

delivers on key capabilities such as scalability, resiliency and security that our customers and partners demand,” says Tom Goguen, Micro Focus Chief Product Officer. “It adapts to UI changes, automates UI and API-based applications, and includes real-time auditing and traceability, giving our customers the confidence to deploy RPA across the enterprise while providing for centralised governance and compliance for their digital workforce.”

In May 2019, Micro Focus achieved market leader status for Application Security Testing in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for the sixth time. As a Platinum Partner, Revolution IT has NOVEMBER 2019

behind the scenes. It enables us to work quickly for our customers.”

Many of Revolution’s clients are looking to move away from perpetual on premise licensing to a SaaS model where they can get flexibility around ramping up and down licences based on project demand. “Micro Focus has worked with us on many occasions to help with transitions and has been extremely flexible in supporting clients evolving to new delivery models,” reveals Duffield, who believes cloud offers the best ultimate outcome.

“That’s where the market is revolutionising and where we’re helping our clients find the right operating model for them.”

Duffield notes that Revolution partners with many technology vendors such as Tricentis and Broadcom to provide an agnostic approach to tools and help delivers the most appropriate technology to their situation. “We like to trial new technology, because we’ve got to stay relevant for our clients and go to market with an open mind,” he adds. “We’re lucky that testing is required across all industries and technologies in that we get to w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

289

REVOLUTION IT

play with the latest tech. This helps, but the challenge is making sure we know what’s coming and what will be useful for our clients who are all on different maturity curves. The Australian market is typically a year or 18 months behind. We’re fortunate because we can keep an eye on what’s happening in the UK and US and are constantly looking internally, and externally, at

290

“ To get involved in a project that means something and has a tangible effect on people’s lives was really exciting for us” — Jamie Duffield Director and CEO, Revolution IT, NOVEMBER 2019

how we deliver solutions to our clients to stay competitive.”

Staying on top of the latest trends and being able to react to them to meet the changing demands of customers is all in a day’s work at Revolution. “In our client base we’re seeing a big uptake in automation, security (cyber and app) and data (engineering and insights),” says Duffield. “With automation, we’re looking at how we can accelerate our project delivery in both the

291

development lifecycle and business

Crafting this winning formula has

process. Security has always been

helped add the likes of TAL, NAB

a bit of a sleeper but we’re seeing

and Sunsuper to a burgeoning roster

tighter controls with new legislation

of satisfied customers which also

making this a really hot topic now with

includes Australia’s Triple Zero emer-

how it relates to data, privacy and the

gency services. “To get involved in a

encryption required. With that data,

project that means something and

gaining insight is a big part of the work

has a tangible effect on people’s lives

we’re doing with specialty practices

was really exciting for us,” comments

directly aligned to these trends. We

Duffield. Looking to 2020 and beyond,

use the latest tools and approaches

his team aim to strengthen the com-

to craft solutions that directly address

pany’s market position and further

our clients’ needs.”

cement Revolution’s reputation as w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

REVOLUTION IT

2004

Year founded

700+ Clients

650

292

Approximate number of employees

NOVEMBER 2019

“the trusted partner you come to if you need to deliver a successful project without sacrificing quality.” Planned M&A activity will focus on expanding security and automation capabilities, while attracting the right talent to drive growth remains key.

What is Duffield’s advice for businesses nervous about their ongoing transformations? “If you’re a business owner, vendor manager, CIO or programme manager then consider independent testing in your next big software implementation. Keep testing separate from the software vendor and systems integrator in order to build quality KPIs and metrics into the commercial contracts. Protect your investment, keep the vendor honest and mitigate the risk of unwanted brand damage.” It’s a smart mantra that could help your business in its own revolution.

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294

tackling cybersecurity in a connected economy WRITTEN BY

OLLIE MULKERRINS PRODUCED BY

ANDREW STUBBINGS

NOVEMBER 2019

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MIMECAST

MIMECAST, A CYBER RESILIENCE INDUSTRY LEADER, EXPLAINS THE IMPORTANCE OF MAN AND MACHINE WORKING TOGETHER TO CREATE A ROBUST SECURITY NETWORK

M

imecast, founded in 2003, is an international cyber resilience company, with offices in the UK, US, South Africa, Australia, Europe

and the Middle East. Mimecast uses dispersed data centers, intelligent mail routing and robust cloud 296

security to provide a security network capable of managing over 35,000 customers and 296 billion email accounts, with a 100% uptime service.

Mark O’Hare, Chief Information Security Officer at Mimecast was one of the first 25 employees to join the company when he came on board in 2008. This has given Mark a comprehensive understanding of the Mimecast’s inner workings and its position within a rapidly evolving industry. Speaking of the changes in the cyber security industry Mark says: “Organisations can no longer afford to be reactive when it comes to their cybersecurity posture. They need to become more proactive to survive the evolving threats they face. To do that you need that credible and actionable threat intelligence along with a detailed understanding of your vulnerabilities.”

NOVEMBER 2019

297

The company has won a plethora of awards for its workplace environment, through an ethos of collaborative development and job satisfaction.

This methodology extends out to Mimecast’s clients, where transparency, tailored experiences and a focus on the customer reinforces a trusting relationship. As Mark explains: “We have customer success managers and customer experience managers making sure our customers understand that we’re passionate about w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

MIMECAST

“ Organizations can’t be reactive anymore. You need to be more proactive” — Mark O’Hare, Chief Information Security Officer, Mimecast

their security and their well-being, and ensuring they get the most out of our product. After all, we’re building a product for them and not for us.”

Mimecast has shifted from an email security-focused platform in its infancy, into a more robust cyber resilience platform. Today Mimecast’s platform takes on a much broader remit, supporting a wider range of customer security needs, such as Awareness Training, Web Security and Threat Intelligence through a single, trusted platform. Organizations that deploy

298

multiple point solutions can often end up with over complicated and over engineered security environments.

This leads to poorly implemented and managed services as they attempt to protect multiple facets of a company’s network through several disparate solutions. Complexity is the enemy of security. For Mimecast to achieve its goal of an accessible and reliable cyber resiliency focused product for its clients, it has had to keep simplicity in mind without compromising the platform’s ability to manage the diversifying needs of web-reliant businesses.

According to Mark, cybersecurity NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘PRODUCT OVERVIEW: MIMECAST TARGETED THREAT PROTECTION – INTERNAL EMAIL PROTECT’ 299 can appear to be a “piecemeal, frag-

certain environments such as bank-

mented, complex and confusing

ing, manufacturing, health care, land

industry for many.” For that reason, he

insurance, to mention a few, simply

said, Mimecast understood the need

won’t work. Each industry and even

for “a longer-term focus on customer

each organization in each industry

efficiency, making our products easy to

have different requirements and we

deploy and manage, while still allowing

need to cater for all of them.”

for those organizations who require

This approach could not be deliv-

more complex controls to customize

ered by sheer manpower alone and

our product to suit their own unique

so new technologies have had to be

requirements.” Mark admits that no

implemented to cope with the growing

business is exactly the same, meaning

scale of demand. Machine learning

each has a unique risk acceptance

and AI analytics have had a hand

profile. For that reason, he says, “com-

in this, where a platform can moni-

ing in with a cookie cutter approach for

tor user behavior, learning trends in w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

MIMECAST

300

a way any one user approaches their

employees investigating incidents.

work. When there is a major deviation

“Technology has to evolve to keep

from these operational behaviors, the

up with far more complex and often

machine learning system can flag this

automated threats that we face these

up as a warning event, which can then

days. Traditional methods aren’t

be investigated more thoroughly. As the

enough anymore, we have to embrace

machine learning system gathers more

things like machine learning and AI to

information on the habits of its users it

keep up – essentially fighting threat

is able to make more accurate insights

automation with security automation,”

into what may, or may not, be a threat or

Mark explains.

a security incident, increasing efficiency

Mimecast also offers end user

exponentially and allowing organiza-

cybersecurity training and aware-

tions to scale their security defenses

ness helping organizations to reduce

without having to scale the number of

or eliminate human error. As human

NOVEMBER 2019

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Mark O’Hare Mark is a well-seasoned and highly qualified Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) with over 20 years of experience in IT. His skill range is broad but includes Windows, Linux, Networking, Databases, Web Applications, Firewalls, SaaS, IaaS and many other information technologies. He specializes in the Cybersecurity field and has experience in Corporate IT, as well as Cloud-based SaaS environments, including in the challenging and exciting environment of leading the Cybersecurity team for a Cloud-based cybersecurity service.

Mark has been involved in successful ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SOC2, HIPAA audits and has managed both the technical and policybased aspects of Mimecast’s security program since 2011. He has performed many risk assessments in line with ISO 27001 requirements and has the ability to identify and develop appropriate remediation plans for critical security risks to a business.

He is able to communicate on a technical level with Developers and Technical Operations staff, as well as at a management and board level. This gives him the advantage of understanding the high-level security vision and requirements of a business along with the ability to translate and communicate those requirements effectively to the relevant technical and non-technical teams. Mark feels passionately that security needs to be an enabler in the business, rather than a blocker.

Some of Mark’s current and previous certifications and training courses are — CISSP, GSEC, GCFA, MCSE, CCNA, CCSA, CCSE, ACSE, ACSA.

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C O M PA N Y N A M E

error is the leading cause of security breaches, having highly cybersecurity conscious staff can drastically reduce risk to a business. Mimecast has a Cybersecurity Awareness Training solution that educates employees on the everyday cybersecurity risks employees will face and then importance of being cyber-diligent through highlighting the impact these risks expose organizations to. Mimecast’s Awareness Training modules are tailored toward making cybersecurity

REAL-TIME THREAT INTELLIGENCE POWERED BY MACHINE LEARNING. • Extend threat visibility with the largest breadth of external sources • Respond to alerts relevant to your business 10x faster • Seamlessly integrate with existing security solutions

LEARN MORE AT RECORDEDFUTURE.COM

“There’s a real challenge around educating new staff as they join the business, especially those that have not worked in an environment where cybersecurity training and awareness has been a focus”. An important part of the onboarding program is to let employees know what is expected of them,” says Mark. “The new user onboarding program should cover off the organization’s Acceptable Use Policy and include security awareness training and testing. Employees are often the last line of defense in your security chain, so it’s essential to focus awareness digestible and humorous so

on educating them and making sure

the target audience is engaged. The

they understand what’s at stake when

Mimecast platform also allows organi-

things go wrong.”

zations to test their user’s resilience to phishing attacks through simulated phishing testing campaigns. The platform takes several user behavior metrics into consideration and computes an overall organization risk score.

Mark says, “it is great to see your organization’s risk score decreasing over time as your users become better at detecting and reporting phishing scams.

This kind of information is also just what Executives and Boards want to see.”

“ Not every business is the same.Coming in with your cookie cutter approach won’t work” — Mark O’Hare, Chief Information Security Officer, Mimecast

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MIMECAST

304

The company’s focus on people

amount of time at work so in order to

does not stop there. As rising demand

retain top talent you need to keep them

for cybersecurity continues, so does

happy, enjoying their work and making

the challenge of recruiting good cyber-

them feel that they are part of a mean-

security talent. Mimecast is dedicated

ingful team executing meaning projects.”

to finding the best talent the industry

Also, by enabling its workforce to do

has to offer and fostering a long-term

their job through a thorough a portfolio

relationship through competitive pay

of approved business tools, a business

and job satisfaction. For Mark, it’s all

can ensure its employees are using

about “making sure your team feels

regulated and approved methods,

challenged and that they really enjoy

rather than bringing in external and

coming to work. We spend a significant

unapproved services to process and

NOVEMBER 2019

305

store sensitive data. Mark explains,

of your data and how it’s protected”

“One of the most important things, as

says Mark.

your company and workforce grows,

Mimecast’s holistic approach to

is giving your users the appropriate

cybersecurity, using technology, threat

tools to get their job done. With so

intelligence and user education has

many SaaS based tools available, it is

led to the creation of a robust platform

now easy for users to leverage unsanc-

able to deal with each customer’s indi-

tioned applications and infrastructure.

vidual requirements.

Shadow IT becomes a major problem because these application have generally not been security approved and the organization ends up losing control w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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NOVEMBER 2019

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BEING ADAPTABLE AROUND TECHNOLOGY WRITTEN BY

SHANNON LEWIS

PRODUCED BY

STUART IRVING w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

PENRHOS COLLEGE

Neil Mullally, Director of Information Communication Technology at Penrhos College, discusses how important it is to be adaptable in the digital age in order to stay at the forefront of innovation

A 308

n Australian all-girls school, Penrhos College has been around since 1952.

A part of the Independent Girl’s School

Association (IGSA), it offers education from kindergarten through to Year 12. A pastoral care organisation, its focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has led it to win several awards, including placing as a finalist for the Governor’s School STEM Awards.

“A Penrhos girl is independent and resilient. She is the girl of today, well-prepared and equipped for the challenges of tomorrow. We are committed to providing an education that honours our traditions and Christian values in a climate of technological and global change. Our girls are free to pursue excellence in an environment free from gender stereotypes in the subjects they study, the activities they participate in and the careers they ultimately choose.” says Mullally.

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PENRHOS COLLEGE

“There is a lot of human error in everything that happens. No matter what industry you’re in, people make mistakes. But it’s making sure you’ve got the right processes and governances in place to capture the mistake, learn from the mistake, and make sure the mistake doesn’t happen again” — Neil Mullally, Director, Information Communication Technology, Penrhos College Neil Mullally has been working at Penrhos College as Director of Information Communication Technology

310

(ICT) since July of this year. With 25 years’ experience in IT, he has a broad background that he brings to the education sector, having worked in such varied fields as finance, retail, manufacturing and critical infrastructure being Perth Airport. “I’ve worked in industries where we have our own data centres on premise through to finance where everything was outsourced into our own private cloud including Managed Services.” Says Mullally, “We have a lot of physical infrastructure on site at Penrhos.” As Director of ICT, Mullally oversees five teams, from service delivery, systems & infrastructure, NOVEMBER 2019

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘VIRTUAL REALITY LEARNING AT PENRHOS COLLEGE’ 311 network security, corporate applica-

regulations, and in the airport, you

tion support and PMO.

have very heavy regulation with CASA

Penrhos College has always been

(Civil Aviation Safety Authority). In

at the top of tech innovation in the

education, there is no governing body

education sector. It was one of the first

that tells you how to operate with

schools to offer laptops to every single

regards to information security.” His

student, an initiative now followed

solution to this has been to bring his

across Australia. According to Mullally,

knowledge of other industries into

though, the education sector overall is

Penrhos, settling on the NIST (National

behind when it comes to regulations

Institute of Standards and Technology)

regarding information security and

standards and frameworks, making

data protection. “From my experience,

Penrhos a leader in the education

other industries are very heavily regu-

sector by taking this kind of action.

lated,” he says. “For finance industries

During his time at the airport, there

you have to meet APRA (Australian

was a significant data breach.

Prudential Regulation Authority)

According to Mullally, “there was an w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

PENRHOS COLLEGE

312

awful lot of quick learning around that

again.” He uses this mindset not only

breach that I’ve introduced to Penrhos

internally, but when outsourcing as well.

to prevent us from having those sorts

When searching for cloud-based solu-

of issues in the future.” Education

tions to store sensitive data, Mullally

about data security and its importance,

insists all potential vendors go through

he states, is key in determining these

an information security checklist. “It’s

safe practices. “There is a lot of human

very onerous, but if the third party can

error in everything that happens. No

respond positively to the questions,

matter what industry you’re in, people

as it aligns with the NIST framework,

make mistakes. But it’s making sure

it will help me filter out which third

you’ve got the right processes and

parties take information security seri-

governances in place to capture the

ously and which don’t.” This sort of

mistake, learn from the mistake, and

documentation is mutually beneficial.

make sure the mistake doesn’t happen

The school ensures its information

NOVEMBER 2019

is protected and “the vendors are

improvements. “We’re like any other

reassured that their product and

organisation,” says Mullally. “We have

business model is sustainable in

an abundance of tools. The strategy

multiple industries.”

is to take stock of what we have

The focus, for Penrhos, lies on its

available, and what we actually need

back of house. “Front of house is

to go forwards.” For Mullally, it is about

spectacular,” affirms Mullally. “Back

embracing the technology already

of house is the area that usually gets

available to them, rather than just

left behind.” Streamlining processes

seeking outwards for new solutions.

is the way forward, using existing

“One of the biggest challenges in

tools to assist with automating work-

education sector is time,” says Mullally.

flows is a start but overall, we want

“In the corporate world, you would

to improve accuracy, effectiveness

organise a meeting during business

and/or efficiency and then rede-

hours, and that would be that. In the

sign those processes to realize the

teaching world, teachers are very

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Neil Mullally Neil Mullally is a multi-skilled IT Manager with over 25 years’ experience in the IT industry and over 16 years as a Manager of IT teams. Very high level of experience in Cyber Security whether Cloud or On-premise solutions, evaluating, integrating and supporting innovative technologies to help internal and external customers achieve their goals, while effectively maximizing return on resources and providing cost effective solutions for everyone concerned. Very capable with a proven track record ensuring the smooth running of ICT systems with both on premise and outsourced support teams providing IT services that improve the efficiency, performance and overall return on investment of a company.

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READY FOR A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION? We work with a number of institutions in the Education and Public Sector as their trusted advisors in: • Cloud Solutions • Cyber Security • Business Transformation • Automation

• Data Management • Kids Cyber • Product Licensing • Cyber Incident Response 24/7

CONTACT US

E. info@es2.com.au W. es2.com.au

1952

Year founded

driven by their time-table, so things don’t go as fast as you’d like.” This is why Mullally points to the importance of using Agile and Lean methodolo-

AU$100mn Approximate revenue

400

Approximate number of employees

gies when designing new solutions and implementing projects. “Every organisation I’ve worked in, I’m very big on Lean and Agile. I think both Lean and Agile has its place, so I utilise both methodologies.” From daily stand-ups to scrums, Penrhos uses Agile as a methodology for project delivery. “Right now, we’re re-visiting what student laptops and devices we use. We engage a student working

NOVEMBER 2019

“We want to provide the best experience possible and the people that can provide the best information for us are the people that are using the technology” — Neil Mullally, Director, Information Communication Technology, Penrhos College

customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste.

From an organisational perspec-

group to help assist in evaluating the

tive, “we’re highlighting our top twenty

new devices. Gone are the days when

processes that we want to review

just the department head makes the

that will provide the best value for us

decision, we now ensure a more

through time, money or

collaborative approach with all

efficiency gains, whether

stakeholders.” Lean methodology,

that be the customer

Mullally says, has been very helpful

experience we offer parents

in mapping current and future

accessing our student

processes for efficiency gains.

portal or finance and

From

teaching,” says

a tech-

Mullally.

nology

“We want to provide

perspective,

the best experience

Lean provides

possible and the peo-

a framework for the

ple that can provide the

college to help understand our

best information for us

customers value and focuses its

are the people that are

key processes to continuously

using the technology.”

increase it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the

Having formed a strategic partnership with w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z i n e. com

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PENRHOS COLLEGE

C O M PA N Y FACT S

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“We’re very big on the core values of education that allow the girls to become leaders in the industry” — Neil Mullally, Director of Information Communication Technology at Penrhos College

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PENRHOS COLLEGE

318

“ Gone are the days when just the team manager makes the decision” — Neil Mullally, Director, Information Communication Technology, Penrhos College

ES2, a consulting organisation that specialises in enterprise security and solutions services, Mullally believes the collaboration offers a lot of value. “This partnership is supported by consultancy, project management, training and managed services with offices where our mission is to be a trusted advisor of business-centric services and solutions,” explains Mullally. “Our focus on business outcomes and our proactive attitude has enabled us to be a leader in our industry locally,

NOVEMBER 2019

319

nationally and internationally.”

information about power and water

By this time next year, Penrhos will

usage that can both be used to allow

be the home of a brand-new Science

us to become more sustainable as an

and Innovation Centre. An AUD $15mn

organisation and as a teaching tool.

project, it will further bring technology

The innovation centre will allow Penrhos

into the learning sphere. Partnering

to stay at the top of the industry. “Once

with Rutledge AV, the centre will include

its built, we’re looking to be the premier

a premier room with video walls that

girls’ school in Perth and a leading edu-

can be used to share information with

cation provider from k-12.”

the wider community. Also aided by Crestron and Cisco, the centre will serve as a method of practicing data analytics for the students, collecting w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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Integrating resources to drive customer value WRITTEN BY

MARCUS LAWRENCE PRODUCED BY

JAKE MEGEARY

NOVEMBER 2019

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T E L U S D I G I TA L

TELUS Digital, the digital transformation arm of telco giant TELUS, is unifying teams across the organization through a powerful Digital Platform

I

n the digital age, an increasing number of companies are establishing dedicated digital transformation arms to acceler-

ate the journey for themselves, their partners and their customers. A pioneer of this approach was Canadian telecommunications giant TELUS, 322

establishing TELUS Digital as a means to cement its position as a digital leader. “The journey started around seven years ago, and the foundation of the team was built around building up our web presence with TELUS.com,” says Ryan Kardish, Manager of the Digital Platform Evolution with TELUS Digital and experienced in the AI and analytics spaces. “In the modern world of telecom, you’re seeing customer demands and preferences, shift towards self-serve digital experiences, especially in the research and learn phase of their journey. The question was: how can we improve the customer engagement with the breadth of products and services that TELUS can offer through the digital channel? I see that as ground zero to the digital transformation story.” Steve Choi, Manager of Data Products at TELUS Digital, adds that catering to NOVEMBER 2019

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1990

Year founded

CA$14bn+ Approximate revenue

59,000+

Approximate number of employees (TELUS International) w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

T E L U S D I G I TA L

“ We now have the ability this shifting landscape necessitated the birth of the dedicated digital arm. to build intelligent “In the past, we didn’t have the right systems and organizational structure to support the applications that really transformation,” he says. “That’s why there was this idea to spin off the digital take advantage of data group as a way to incubate new ways that we’ve had all along of working with an agile approach to but never had the means delivering value, iterating quickly, and being able to experiment.” to use effectively” Over time and along with shifts in 324

— Steve Choi Manager, Data Products TELUS Digital

NOVEMBER 2019

consumer expectations, particularly around mobile, TELUS needed to consolidate silos, technology stacks and

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘THE ROLE OF CULTURE IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION’ 325 simplify the path to production to cre-

because their needs are similar across

ate consistent digital experiences. The

the capabilities we’re building,”

solution, a recipient of the ‘Open Digital

explains Choi. “Every team is looking to

Ecosystem Platform of the Year’ award

expand and build their digital presence,

at the 2019 TM Forum Awards, is the

and use these technologies to better

Digital Platform - an ecosystem of tools

serve our customers.” Through the

and solutions that enable teams to

Digital Platform, TELUS has an

develop and deliver cutting edge cus-

exceedingly powerful tool that simpli-

tomer experiences in a seamless,

fies the developmental processes for

collaborative manner. “As all these

teams across the organization and rep-

teams spun up to develop new func-

resents an exciting new level of

tions, we recognized the opportunity to

collaboration. Through the compilation

start investing in shared capabilities,

of resources that can be used again

shared technologies and shared

and again, TELUS has a resilient outlet

resources across those teams

for scalability and reliability in its w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

T E L U S D I G I TA L

development processes. “I always struggled with how best to explain this,” admits Kardish. “However, I now think about it in the context of: what are the steps for building a modern digital application? It’s everything from sourcing the right data from your systems of record all the way to ensuring that you’re investing in the personalization and consistency of the content and design components a customer can see, and so on.” The Digital Platform’s integrated capabilities enable each of 328

these steps, as well as affording the opportunity for teams to contribute to the platform’s ongoing development.

“Any individual who wants to build on top of the tools and technologies we have built can do so,” Kardish adds.

Choi notes that the Digital Platform also solves a challenge experienced by

available on the Digital Platform, the

many large organizations: the segrega-

reuse of those resources drives con-

tion of data across different

siderable efficiency in the development

departments and teams. “A lot of

process of a new feature or application.

teams would go searching across the

Not only that, but the advancements

organization to figure out how to build

made to those resources through their

a particular experience, but there

reuse can then be used again in the

might be another group that’s already

future. It’s an incredibly organic pro-

tackled that challenge,” he says. With

cess, driving iterative, internal

the resources of that project being

collaboration that breaks down the

NOVEMBER 2019

“ We’re starting to truly recognize what it means to digitally transform, to collaborate and coordinate across the many teams and businesses TELUS operates” — Ryan Kardish Manager, Digital Platform Evolution TELUS Digital

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Steve Choi Steve leads the Data Products team at TELUS Digital, which is focused on building machine learning applications and reporting automation solutions within the digital ecosystem at TELUS. He is passionate about connecting data systems to generate new insights and drive incremental value.

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Building our customer’s business remains our primary focus.

Be it promoting their brands on stage, assisting their search for talent, providing them with essential digital marketing tools and service or celebrating their successes.

Congratulations to our friends on the digital marketing team at TELUS for their continued success.

#buildingourcustomersbusiness

“A lot of teams would go searching across the organization to figure out how to build a particular experience, but there might be another group that’s already tackled that challenge” — Steve Choi Manager, Data Products TELUS Digital

barriers that have traditionally limited team-based development cycles.

With the mantra ‘automate all the things’ being easy to spot on its website, it is no surprise that the expedition of the developmental groundwork for new applications at TELUS Digital is further accelerated by a robust automation strategy. Aside from the well-communicated benefits to businesses ranging from increased efficiency and accuracy to adding value to the daily tasks of staff, automation has also been deployed at TELUS Digital to gain a grip on ever-shifting customer trends. “As we look across the traditional channels at TELUS, specifically within our field tech and call

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Ryan Kardish Ryan is a passionate leader and intrapreneur, leading the evolution of TELUS’ award winning Digital Platform.

With a dedicated focus on delivering our customerfirst promise, he is driving forward our digital transformation mandate, and working hard so that anyone (customers and team members alike) can build a ‘Digital TELUS.’

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T E L U S D I G I TA L

PART N ERS Adobe “Adobe has been a key partner in our journey towards turning the data we collect into insights and action. They have evolved their solutions in ways that integrate well with the technologies we use. As a result, we’re able to deliver experiences that enable our customers and drive business value for our organization”

332

teve Choi, Manager, S Data Products

center experiences, what we’re starting to see is that both our customer and team member demands and preferences are changing quicker than ever before,” says Kardish. He adds that the challenge is mitigated by the shift towards chatbots, conversational interfaces such as smart speakers, unified agent desktops, and interactive voice response (IVR) tech which offer opportunities for accruing insight-rich data whilst necessitating a scalable NOVEMBER 2019

Red Hat “Our digital platform is hosted using OpenShift a Kubernetes orchestration platform by RedHat. OpenShift allows us to focus on delivering value to our customers while the infrastructure that supports and enables hundreds of applications is managed by RedHat. This relationship means that we don’t need to focus on managing, patching or scaling our infrastructure and we can focus on building great products.”

Aron Reid, Director, Technical Operations & Infrastructure

and reactive approach to their implementation in new offerings.

That being said, TELUS’ approach to data is not solely focused on current data accrued through its various customer-facing solutions. Through the cloud-based unification of different systems within the organization, TELUS Digital is unlocking the value of data that Choi says can even be decades old. “Historically, there’s always been a separation of what I consider operational data systems and analytical data systems; traditionally, the latter were second-class citizens,” explains Choi. “That was a practicality issue because, in the past, your compute and storage would be relatively expensive.

With cloud, that’s changed. We now have the ability to build intelligent systems and applications that really take advantage of data that we’ve had all along but never had the means to use effectively. The scale of data, the velocity of data, it’s always been there, but now we have the means to keep up with it.”

The key takeaway from TELUS’s transformation efforts, and indeed of the development of its staggeringly w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

333

T E L U S D I G I TA L

334

“As we look across the traditional channels at TELUS, specifically within our field tech and call center experiences, what we’re starting to see is that both our customer and team member demands and preferences are changing quicker than ever before” — Ryan Kardish Manager, Digital Platform Evolution TELUS Digital

NOVEMBER 2019

effective Digital Platform, is that unifying technology reaps dividends.

Across an organization as large and internally diversified as TELUS, the value of a platform that brings together the expertise and resources of each of them for the benefit of the company, its partners and customers cannot be overstated. “We’re starting to truly recognize what it means to digitally transform, to collaborate and coordinate across the many teams and businesses TELUS operates,” enthuses Kardish. “Recognizing that a lot of great work has been happening across the entire organization, taking the best of each world to create a set of solutions, best practices and standards that help define the guiding principles of how we can work and operate better as an organization, that’s when you get the big wins.”

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336

Inside WSP’s mission to bring digital integrity and smarter buildings to Canada’s property space WRITTEN BY

HARRY MENEAR PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY

NOVEMBER 2019

337

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WSP CANADA

Sharyn Gravelle, National Vice President, Telecom and Technology, and Terri Govang, Director of Technology for Western Canada for WSP talk IoT, 5G, cybersecurity and the future of smart property development

T

oday, more than half of humanity lives in cities. The United Nations predicts this proportion will rise to 68% by 2050,

adding 2.5 billion people to the world’s urban areas.

To promote successful coexistence within these 338

increasingly congested jungles of glass and steel, city planners and developers in the public and private sectors are increasingly turning towards cutting-edge technology for solutions.

“We’re standing at the dawn of another technological revolution, and keeping up with the speed of the coming change is key,” says Terri Govang, Director of Technology for Western Canada at WSP and an expert in smart building security systems.

Govang, who started her career as an electrician and progressed from roles in integration and manufacturing to design and consulting services, joined WSP in November 2018. With 60 years at the forefront of progress in the professional services space, WSP in Canada is now a leading supporter of the companies engineering our hyper-urbanized, interconnected, Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G-powered future.

NOVEMBER 2019

339

$1,053.6mn Approximate revenue

1959

Year founded

8,300

Approximate number of employees w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

WSP CANADA

CLICK TO WATCH : ‘WSP FUTURE READY’ 340

“At WSP, we have a Future Ready®

is reshaping the smart building space

program that offers our clients a clearer

and how WSP is positioning itself to

understanding of what the future will

lead and benefit from the coming

look like,” adds Sharyn Gravelle,

technological revolution.

National Vice President of Telecom and Technology at WSP in Canada.

CLOSE CLIENT PARTNERSHIPS

“We look at four different pillars: climate,

Commitment to continually improving

society, resources and technology.

the quality and effectiveness of

We strive to make our designs ready,

processes, by educating both her

both for current design codes and for

team and her clients, is at the heart

the future we envision. This is where

of Govang’s role.

we add value for our clients.”

Gravelle and Govang sat down with us to explore the ways in which technology NOVEMBER 2019

“The overall industry and the technology it employs has seen several changes over the last decade,

341

and I’ve personally worked with hundreds of clients to educate and support them through these transitions,” she explains.

“WSP has a long history of providing technology and telecom specialty services to an established client base.

We strive to understand our clients’ business. Before commencing any design, it’s crucial to sit with the client in conversation about how they envision their building operationally.”

Working closely to develop a clear

“ Ensuring end-to-end encryption between all devices is increasingly important. In fact, I’d say it’s crucial” — Terri Govang, Director of Technology for Western Canada, WSP

understanding of client expectations w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

WSP CANADA

342

for everything from aesthetics to

As technology evolves, the demands

core system functionality is a key

of the market do as well. “Clients are

differentiator for WSP.

more educated now than they’ve ever

“Our clients are competing to provide

been,” Govang explains. “They have a

elegant buildings, packed with ameni-

greater understanding of technology,

ties and world-class technology,” says

and these pioneers are ultimately

Govang. “Our focus is on offering the

seeking overall improvement in

kind of strategic advisory services that

building performance, operational

support design and project manage-

efficiencies, and improved user,

ment of enterprise security technolo-

employee and guest experiences.”

gies and programs, with an emphasis

Working with a team of seasoned

on intelligent infrastructure in high-

technology professionals, Govang is

performance buildings, digital adoption

at the heart of WSP’s efforts to both

and technological improvements.”

increase the interconnectedness and

NOVEMBER 2019

technological capabilities of its clients’

all over a building, campus or city, the

buildings, and ensure that those clients

vulnerability points for potential attack

remain safe in a rapidly-evolving threat

increase drastically, so ensuring

landscape. “With more devices being

end-to-end encryption between all

connected to your network, security

devices is increasingly important.

and integrity are often overlooked.

In fact, I’d say it’s crucial.”

With the digital era and the increasing adoption of IoT, yes, we can converge

A STRATEGIC IMPERATIVE

intelligence systems, capture analytics

Alongside the evolution of intelligent

and connect buildings across the city.

business systems, the need for

But as exciting as this may be, the

integrated security has grown, to

technological revolution has brought

the point where Govang argues it

with it a changing threat landscape,”

is no longer a technological issue,

she says. “If we disperse IoT devices

but a managerial and strategic one.

E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Sharyn Gravelle Sharyn Gravelle is the National Vice President of Telecom and Technology at WSP in Canada. She is a strategic leader with strong acumen and progressive career experience spanning over 30 years with start-ups and large corporations. Having begun her career as a Radio Frequency Design Engineer in 1988, Gravelle has held diverse roles shaping the wireless industry from early analog to the current 5G landscape and continues to help shape Canada’s telecom and technology infrastructure.

Over the last 6+ years, she has led a unified national team of 200 employees at WSP.

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WSP CANADA

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NOVEMBER 2019

“ We use technology to create open and secure spaces, improve the flow of traffic or people and deliver a more sustainable, reliable solution” — Terri Govang, Director of Technology for Western Canada, WSP

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Great minds think together.

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Axis Professional Services provides personalized advice and customized expertise to help you optimize existing surveillance systems and be able to meet the demands of tomorrow. There, when you need us.

Visit us at www.axis.com/professional-services-us or call us at 1 800 444 AXIS, option 1

In the past, Govang often encoun-

experience, reduce waste, reduce risk,

tered organizational tendencies to

increase compliance and drive efficiency

sacrifice technology and security

through new and emerging technologies.”

investment for the sake of perceived

The driving capability behind all

convenience and cost. Today, that

these improvements that WSP is

simply isn’t an option.

delivering is the ability to gather more

“Above all else, a smart building is

high-quality data than ever before.

a secure building,” she says. “We use

“It wasn’t long ago that cameras were

technology to create open and secure

used to capture general overviews,

spaces, improve the flow of traffic or

which helped deter and reactively

people and deliver a more sustainable,

review safety or security in spaces.

reliable solution. Clients want to

That’s all changed,” says Govang.

leverage their investments to create new use cases, improve the customer NOVEMBER 2019

Working alongside one of its partners, Axis Communications,

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E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE

Terri Govang As the Director of Technology for Western Canada at WSP, Terri Govang oversees the design, development and deployment of comprehensive security and technology systems and applications. Having begun as an industrial electrician, Govang has 13+ years of industry experience that she leverages to deliver modern and optimized approaches to security. She is an ASIS Certified Protection Professional (CPP ÂŽ), specializing in new construction and enterprise systems migration and upgrades. Her expertise is evidenced by her track record of mitigating risk, project planning and innovation.

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WSP CANADA

348

“ Above all else, a smart building is a secure building” — Terri Govang, Director of Technology for Western Canada, WSP NOVEMBER 2019

WSP is using IoT-enabled devices in order to provide its clients with better insights pulled from larger, more sensitive networks. Then, Big Data analytics allow WSP to draw actionable insights from that data.

“What’s great about this is that all Axis devices support the application platform, which enables developers to leverage a lot of device processing power, which helps edge-based analytics that enable the camera to do more than it ever could before,” enthuses Govang.

349

Looking to the future, both Govang

says Govang. “Gone are the days

and Gravelle see the capacity for smart

when technology and security were a

buildings to increase efficiency, security

nice-to-have extra option. Technology

and comfort as a key driver of the

has become the modern critical

digital evolution of urban environments.

infrastructure.”

“The market is evolving towards 5G and IoT — IoT being both massive IoT for large scale applications, and critical IoT for latency and other sensitive, niche applications,” says Gravelle.

And as with any major paradigm shift, this evolution has rendered old practices obsolete. “Change is certainly the one thing that is constant,” w w w.gi ga bi t ma ga z in e. com

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