Technology Magazine October 2020

DELIVERING A VALUABLE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

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Stumbling blocks in 2020

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WELCOME

W

elcome to the October issue

Our Top 10, meanwhile, involves us

of Technology magazine!

looking into the world’s most valuable

In this month’s cover feature, we speak to Suhas Uliyar, VP Digital Assistant, AI & Integration at Oracle.

T:297 mm

Uliyar offers his insights into how AI services are revolutionising the ways companies can interact with customers..

“What we did was build an AI-powered digital assistant,” says Uliyar.

“It’s essentially your one window

technology unicorns (startups worth over $1bn). While the number of tech unicorns continues to bloom, there is considerable difference in valuation among the top 10 - from the low tens of billions to almost $150bn.

Don’t forget to read our other features with the likes of Vitality, Lufthansa Cargo, Serverfarm, Green Datacenter, EEI Corporation and more.

through which you interact with

Do you have a story to tell? If you

all these other chatbots, which are

would like to be featured in an upcom-

subject matter experts, and which

ing issue of Technology magazine

know how to then connect to the

get in touch at

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william.smith@bizclikmedia.com

tions, you ask for a specific skill to do something right here. With us, it’s all implicit.”

Enjoy the issue!

William Smith

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PUBLISHED BY

PRODUCTION MANAGER

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Owen Martin

Lewis Vaughan

DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCERS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

William Smith EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

Scott Birch CREATIVE TEAM

Oscar Hathaway Erin Hancox Sophia Forte Sophie-Ann Pinnell Hector Penrose PRODUCTION DIRECTORS

Georgia Allen Daniela Kianickovรก

Kieran Waite Sam Kemp MARKETING DIRECTOR

Leigh Manning DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER

Shirin Sadr DIGITAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE

MEDIA SALES DIRECTOR

James White DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Jason Westgate CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER

Stacy Norman PRESIDENT & CEO

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Ryan Hall Ben Maltby Mike Sadr Kris Palmer t e c hn o l o g y m a g a z in e . c o m

CONTENTS

Delivering a Valuable Experience for Customers HOW CONVERSATIONAL AI IS TRANSFORMING CUSTOMER INTERACTION

28

10

40 5G:

A Bumpy Road for Communications Technology in 2020

50 HOW AI, IOT AND CLOUD ALLOW COMPANIES TO DO MORE WITH LESS

60 Why Automation Will Be Vital For Next Generation Video Games

70

88 Bell Canada

108 Lufthansa Cargo

126 156 Cerner Middle East Serverfarm

146 Green Datacenter AG

164

182

Henkel

EEI Corporation

10

OCTOBER 2020

Delivering a Valuable Experience for Customers WRITTEN BY

WILL GIRLING PRODUCED BY

JAKE MEGEARY

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

11

VITALITY

Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, explains why delivering value and a superlative customer experience remains Vitality’s core focus

I

n an insurance market beginning to take stock of the potential for digital transformation to improve the tradi-

tional business, Vitality is a shining example of a company approaching a centuries-old industry from a refreshing new angle. Founded in 2004, 12

the company’s enduring focus has been not only to provide first-class health and life cover but to actively improve the quality of its customers’ lives.

Summarising this approach as “good for them, good for us, good for society”, Vitality has even set the ambitious target of encouraging 100mn people to get 20% more active by 2025. Helping to explain how the company is achieving this and so many other impressive developments, Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, spoke with us on why driving value and a superior customer experience is so vital.

Priestley started with Vitality early on as a Sales Director for a joint project launched between South African company Discovery Ltd and Prudential PLC, one of the UK’s most established insurance companies. Now in his 16th year at Vitality - taking on the role of CDO in 2017 OCTOBER 2020

13

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

The world runs on software.

We make sure it works.

Perfectly.

Transform faster with automatic and intelligent observability.

Put our platform to work

Dynatrace: unlocking the science of operational performance Dave Anderson, Brand and Digital Evangelist, describes how Dynatrace can optimise company performance in an increasingly complex IT landscape A specialist in accelerating digital transformation, Dynatrace is a software solutions provider founded in 2005 and headquartered in Massachusetts.

“As cloud environments become more complex, the underlying software needs to work flawlessly,” says Dave Anderson, Brand and Digital Evangelist.

“Dynatrace provides intelligence into the performance of a company’s operations and critically applies a layer of AI to enable DevOps teams to work more efficiently.” The company facilitates this by enabling the fast comprehension of where performance issues in an environment are, either automatically or through direct investigation.

Recognising that digital transformation is no longer a choice but rather an inescapable and exponentially growing process, Anderson considers Dynatrace as essential providing its clients with “intelligence and confidence to ensure that these complex applications are working the way that they should.”

One of its partners in particular, insurance company Vitality, understands the value of Dynatrace’s technology and is taking it in exciting new directions.

“Vitality is a great client because it’s using our platform not just to understand their singular applications, but rather their entire digital experience.” After all, while insurance companies might be comparable in terms of products, it is by offering a superior customer experience that they

Dave Anderson @ Dynatrace

can truly differentiate and this is what Dynatrace helps them to achieve.

Stating that Vitality’s emphasis on insurance fused with incentive-based health and wellness resonates strongly with him personally, Anderson compliments the company for “really understanding how the performance of every system, API connection and call” factors into its success. It is by working closely with clients like Vitality that Dynatrace is able to determine how best to improve its own services, “Our culture is predicated on not settling for the status quo and continuing to innovate,” Anderson continues. “Dynatrace thrives on exactly the same transformation that our customers are undergoing.”

With a platform based on AI (artificial intelligence), one of the fastest growing enterprise technologies in the market, both in terms of adoption and development, Dynatrace’s proven services are likely to evolve concurrently, “You’re not going to see an end to the improvement of AI and automation.”

However, Anderson also acknowledges that an important portion of any digital transformation is actually strongly rooted in culture. “It’s not about tools or platforms,” he emphasises. “[Vitality] has a fantastic culture and that will allow them to continue to innovate. I’m really excited about what they’re going to do next.”

VITALITY

“ When I joined the company it was clear right away that Vitality had a very different proposition for health insurance” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

- Priestley says that what inspired him about the organisation was its aspiration to do something fundamentally different within insurance. “The industry had remained relatively unchanged for a long time,” he recalls. “It was an uninspiring marketplace with very similar product offerings. When I joined the company it was clear right away that Vitality had a very different proposition for health insurance.” That proposition was integrating insurance with wellness, something which he remarks has

16

started to scale exponentially since 2004. “Now, almost all of the players in the market have some kind of wellness component in their proposition.

However, at the time, I would say we were amongst the first to introduce it.”

More recently, the evolution of technology is another key development that Priestley has observed, specifically the ability to monitor peoples’ health remotely, conduct video consultations, utilise AI-powered diagnosis tools, symptom checkers and more. Far from being simply restricted to a GP surgery or hospital, modern healthcare can be brought directly to people’s homes and the OCTOBER 2020

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

Dave Priestley Title: Chief Digital Officer

Company: Vitality

Dave has worked within healthcare insurance for the last 24 years, where he has held a number of executive management positions with CIGNA Healthcare, PruHealth and now Vitality. Dave was a member of the executive management team which launched PruHealth in 2004. Over the last 14 years, Dave has played a key role in shaping the strategy from a start-up business to becoming established under the Vitality brand as the 4th largest player in the market with 10% market share.

Dave began his career as a pricing underwriter before moving into sales and distribution and was the Sales Director at CIGNA healthcare where he helped to grow the client portfolio to in excess of ÂŁ100M API and broaden the distribution strategy into new channels and markets such as sickness absence management and dental insurance.

Dave joined PruHealth to help launch the business and establish the distribution strategy and operations. After driving rapid new business growth, he assumed overall responsibility for distribution at Vitality following the acquisition of Standard Life Healthcare. More recently, Dave has assumed executive responsibility for digital acquisition and customer retention and is now Vitality’s Chief Digital Officer with responsibility for digital strategy and product management as well as the wider change portfolio.

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17

Future-Proofing Insurers by building Resilient and Adaptable operating model Through our innovative framework and methodologies, TCS has aligned to the evolving priorities of Insurers to help them stay lean, nimble and finding newer ways to create value and ensure they stay ahead in the market.

Learn more today

TCS is helping customers prepare for business 4.0 Vinay Singhvi, Business Unit Head of BFSI for the UK and Ireland, describes TCS’ commitment to helping clients navigate digital transformation Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a company that almost requires no introduction: one of the largest and most innovative companies in India with a global reach and almost 450,000 employees, it is a true leader in IT and consulting services. “TCS is one of the world’s largest and most recognised brands in its field. Our focus has always been to help customers drive their growth and transformation journeys,” states Vinay Singhvi, Business Unit Head of BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) for the UK and Ireland.

“The way we work is primarily about keeping

Vinay Singhvi @ TCS

started what has become more than a 10-year partnership with the brand, which now, according to Singhvi, “has got one of the best brand recalls within the UK market.” Furthermore, their close integration goes beyond a simple supplier-client relationship, as Singhvi describes, “We do not see ourselves as separate from Vitality. It’s about us working together to understand and implement their strategy and help them in achieving their purpose. Our teams that work as part of Vitality see themselves as more Vitality than TCS, that’s how deeply integrated they are.”

customers at the centre and planning everything around them to ensure we are aligned to both their strategy and their business goals,” he

A strong believer in preparing for the next generation of digitally-inflected business (business 4.0), TCS is prioritising a three pillar

explains. Fundamentally, TCS champions an

framework for its customers to help them lead in

approach that is cutting-edge without sacrificing the human touch, something that Singhvi considers will only become more important as

the new normal based on ‘purpose-centricity’, ‘building resilience’ and ‘being adaptable.’” Singhvi also details the company’s ‘25 by 25’ vision: “25

technology keeps evolving. “It’s not about

by 25 illustrates that, in our view, by the year

machines replacing humans; it’s about the augmentation that needs to happen and how

2025, all our systems and ways of working will be aligned, so that only 25% of TCS workforce will

hyperautomation and AI (artificial intelligence)

work out of TCS facilities at any time. In this

will enrich the entire human experience.”

regard, we are very excited that TCS is taking a leadership position on new ways of working, not just in the UK but globally.

Recognising early on that Vitality’s incentivebased health and wellness insurance platform held revolutionary potential for the industry, TCS

VITALITY

insurance industry has followed suit.

are consolidated into one easy-to-

The balance in incorporating these

manage platform for customers.

exciting new possibilities at Vitality,

20

Digital transformation has not been

he continues, lies in the unification

without its challenges; established five

of its digital and overall business

years before the ‘digital native’ era of

strategies. “It’s less about delivering a

businesses, Vitality initially began at

digital strategy in isolation and more

a disadvantage but quickly recovered:

about considering how the digital

“We were established on a more tra-

team can support the company in

ditional technology model with legacy

achieving its goals.” One of the sig-

systems in place,” Priestley states.

nificant journeys that this mindset has

“One of our most important challenges

led to is the creation of “one Vitality

has been reconciling our culture with

experience”, wherein health insur-

the digital world.” Investing time and

ance and life insurance investments

resources in building trust amongst its

OCTOBER 2020

Vitality - Digital Strategy CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:42

21 stakeholders by hiring teams of digital

implement relatively small changes

specialists to help accelerate trans-

in the experience,” he says.

formation, Vitality has succeeded in

One of Vitality’s core innovations

marrying tech advances with its core

is its member’s app. Available on both

purpose: making people healthier. The

iOS and Android, Priestley claims that

company’s new Advisor Hub, utilising

the app “really gets to the heart of

microservices instead of monolithic

what’s different about Vitality from tra-

alternatives, is a prime example of

ditional insurance products.” Serving

the new agility and efficiency being

as the company’s primary interface

unlocked. “Our strategy is aimed at

with its customers, policyholders are

breaking up those back end legacy

able to link their other health track-

systems into multiple components.

ing apps, Fitbits, Garmins, Apple

This allows us to iterate rapidly on the

Watches and other IoT (internet of

front end at lower cost by not needing

things) devices to it. The app then

to return to the back end in order to

converts physical activity data into t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

VITALITY

“ It’s less about delivering a digital strategy in isolation and more about considering how the digital team can support the company in achieving its goals” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

would not have been able to implement such a rewarding programme without the help of its many suppliers and partners. One partner, Tata Consulting Services (TCS), has been instrumental in helping Vitality deliver its new services. Based in Mumbai, India, TCS is a multinational IT and consulting company with a truly global reach of 149 locations spread across 46 countries.

22

‘Vitality Points’ and provides access to

Regarding Vitality’s special relationship

incentive-based rewards when they

with TCS, Priestley had this to say: “We

achieve certain point-based targets.

don’t have the scale as a business to

“The app will show how your points are

be efficient at some of the technical

accumulating and what rewards you’ve unlocked. We’re increasingly building more and more reward fulfillment into that interface,” he explains. For example, if a customer earned a certain amount of ‘Vitality Points’ for working out a pre-set number of times per week, they would be entitled to a free coffee, movie download or more. “It also holds your policy information,” continues Priestley. “If for any reason you need to quickly access your policy details, renewal day or something else, it’s all in there.”

Conceiving such an innovative way of encouraging people to stay healthy and active is impressive, but Vitality OCTOBER 2020

D I D Y O U K N O W?

Vitality has announced that Coronavirus (COVID-19) tests will be available to its health members as of 29 July 2020. The test will be able to accurately tell whether a patient has the virus currently or ever did in the past.

All tests will be provided though its partnership with DocTap, a face-to-face GP provider. “DocTap are proud to be working with Vitality in the fight against COVID-19. Our ambition is to provide the most accurate, convenient, affordable and fastest COVID-19 tests on the market, backed up by our outstanding team of doctors,� said Dan Faber, founder of DocTap.

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

23

VITALITY

Vitality - Challenges CLICK TO WATCH

24

OCTOBER 2020

|

4:54

“ Philosophically, Vitality focuses on the outcome we’re looking for and then works out what technology solution would be best” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

delivery skills necessary; we’ve found it far easier to find a partner to supply those skills. TCS is a partner that really understands our business: Vitality’s fast and dynamic culture is different to other insurance companies. TCS realises this and that’s allowed it to embed within our teams; we don’t call on it simply when we’ve got a big project; TCS helps us to continually improve our customers’ experience across the board.”

Vitality’s commitment to providing its customers with the stellar level of service it has become known for was thoroughly tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our number one priority was the welfare of our staff,” Priestley declares, “but we also had to make sure that they could still deliver first-class service to our members.” Mobilising its IT operations department to quickly find a workable solution, he reports that the company managed to accommodate its full complement of staff (1,500) with remote working capabilities within a period of approximately 10 days, a significant logistical achievement. In parallel, Vitality rapidly innovated its customer proposition by adding a new category of benefits under the banner t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

25

VITALITY

“ If you just concentrate on trying to deliver value for your customers and creating an exceptional experience, more often than not, you’re going to do the right thing” — Dave Priestley, Chief Digital Officer, Vitality

users. “Philosophically, Vitality focuses on the outcome we’re looking for and then works out what technology solution would be best.” Not allowing the technology itself to guide his approach, Priestley says that the current applications of blockchain would not benefit the company’s customers at this time, although explorations of AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) had revealed their potential for ‘proactive servicing’. “You can then

26

of ‘Vitality at home’. This involved nego-

reach out to customers and ask, ‘How

tiating commercial arrangements to

can we help?’ We’re also using ML

provide members with discounts linked

models to power personalisation in the

to physical activity and integrating with

experience, as well as RPA (robotic

these partners so that a fully digital end

process automation) to speed up

to end experience was up and running

admin and allow our staff to focus on

within three weeks of lockdown starting.

value-adding work instead.”

“That was a big success for us; we

Although 2020 has been a cata-

were still able to provide comprehen-

lyst year for change across so many

sive wellness benefits to our members

aspects of life globally, Vitality retains

by capitalising on our cultural assets.”

the same level of commitment to

In many ways the achievement encap-

making people healthier that it always

sulated the thoroughness of Vitality’s

has. There can be no mistake: the

strategy and demonstrated its adept

insurance industry is changing, with

digital skills. It also demonstrates

or without COVID-19, but the desire

Priestley’s insistence that any tech

for digital transformation which

innovation introduced has a functional

the pandemic’s restrictions have

purpose in delivering quality service to

introduced is here to stay. “Things

OCTOBER 2020

Vitality - AI + Robotics CLICK TO WATCH

|

4:51

27

will be different to how they were,”

to achieve their goals. That’s

says Priestley. “For Vitality, that’s a

what keeps Vitality so grounded.”

good thing because we’ve always

Ultimately, Vitality demonstrates

thrived on evolution.” When asked to

that an insurance company’s worth

summarise what has enabled him to

is derived from its ability to improve

spearhead such a successful digital-

the quality of its customers’ lives and

business strategy, he emphasises

devoting itself wholeheartedly to

that customer-centricity is always at

that goal. “If you just concentrate on

the forefront of his mind and always

trying to deliver value for your cus-

yields the best results. “People

tomers and creating an exceptional

always show a lot of interest in talk-

experience, more often than not,

ing about particular technologies,

you’re going to do the right thing.”

but what’s more important is focusing on how to support customers t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

28

HOW CONVERSATIONAL AI IS TRANSFORMING CUSTOMER INTERACTION WRITTEN BY

OCTOBER 2020

WILLIAM SMITH

29

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

We speak to Suhas Uliyar, VP Digital Assistant, AI & Integration at Oracle, who reveals how it helps companies use AI to empower customers and employees

S

uhas Uliyar is VP Digital Assistant, AI & Integration at Oracle. His passion for AI

was born out of a history of working with

mobile technologies stretching back to the 1990s.

“I became fixated with the customer experience and digital experiences. That led me to start my 30

own startup around mobile technologies, building up a mobile platform that allowed developers to build good mobile experiences,” he says. As mobile technologies evolved with the advent of the iPhone, the digital experiences they enabled led to what Uliyar describes as his first foray into AI with predictive analytics, before joining Oracle in 2013 to drive its mobile strategy.

With customers so used to interacting via mobile phone technologies such as SMS or WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, Oracle identified an opportunity to use natural language processing to allow users to converse naturally with AI chat bots. “We quickly pivoted over to the chatbot world,” says Uliyar. “We used natural language processing to automate things like customer services, building the chatbot platform from scratch.”

OCTOBER 2020

31

Uliyar emphasises the fact that Oracle has four pillars that guide its AI approach, including building, training and managing machine learning models on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, adaptive intelligence applications with out of the box AI capabilities, and building machine learning into the product it’s best known for: its database. Uliyar’s division constitutes the fourth, which is focused on AI services. te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Redefine customer relationships with artificial intelligence Get actionable insights and deliver highly personalized engagement using an AI-powered CRM.

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D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

Oracle Digital Assistant CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:54

33

AI services involve facilitating the addition of AI capabilities to applications, without having to start from scratch. Conversational services are among the most popular, such as adding speech recognition capabilities, as well as computer vision solutions for image recognition.

“There’s a whole bunch of these AI services,” says Uliyar. “For example, a conversational AI is what we use for our digital assistant and chatbots. Our technologies are used by

“ We are able to handle a lot of domainor customerspecific vocabulary” — Suhas Uliyar, VP Digital Assistant, AI & Integration, Oracle

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

developers who want to do things

ask questions with complex terminol-

like text classification, entity recog-

ogy, such as EBITDA, they break down.

nition, or aspect-based sentiment

A lot of enterprises have their own very

analysis and so on.”

domain-specific vocabulary. With AI,

One concrete example of its utility, applicable to most companies,

those language models, without our

comes in expense automation. “What

direct involvement.”

you want to be able to do to your

The ‘Digital Assistant’ component of

expenses receipt is take a picture and

Uliyar’s title is one that will be familiar

then apply optical character recogni-

to most of us, having as we do such

tion (OCR) to it,” says Uliyar. “Then, once they’re recognised, you want to be able to automatically label them 34

we’re able to let our customers train

- that’s the name of the restaurant I went to, this is the tip amount, etcetera. Being able to use AI to recognise those things is crucial, and that can also be used for invoicing, for example, or bills of lading.”

One of the ways Oracle differentiates itself from competitors is by considering the use cases of enterprise customers. “One really unique thing about our speech model, for example, is that we are able to handle a lot of domain- or customer-specific vocabulary,” says Uliyar. “If you look at some of the speech providers today, like Siri, Google or Amazon, they do a great job in open domains. But, if you OCTOBER 2020

“ We’re looking at [...] tools that assist the knowledge worker by removing repetitive, replicable and routine tasks” — Suhas Uliyar, VP Digital Assistant, AI & Integration, Oracle

35 technologies embedded into our phones and other smart devices.

Oracle’s exploration of the technology started as an amalgamation of a large number of chatbots that had been specifically designed to excel in one area. The issue was that a company’s needs often evolved, and it was difficult to select the right one for the job.

“What we did was build an AI-powered digital assistant,” says Uliyar. “It’s essentially your one window through which you interact with all these other chatbots, which are te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

O R A C L E D I G I TA L A S S I S TA N T

36

Oracle’s says its Digital Assistant features:

•O pen platform for third-party applications

• Prebuilt digital assistant skills

• Built-in bot analytics

•O racle voice with multilanguage capabilities

•O ne digital assistant for all your applications

• Simplified no-code development

“ With other solutions, you ask for a specific skill to do something right here. With us, it’s all implicit” — Suhas Uliyar, VP Digital Assistant, AI & Integration, Oracle

OCTOBER 2020

subject matter experts, and which know how to then connect to the system of record. With other solutions, you ask for a specific skill to do something right here. With us, it’s all implicit. One day you might ask about your paycheck, another about your vacation balance and the digital assistant is smart enough to route your question to the relevant bot.” With this focus on natural language, it was equally vital for the assistant to be able to comprehend the tangential and nonsequitur-laden ways in which human

37

beings speak and think. Consequently,

the cost of support has gone down

the assistant is designed to recognise

significantly. We are able to deflect 50

context, and figure out precisely what

to 60% of the calls to be handled by the

area is being talked about.

digital assistant, as opposed to going to

Companies are using Oracle’s AI

a human.” Uliyar stresses that any esca-

technologies in many and varied ways,

lations go to a human agent to avoid a

with particular demand for customer

frustrating experience. That same tech-

service and support. Customers

nology is also being put to use inside

include delivery firm Hermes Group

organisations, a particularly invaluable

which has partnered with Oracle for

service in the age of COVID-19, where IT

over two and a half years. “The net

departments are pressured to support

promoter score (NPS) has really gone

geographically scattered employees.

up from the customer perspective, and from the enterprise perspective,

Uliyar sees the future of Oracle’s AI platform as allowing its customers te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

D I G I TA L T R A N S F O R M AT I O N

38

OCTOBER 2020

GARTNER

Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of whitecollar workers will interact with conversational platforms daily

access to truly intelligent process automation, rather than the more naive robotic technologies that involve screen scraping and emulated mouse movements. “We’re looking at a suite of business process improvements and tools that assist the knowledge worker by removing repetitive, replicable and routine tasks - for example recommending the next best action. An AI that’s able to look at how you’ve done things and provide recommendations and forecasting - ‘If you continue down this path you’re going to have this problem’.”

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

39

CLOUD & CYBER

5G: 40

A Bumpy Road for Communications Technology in 2020 WRITTEN BY

OCTOBER 2020

WILLIAM SMITH

41

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

CLOUD & CYBER

We explore the ramifications of Huawei being banned from many national 5G networks and the companies stepping up to take its place

A

s 2020 was beginning, 5G was undoubtedly one of the hottest tech trends for the

year ahead - at least it was, before the

advent of COVID-19 and the associated disruption it has caused.

In November 2019, we were at Web Summit, one

42

of the largest technology conferences, where we heard the chairman of Chinese technology firm Huawei, Guo Ping, discuss the technology. Guo’s talk focused on Huawei’s idea of 5G+X. “This ‘X’ can be AI, Big Data, VR or AR, among other technologies,” he said. “I believe that in the future, 5G+X will create countless opportunities for entrepreneurs,” he went on to say, comparing the potential of the technology to the introduction of electricity.

“The rollout of 5G commercial networks is occurring more [quickly] than expected. As of now, 40 carriers in over 20 countries are using 5G networks commercially.”

A raft of existing use cases of 5G technology were given by Guo, including musicians being able to remain in time while playing together over the internet, owing to real-time, low-latency OCTOBER 2020

43

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Active Transformation with Atos

As one of the largest bottlers of The Coca-Cola Company, active transformation is key to sustainability and success for Coca-Cola HBC. With Atos as their digital transformation partner, they are writing the future for soft drinks distribution.

• Connected coolers engage personally with customers • Data analytics deliver insights and continuously optimize CCHBC’s business model • Comprehensive SAP and cloud-based solutions ensure secure and agile operation • End-to-end application services drive innovation Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with approximately 120,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of around € 13 billion.

CLOUD & CYBER

5G at SAP: Frank Wilde talks to Business Chief CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:25

45 communication, as well as reducing

critical infrastructure, a number of

the need to inspect pipelines in per-

countries have decided to ban Huawei

son, thanks to high definition video

from 5G networking. The UK originally

streaming from remote locations. “The

decided in January to allow Huawei

applications and software built on top of [5G] is what generates value. [...]

Huawei has been working with carriers to create a foundation so app and software developers can fully unleash their potential,” he said.

It’s fair to say that since then, Huawei’s 5G pitch has become much more controversial. Spearheaded by US government concerns about its

IDC IDC’s forecast for 5G connections: •10.0 million in 2019 • 1.01 billion in 2023 • 5G will represent 8.9% of all mobile device connections in 2023

allies using Chinese technology for te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

CLOUD & CYBER

technology into non “core” elements of its 5G network. In July, however, the UK reversed this decision, saying that all Huawei technology was to be removed by 2027 at the latest.

The issue is that Huawei is one of the few companies capable of delivering the advanced technology, and banning it has set efforts to bring 5G networks to market back significantly.

In the space left by the banning of Huawei, Western companies are racing to fill the gap. Take Ericsson, for instance, 46

which in July delivered its first ever 5G base station manufactured in the US to telecommunications giant Verizon.

What’s remarkable is that, despite many years of development, and astronomical levels of hype, 5G is still

GARTNER Gartner’s predictions for 5G-enabled phone market share: • 12% in 2020 • 43% in 2022 • Over 50% by 2023

OCTOBER 2020

5G is still far from commonplace, restricted only to the most premium of handsets

far from commonplace, restricted only to the most premium of handsets.

At the time of writing, Apple is yet to release any phone with 5G capabilities, although the launch of such products is expected within the year.

The technology’s promise remains huge, across every sector you care to mention. Telecommunications industry body GSMA produced a white paper on the subject, in collaboration with Ericsson and others, detailing the potential benefits to IoT provided by the next generation of communications technology: “Mobile IoT delivers connectivity on a massive scale today and will continue to do so in the 5G future enabling key IoT applications such as smart metering to help reduce energy consumption, smart logistics to enhance distribution efficiency and smart environmental monitoring to reduce city pollution.”

It’s not just business use cases in the spotlight, with consumers also in line to benefit from 5G. Frank Wilde, Vice President of software giant SAP’s Global Center of Excellence, previously explained to us the consumer possibilities of 5G as part of his role in te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

47

CLOUD & CYBER

48

“ 5G adoption [...] represents a fundamental shift in thinking, moving from a hardware driven network into a software defined one” — Frank Wilde, Vice President Global Center of Excellence, SAP OCTOBER 2020

advising SAP’s clients on the benefits of 5G transformation. “5G adoption is not just for the sake of new technology but represents a fundamental shift in thinking, moving from a hardware driven network into a software defined one,” he said. “Look at how fast Tesla, Uber and Airbnb came to life. We’re seeing an ever increasing speed of testing new business models.”

Even as 5G is yet to properly emerge, companies and nations are

49

already laying out the technologies

commercialisation of a new generation

that will power the sixth generation of

of communications technology.”

wireless communications technolo-

Samsung expects 6G to be com-

gies. Samsung, for instance, released

mercialisable even as early as 2028,

a 6G white paper, with Sunghyun Choi,

with potential features being a peak

the company’s Head of the Advanced

data rate of 1 terabit per second (50

Communications Research Center,

times 5G) and air latency of less than

saying: “While 5G commercializa-

100 microseconds (a tenth of 5G

tion is still in its initial stage, it’s never

latency). Despite the controversy that

too early to start preparing for 6G

5G is currently causing, then, telecom-

because it typically takes around 10

munications standards are marching

years from the start of research to

on - to the benefit of us all. te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

IT PROCUREMENT

50

HOW AI, IOT AND CLOUD ALLOW COMPANIES TO DO MORE WITH LESS WRITTEN BY

OCTOBER 2020

WILLIAM SMITH

51

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

IT PROCUREMENT

A closer look at the technologies facilitating efficiencies and cost optimisation at a time where it is more necessary than ever

E

fficiency is prized by every organisation. Long before agile methodologies such as Kanban became commonplace, humans have strived to

eke out more from what they put in, whether that’s

James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine or the innovation of the assembly line by Henry Ford 52

and others before him.

In the modern age, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the cloud are at the bleeding edge of cost optimisation.

Take robotic process automation (RPA), for instance, a technology which blurs the line between the human and the purely automated by allowing robots to interact directly with the kinds of graphical user interfaces used by people.

Robots may be trained by watching and recreating a human teacher’s inputs, and then improve themselves in terms of speed and reliability. The RPA market is duly in the ascendancy - according to Gartner, it grew by 63.1% in 2018 (the latest year for which figures were available), reaching around US$846mn in revenue.

OCTOBER 2020

53 D E L O I T T E ’ S R AT I O N A L E FOR COST REDUCTION:

• Improve financial results including cash flow and profit • Respond to negative macroeconomic and market changes, reduce business marginality • Implement cost leadership strategy • Prepare the company for significant changes • Prepare and launch a system for continuous improvement

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

Spark innovation with Data Culture Learn how top companies develop people and process to succeed in the data era.

Organizations are investing trillions of dollars to become more data-driven, but only 8% successfully scale analytics to get value out of their data. What separates the top performers from the rest?

Learn more at tableau.com/data-culture Bisson, Peter, Bryce Hall, Brian McCarthy, and Khaled Rifai. “Breaking Away: The Secrets to Scaling Analytics.” McKinsey Analytics. McKinsey & Company, May 2018.

We help people see and understand data. Learn how at tableau.com. © 2020 Tableau Software, Inc.

C A M PA I G N H E A D E R

“ The much touted ‘new normal’ will require leaner businesses that can do more with less” 55 We previously spoke to one of the

anything but building their products,

leaders in the RPA space in the form

serving their customers, and reinvent-

of UiPath, which this July closed a

ing the world. These are the attributes

$225mn Series E funding round. Gavin

that are so attractive for companies

Jackson, Senior Vice President and

that have been around for a long

Managing Director EMEA told us about

period of time.”

why the technology was getting such

While naive RPA has traditionally

attention: “Most large enterprises are

been the focus, increasingly com-

looking at a digital transformation

panies are turning to versions of this

journey and looking to build a set of

technology upgraded through the use

attributes that are very specific - the

of machine learning and AI. These

attributes of what you might consider

solutions go by a number of names

to be a digital native, or startup, tech

such as Intelligent Automation or

company. Startups loathe waste.

Intelligent Process Automation. Take

They loathe any kind of time spent on

Cognizant’s offering, for example, te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

IT PROCUREMENT

CLOUD PROVIDER AW S ’ D E D I C AT E D C O S T O P T I M I S AT I O N F E AT U R E S I N C L U D E :

• Cost Explorer – See patterns in spend over time, project future costs, identify areas that need further inquiry, observe Reserved Instance utilization, observe utilisation and coverage, and receive recommendations.

56

• AWS Trusted Advisor – Get real-time identification of potential areas for optimisation.

• Cost Optimization Monitor – Automatically process detailed billing reports to get granular metrics that can be searched, analysed, and visualised in a customisable dashboard.

OCTOBER 2020

which identifies automation potential in tasks across the business operation thanks to machine learningaugmented RPA. Cognizant offers so-called ‘Robotics-as-a-Service’ systems which can free human workers up to pursue less menial tasks. By 2025, McKinsey predicts automation technologies, of which IPA forms a part, could have a gargantuan financial impact of around $6.7trn.

Cloud is another avenue for cutting costs while simultaneously adding capability. It is a well-worn adage that cloud computing enables companies to trade capital expenditure (capex) for operational expenditure (opex).

Instead of owning the hardware and operating the hardware themselves, ever more companies are relying on paying for the use of remote servers which either run proprietary software, in the private cloud model, or give access to third-party software in the case of public cloud. Often a hybrid cloud approach is taken, which can mean the jump from legacy systems is less traumatic.

According to a study from consultants Accenture, the benefits of te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

57

IT PROCUREMENT

utilising the cloud include not just cost savings from lower infrastructure and storage costs, but better utilisation of data and the easier introduction of complementary technologies such as big data, machine learning and IoT. On that last point, it is not only software which can achieve greater efficiencies. While the kinds of connected hardware sensors that make up the internet of things are often considered only in a manufacturing setting, they can also have a huge impact on the spaces 58

in which we live and work - to the benefit of both the comfort of workers and the bottom line of companies.

“ Large enterprises are [...] looking to build a set of attributes that are very specific — the attributes of what you might consider to be a digital native, or startup, tech company” — Gavin Jackson, Senior Vice President and Managing Director EMEA, UiPath OCTOBER 2020

We previously spoke to Ahmad Farrakh Manzoor, then Head of Siemens Smart Infrastructure, who addressed exactly this point: “When we put AI in buildings, we no longer need to tell them we’re feeling too hot. The building can sense your comfort. It can sense the outside temperature, it can sense whether there is a sand storm, if there is rain coming, if the humidity is too high or too low and then, using those analytics and those sensors, it can adjust the environment in the building. Similarly, we have

59

solutions for power resilience. Now

extras as places of work try to attract

every building could be a power plant.”

employees back.

Of course, such measures have

It’s clear, then, that efficiency and

taken on an even greater importance

cost reduction has taken on a whole

thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pan-

new relevancy owing to the strange

demic. Smart office solutions involve,

times in which we live. The much

for instance, filtration systems that

touted ‘new normal’ will require leaner

can kill contaminants, IoT sensors that

businesses that can do more with less,

can establish density and occupancy,

and it is only with the assistance of

and even AI-enabled thermal cameras

emerging technologies that this can

to detect elevated skin temperatures.

be achieved.

Such technologies are set to become must-haves rather than optional te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

60

Why Automation Will Be Vital For Next Generation Video Games WRITTEN BY

OCTOBER 2020

WILLIAM SMITH

61

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

We take a look at the cloud and AI automation technologies making the incoming next generation of video games a reality

A

utomation is having an increasingly transformative effect on our lives, from robotic process automation in the workplace to

AI assistants in our phones to automated driving

62

features in our cars. It’s no surprise, then, that automation technologies are set to also leave their mark on the next generation of video game consoles.

With the two big beasts Sony and Microsoft scheduled to release the latest versions of their PlayStation and Xbox video game consoles by the end of the year, both are looking to use automation to add value to their respective offerings.

That’s partly enabled by the increased power the consoles now have.

In just one example, Sony has filed patents for dynamic sound creation, using machine learning to combine different musical components into music that fits the tone of the game at any particular moment. Microsoft, meanwhile, is including machine learning algorithms to generate high dynamic range (HDR) content from SDR content.

OCTOBER 2020

Image © Playstation.com

“Artificial intelligence is filling in the gaps from limited input data, achieving stunning results” Stefan Habenschuss.

Head of the Machine Learning Group, Blackshark.ai Image © Microsoft

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

63

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

Microsoft Flight Simulator Pre-Order Launch Trailer CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:49

65 Beyond the consoles, automation is

Achieving that level of detail across

increasingly being brought in to aug-

the entire globe, as the latest edition

ment and assist in the development of

does, should be well beyond the efforts

games themselves.

of any game studio - no matter how

One such example of this is the latest

large - were it not for the deployment

entry in Microsoft’s long-running Flight

of AI to fill in the gaps. Asobo Studios,

Simulator series, the first entry of which

the game’s developers, have duly

debuted in 1982. Comparing that first

partnered with a number of technology

edition to the latest, the leap in fidelity

providers within and without publisher

achieved in the intervening 40-year

Microsoft’s umbrella.

period is obvious. Gone are the blocky

Austrian tech company Blackshark.

lines and solid colours, replaced by a

ai’s contribution came in the form

virtual representation of reality perfectly

of using AI to extract infrastructure

capable of fooling people into believing

information from satellite imagery, in

it is real (save for the occasional glitch).

order to construct a digital twin of the te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

D I G I TA L T W I N S

planet’s buildings. Digital twin tech-

According to Deloitte:

nology is most-often deployed in an industrial or construction setting, rather than the traditionally more bespoke practice of game development, transferring physical environments into more digestible digital versions.

We’ve previously spoken to PGS Software, a provider of digital twin software, who explained to us what the technology involves. “A digital twin is just a visual replica of a physical object or process or product, and it’s usually 66

updated in real time in order to match reality,” said Maciej Mazur, Chief Data Scientist. “This is, in my opinion, the best way to connect the physical world with the digital realm. Thanks to the fact that you can have digital twins at different levels, from a single sensor to a machine, you can make the whole production line one big digital twin composed of the smaller levels. There’s a lot of freedom to emulate and use machine learning algorithms to improve production.”

In a video, the company described the challenge of extending the photogrammetric coverage of the world’s buildings, vegetation and infrastructure from 0.2% to 100%. “Blackshark.ai has OCTOBER 2020

• The digital twin market will be worth $16bn by 2023 •

Digital twins are most popular in “asset-heavy” sectors such as the oil and gas, aerospace and automotive industries

• Outside of industry, digital twins are increasingly popular for retail, healthcare and smart city purposes

implemented a unique solution that

the course of the last three years

uses the Microsoft Azure Cloud and

we’ve reconstructed approximately 1.5

artificial intelligence to gain insights

billion buildings and detected over 30

about our planet. Based on Bing Maps

million square kilometers of vegetation.

imagery data, a deep learning neural

This just proves the scalability and per-

network segments and classifies

formance of the technology we used.

buildings, vegetation and roads glob-

Artificial intelligence is filling in the

ally. A patented approach is used to

gaps from limited input data, achiev-

reconstruct detected building attrib-

ing stunning results that indeed make

utes in highly detailed 3D.”

the player feel like they’re flying over

Stefan Habenschuss. Head of the Machine Learning Group, added: “Over

the real world. While building footprints, height type and rooftops are 67

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A I & D ATA A N A LY T I C S

Automation is increasingly being brought in to augment and assist in the development of games

68

being segmented by a neural network

has previously suggested that their

with high accuracy, additional attributes

greatest rivals in the gaming space

such as facade features are added

are no longer Sony and Nintendo, but

automatically based on geographical

other big tech firms with the capacity

and contextual data.�

to match their endeavours.

While the gaming industry is

It makes sense, then, that Microsoft

expected to be worth $300bn by

is also bringing its cloud expertise to

2025, the largest tech companies

bear on the game. As well as using

are increasingly investigating the

AI, Microsoft Flight Simulator relies

space, using their technical clout

on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform,

to introduce new solutions such as

into which algorithms and data were

this form of automation. Microsoft

fed to create a 2.5-petabyte model

OCTOBER 2020

69

including 2 trillion trees, 1.5 billion

extends, from console manufacturers

buildings and 117 million lakes. With no

to video game developers, emerging

chance of such a vast volume of data

technologies are filling in the gaps.

being stored locally, the game instead

From cloud systems processing

relies on streaming it in to players on

volumes of data infeasible in a home

the fly. Competitors such as Google

setting, to AI generating ever more

have also levied their cloud comput-

impressive facsimiles of reality, the

ing power, albeit in Google’s case

future is automated.

it was for the streaming of games entirely via its Stadia platform.

As the ambition of those in the video game industry continually te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

70

OCTOBER 2020

71

We take a closer look at the 10 highest valued tech unicorns (startups worth over $1bn), as ranked by CBInsights WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

2013 YEAR FOUNDED

$16bn VALUATION

CEO TONY XU

72

10

DoorDash

[ SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA ]

Food delivery has only become more important thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures that have ensued. DoorDash is one such solution in the United States, and also operates in Canada and Australia. Founded by a number of Stanford students, the company’s latest Series H fundraising round saw it raise $400mn from lead investor Durable Capital Partners and others.

OCTOBER 2020

09

One97 Communications

[ NOIDA, INDIA ]

One97 Communications is the owner of financial services company Paytm. Operating across multiple sectors, incorporating bill payment, travel booking and mobile recharges, Paytm Caters to the Indian market. Its payment system allows merchants to offer customers the simple payment option of scanning a QR code with their phones to pay, from sources such as bank accounts, pre-paid cards and digital credit. According to the latest data, its valuation ties it with the tenth entry on our list.

73

2000 YEAR FOUNDED

$16bn VALUATION

CEO

VIJAY SHEKHAR SHARMA

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

We lead so you can thrive Now is not the time to wonder about your security.

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T O P 10

1991 YEAR FOUNDED

$17.3bn VALUATION

CEO

TIM SWEENEY

75

08

Epic Games

[ CARY, NORTH CAROLINA ]

Epic Games is a video game developer and publisher, and the maker of hit video game Fortnite Battle Royale. One of the game’s biggest draws is its social features, with Epic Games keen to highlight the game as a kind of platform. That approach has resulted in live events that change the game world which are witnessable by players in game. The company recently announced a $1.78bn funding round from investors including Baillie Gifford, BlackRock, Sony, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and more.

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

2011 YEAR FOUNDED

$18bn VALUATION

CEO SU HUA

76

07

Kuaishou

[ BEIJING, CHINA ]

Perhaps the least well known entrant on this list owing to its confinement to China and a select few other Asian countries, Kuaishou is the main competitor to an entrant appearing deeper inside this list: TikTok. Allowing for video sharing, Kuaishou was recently banned in India after cross border tensions. Its $18bn valuation ties it with our next company

OCTOBER 2020

06

Airbnb

[ SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA ]

It’s fair to say that, alongside the likes of Uber, online rental platform airbnb has been in the vanguard of the public’s introduction to disruptive technological solutions to old industries. Founded in 2008 in the US, the company now has a presence worldwide, allowing property owners to rent out their holdings. The company has recently restricted under-25s from renting homes in the UK, France and Spain to reduce the occurrence of unauthorised parties during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

2008

YEAR FOUNDED

$18bn VALUATION

CEO

BRIAN CHESKY

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

77

Driving insurers

digital future into a

At Cognizant, we’ve invested in the end-to-end capabilities needed to help insurance organizations not just do digital, but be digital. We partner with our clients to unlock new value and through the power of digital technologies and new ways of working, we help them evolve into more competitive, progressive versions of themselves.

Learn more at Cognizant.com

Copyright Š 2019 Cognizant

T O P 10

2003 YEAR FOUNDED

$20bn VALUATION

CEO

ALEX KARP

79

05

Palantir

[ PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA ]

Palantir Technologies is a Silicon Valley data unicorn catering to fields such as government, defence and law enforcement. Rising steadily since its 2004 foundation, the company describes its mission as being the augmentation rather than the replacement of human intelligence. Palantir’s primary offerings are its Gotham and Foundry platforms, which are able to demonstrate the linkages between and provenance of data points, as well as track changes over time.

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

2002 YEAR FOUNDED

$36bn VALUATION

CEO

ELON MUSK

80

04

SpaceX

[ HAWTHORNE, CALIFORNIA ]

SpaceX is undoubtedly riding high thanks to the successful launch and return of its Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying astronauts to the International Space Station. It followed that with a successful test of its Starship rocket, which hovered for a time before landing. Aside from its NASA partnerships, Maverick CEO Elon Musk, known also for his leadership of Tesla, is targeting a Mars mission as soon as possible.

OCTOBER 2020

03

Stripe

[ SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA ]

Stripe is a US-based technology firm that serves as a payment gateway for sending and receiving money. It was founded in 2009 by two Irish brothers, Patrick and John Collinson, who were both around the age of 20 at the time. Today, John serves as President, while Patrick is CEO. Having gotten its start with assistance from the Y Combinator startup accelerator, it counts among its customers established giants like Amazon, Google and Microsoft, as well as disruptors such as Spotify, Uber and Shopify. Its valuation ties it with SpaceX in fourth place on our list.

81

2010 YEAR FOUNDED

$36bn VALUATION

CEO

PATRICK COLLISON

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

SCALE DIGITAL WITH OUR DIGITAL MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS Through the advent of Industry 4.0, change has long been coming, but it needs now to step up a gear.

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T O P 10

02

DiDi Chuxing [ BEIJING, CHINA ]

Transportation company DiDi was founded by an alumnus of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, Cheng Wei. Originally backed

by Tencent, in 2015 it merged with its biggest Alibaba backed rival, Kuaidi. Such was its dominance of the Chinese market that it bought out Uber’s Chinese business. Expanding beyond its original ride-hailing remit, the company has branched out into areas such as robotaxis, where it is planning to test its fleet of autonomous vehicles on the streets of Shanghai imminently.

84

2012 YEAR FOUNDED

$56bn VALUATION

CEO CHENG WEI

OCTOBER 2020

85

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

T O P 10

01

Bytedance [ BEIJING, CHINA ]

Anyone under a certain age will be familiar with ByteDance, albeit indirectly, thanks to its TikTok social media app. Born out of its Douyin product for the Chinese market, TikTok allows users to create short looping videos, with the format being ripe for producing viral hits. In recent times, the company has come under 86

heavy scrutiny for its links to the Chinese state, with a sale of its US business to Microsoft being mooted at the time of writing.

2012

YEAR FOUNDED

OCTOBER 2020

$140bn VALUATION

CEO

ZHANG YIMING

87

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Digital Transformation in Cyber Security and Networks WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

88

PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

OCTOBER 2020

89

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

BELL

Bell’s Dominique Gagnon and Giovanni Sansalone guide us through digital transformation as it pertains to cybersecurity and network evolution

D

igital transformation is a critical imperative for companies across the world, but it can be a challenge to know where to begin. As

observed by Giovanni Sansalone, Vice President, Product Management at Bell, for those organizations undergoing digital transformation, there are 90

a number of factors that can impede success.

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES “The most common challenges come from initial resistance or a lack of desire to truly enact change.

It’s important to have everyone accept that they need to change in order to stay competitive, either by improving on the way they serve their customers and employees or being more effective at generating awareness.” Overcoming that resistance to change, Sansalone explains, requires involvement from the leadership team to make it clear why such a digital journey is necessary.

“The second challenge we encounter is a lack of expertise needed to understand the business problem from an end-to-end perspective,” says

OCTOBER 2020

91

busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Threats come from anywhere, so we protect you everywhere.

Akamai and Bell: accelerating content to meet growing demand Tony Lauro, Director, Security Technology and Strategy at Akamai, on its work to accelerate content, enable remote working and provide cybersecurity Tony Lauro is Director, Security Technology and Strategy at Akamai Technologies - the world’s first content delivery network upon its founding in 1998. “The co founders of Akamai said that as the internet starts to grow, it will be almost impossible to have a single or even a cluster of servers handle the traffic from multimillions of connections coming in. The solution was edge servers, and we’ve deployed over 250,000 of them geographically dispersed around the world closest to where the pockets of internet users are.”

“We see about 25 to 30% of the world’s web traffic every day come across our platform,” says Lauro. “There’s major insights there that we can take to let us say this is bad traffic based on X, Y and Z. Over the years, we’ve expanded into protecting businesses from downtime against DDoS attacks as well as enterprise services to make sure that employees working from home can do so securely.”

The company’s relationship with Bell Canada extends back to 2016, with the partnership highlighting the key competencies of both businesses. “Some of the things we’ve been doing include accelerating content,” says Lauro. “We deliver live streaming services for Bell Raptors content. The Akamai platform is able to accelerate that content and make sure it’s highly available for all the devices that want to stream it.” Like many companies, its customers want more content, on more devices, anywhere and at any time. “We’re helping support that mission of Bell Canada

Tony Lauro @ Akamai

and also supporting the needs of the internet at large.”

Akamai’s solutions for remote working involve expanding a zero trust methodology. “That’s a SaaS model which effectively says, as you connect from the outside and you come to the inside to an application, you’re not going from untrusted to trusted. Everything is considered untrusted. So instead of providing network connectivity to access an internal application, you’re just providing an application experience.”

Lauro sees that change to homework as being a continuing trend for Akamai to respond to.

“Companies are asking: how do you securely monitor the user experience that users are having while they work remotely? How do you monitor security on those devices to make sure that any corporate data is not compromised? The remote work model, alongside the digital transformation of all the other services that organisations are already trying to, is going to continue to grow and be a key driver in the year ahead.” akamai.com

BELL

“ We focus on identifying what we are trying to improve in regards to the business problem that we’re trying to solve together”

94

— Giovanni Sansalone, Vice President Product Management at Bell

Sansalone. “Many customers have expertise in certain areas, but when taking a holistic view, they often need to reach out and ask for advisory services in order to support them at every stage of their journey.”

Once organizations overcome these cultural and managerial obstacles, the problem of pre-existing technology rears its head. “The question faced is: how do you enable legacy infrastructure to support the various digital assets that you’re putting in place? How do you bridge the two worlds and connect and communicate between them?”

TRANSITIONING TO THE CLOUD One approach is transitioning to a cloud based platform. To take full advantage of cloud applications, enterprises need to decentralize access to those applications in order to provide a better user experience. “That decentralized approach, however, can be difficult to control and is more permeable from a penetration perspective. It requires a different approach, such as deploying controls in remote offices or leveraging cloud-based security.” says Dominique Gagnon, GM, Cyber Security Practice OCTOBER 2020

at Bell. “There are many benefits to mov-

in partnership with Zscaler, a fully-

ing to cloud-based security, including

managed, cloud-based, secure

ease of operations, and cost reduction.”

access service edge (SASE) internet

The compromise, however, is the intro-

protection service. “The benefit of

duction of latency.

our service is that we deploy Zscaler’s

The best answer is adopting a hybrid

technology within our Bell infrastruc-

approach. As he explains, it’s clear that,

ture, giving our customers access

while contributing enormous benefits,

to all of our nodes across Canada,

digital transformation and moving to

thus helping to remove the latency

the cloud comes with many challenges.

challenges commonly faced by our

That tension is exactly what Bell’s offer-

customers who deploy a full cloud

ing seeks to remedy. “We just launched,

architecture,” says Gagnon.

95

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

Dominique Gagnon Title: General Manager, Cybersecurity Practice Dominique Gagnon is the General Manager of the Cyber Security Practice at Bell with over 25 years of practical and educational experience in IT. Prior to Bell, Dominique was the VP Consulting Services at CGI managing the government vertical and leading the Canadian Cyber Security Center of Excellence Sales, Delivery and Operations. Dominique has expertise in P&L management, business engineering, strategic engagement management and infrastructure management with a focus on cyber security. He has negotiated, implemented and managed numerous large outsourcing contracts and led transformations and transitions for several large organizations. Dominique also served for 12 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

Enable WorkFrom-Anywhere

Build a plan for supporting work-from-anywhere Enabling work-from-anywhere isn’t a one-and-done job—it takes the whole IT organization. Security and networking teams must come together to build a plan for moving forward in a way that serves business needs. Begin building your plan with the help of these resources.

Learn more

Enabling remote work: how IT can plan for 2021 and beyond

Kevin Magee of Microsoft Canada and Zscaler’s Lisa Lorenzin, discuss the benefits of a zero trust approach for enabling remote working “The initial response to COVID was: ‘we’re going to move everything temporarily to the cloud and we’re going to get through this, and then we’re just going to revert back to how things normally were,’” says Kevin Magee, Chief Security and Compliance Officer at Microsoft Canada. “And this crisis has really made businesses come to the realisation that they have to change what they’re doing if they’re going to secure their organisations for the future.”

While traditional conceptions of hard perimeter firewalls have their place, an evolution is now required in the new world of work. “If you were starting from scratch today, there’s no way that you would do a hard perimeter like that because cloud and mobility have made that hard perimeter, no longer sufficiently agile or sufficiently scalable,” says Lisa Lorenzin, Director, Transformation Strategy at Zscaler. However, Lorenzin explains that you’re not starting from scratch in most cases, so having collaborative partners like Microsoft and Zscaler working together can add value to a company. “Helping organisations transition through a transformation journey is where the guidance of Microsoft

and Zscaler working together with a strong connectivity partner like Bell Canada can really make a difference,” adds Lorenzin.

A zero trust approach sidesteps many of the challenges now being presented, as Lorenzin explains. “It’s about having a world of contextbased trust where the user may be on-premise or-off premise. The application may be in the data center or in the cloud, but the principle of zero trust still applies, which is: I don’t implicitly trust anyone to do anything.“ “Zscaler can offer network access that still provides the visibility and security that IT and Security needs to run and secure the business, but vastly increases the user experience.

Employees that are happy to use applications are better able to serve their customers,” says Magee. With such a transition taking place, Magee sees benefits across the IT professional landscape. “There’s been a positive shift in morale because we are finally delivering on the promise of zero trust, conditional access and a safe user experience that does not compromise security.”

BELL

Bell Canada – Benefits of Cloud Services CLICK TO WATCH

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98

“We’re transforming at the heart of our network infrastructure” adds

communicate with their applications, or users, in a secure manner.”

Gagnon, “and virtualizing the network so that businesses can leverage the

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUCCESS

cloud – spinning up different types

The first key area that companies

of services in order to adapt to the

should focus on is culture. As Gagnon

changing requirements of the busi-

points out, “organizations need to first

ness. Our innovative platform delivers

think about the leadership that they

network-as-a-service to its customers,

put in place to establish a culture that’s

giving users greater control over the

open to necessary change and to

way they interact with the network and

doing things differently.”

how they access different services.

The second key ingredient is to focus

We’ve embedded security directly into

on the business. “We have a very cus-

our network, so that customers can

tomer-centric approach in everything

OCTOBER 2020

we do,” says Gagnon. “We focus on

And fourth “It is so important to focus

identifying what we can improve from

on the infrastructure,” says Sansalone.

a business perspective and how we

“It’s vital to have an infrastructure which

can solve it together.”

will be adaptive and flexible, and allows

The third aspect involves leveraging

you to transform to deliver the services

the assets that the company has at its

and business processes needed by both

disposal. “The unique data and intel-

customers and employees. Having an

ligence that organizations have can

adaptable infrastructure that allows you

be used in order to further automate

to drive that agility in the market is abso-

or improve business, delivering greater

lutely critical.”

efficiency through business process automation and more”, outlines Gagnon.

Bell’s support goes further, with an online digital portal allowing participation 99

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

Giovanni Sansalone Title: Vice President, Product Management Gio Sansalone is Vice President of Product Management of Bell Business Markets, a Canadian provider of IP-broadband, information and communications technology (ICT) services to Canadian business. He is responsible for the Business Market Product portfolio, including Network, Unified Communications, Security, Cloud and Managed Services across large, mid and government segments. Gio has launched a number of innovative products and services across networking, managed services and security including unique Cyber Threat Intelligence services leveraging the Bell Network. Gio holds a Bachelor of Computer Engineering from the University of Montreal, Canada busi ne ssc hi ef . com

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FortiSIEM helps reduce the complexity of managing network and security operations, free up resources, and improve breach detection. Worldwide, more than 80% of breaches go undetected because of a skills shortage and an overwhelming amount of event information "noise." FortiSIEM provides cross-correlation, and applies machine learning and UEBA to improve response—reducing noise, making alerts meaningful, and stopping breaches before they occur.

Get started with us at https://www.fortinet.com

“ We see ourselves as being an important contributor to the cybersecurity community in Canada” — Dominique Gagnon, GM, Cyber Security Practice at Bell

in the end-to-end orchestration and delivery of services that customers require. “We have a strong portfolio of professional services that can help with advising clients on their journey, mapping out their processes, and then helping them support the implementation of those changes through the integration of technology and business processes,” Sansalone explains.

BELL’S CYBER SECURITY STRATEGY – A FIVE PILLAR APPROACH When it comes to cyber security, Bell

Bell Canada – Bell’s Security Model CLICK TO WATCH

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BELL

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OCTOBER 2020

“ We provide services around what is foundational in security” — Dominique Gagnon, GM, Cyber Security Practice at Bell

has implemented a strategy with its clients based on five pillars that reflect the key challenges organizations are facing.

“First we provide services around what is foundational in security – the existing controls that our clients have in place,” says Gagnon. “We help them make sense of, and can bring more efficiency to, those controls.

As an example, we’re working with FireEye technology to allow validation of controls within an environment and simplify the traditional approach to managing security. The overall objective is to reduce complexity in existing environments, making better use of investments while improving the security posture. busi ne ssc hi ef . com

103

Bell Canada – Overview of Bell CLICK TO WATCH

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105

The second pillar of strategy is

The third pillar of Bell’s strategy is

around next-generation security

around detection and response. “We

information and event monitoring

partnered with FireEye to launch our

(SIEM). “Our clients tell us that they

Bell Managed Threat Detection and

are not seeing the value of their legacy

Response platform, bringing best-in-

SIEM tools as they are not providing

class detection capability, coupled

the security alerts expected,” says

with a world-class incident response

Gagnon. “We partner with Fortinet

team (Mandiant) to our clients.”

to provide the entire automated and

The fourth pillar is around cloud

orchestrated SIEM technology. This

security. “We work with best-in-class

will improve the visibility and response

partners such as Akamai, whose high

to security incidents, and bring a

performance distributed infrastruc-

best-in-breed and next-generation

ture allows us to enhance security for

platform to the market.”

our customers,” offers Gagnon. “We busi ne ssc hi ef . com

BELL

106

“ We’re transform-ing at the heart of our network infrastructure, and virtualising the network” — Giovanni Sansalone, Vice President Product Management at Bell

The fifth pillar involves dealing with the increase in data due to the introduction of 5G technologies. While this is still an emerging area, careful consid-

also partner with Cisco, FireEye and

eration and planning will be required

Zscaler to bring a wide range of cloud

moving forward to ensure organiza-

based security offerings.”

tions can securely adapt.

OCTOBER 2020

1880

Year founded

$23.96bn+ Revenue in CAD dollars

52,100 Number of employees

Gagnon and Sansalone are con-

why we are the only communica-

fident that their innovations and

tions provider recognized by the IDC

strategies cement Bell’s position as

Marketscape as a Canadian leader

a leader in cyber security and digital

in security four years in a row.”

transformation. “We see ourselves as being an important contributor to the cyber security community in the field,” Gagnon says. “We have over 400 security professionals across Canada supporting three operation centres, and we partner with the leading technology companies in Canada. That’s busi ne ssc hi ef . com

107

Lufthansa Cargo: Accelerating Digital Amid COVID -19 108

WRITTEN BY

SEAN GALEA-PACE PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

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LUFTHANSA CARGO

Jochen Göttelmann, Chief Information Officer, and Boris Hueske, Head of Digital Transformation at Lufthansa Cargo, discuss the rise of digital in air freight

L

ufthansa is one of the world’s most renowned airlines. With hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, the organisa-

tion is committed to operating one of the most technologically-advanced and fuel-efficient fleets 110

globally. Its division, Lufthansa Cargo, is a leader in air freight and serves 300 destinations across over 100 countries.

Jochen Göttelmann is the Chief Information Officer at Lufthansa Cargo. Over the past 18 months, Lufthansa has refreshed its existing infrastructure and applications significantly. “We’ve defined a clear data centre strategy and it will mean that every new project and application will be cloud native,” says Göttelmann. “The cloud strategy came just in time for the coronavirus pandemic. We could seamlessly make our staff work from home with our cloud-based collaboration and communication platforms. On the business side our main focus remains on the modernisation of our sales applications and the implementation

OCTOBER 2020

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Your partner for air cargo logistics 4.0

Air freight is a key driver of the German economy, especially in times of crisis. As an IT service provider, Lufthansa Industry Solutions is using its technical expertise combined with industry know-how to play a key part in shaping the digital transformation in the air cargo industry. We asked Rainer Liebhart, Vice President Air Cargo Logistics, what challenges the industry must now face.

Mr. Liebhart, the airline industry is particularly affected by the Corona pandemic. What is the current situation with air freight?

Rainer Liebhart: Until now, the Corona crisis has affected passenger traffic far more than air freight in Germany. The present shortage of belly capacity in passenger aircraft is currently leading to capacity bottlenecks across the market, resulting in a temporary increase in cargo rates. Having said that, the air cargo business is highly dependent on the global economy. It is precisely these prospects that are an indication of some difficult years ahead for air freight.

Will the crisis give new impetus to digitization in air freight?

Liebhart: I would speak less of a new impetus and more of a different one – a higher speed. More than anything else, the crisis has demonstrated just how much easier digitization makes arriving at better and thus more controlled and conscious decisions, including in extreme situations. In particular, the digital services offered and the interaction at the customer interface will be a key differentiating factor on the market and thus significantly influence success.

What do air cargo customers need to do now to be prepared for the future?

Liebhart: It is now a case of increasing the speed of digitization in the relevant

disciplines substantially. One especially decisive factor will be who can offer a good product on the market and to customers that is easy to understand and, most importantly, easy to book. The booking platforms we are all familiar with from the consumer sectors are also gaining ground in the cargo business.

And it is precisely here that you must stand out from the competition with a market-driven price, a simple process and value-added digital services. It will be important to know and better understand your customers, the market, and the competition. Smart algorithms will allow you to predict behavior accurately and respond to it automatically.

What can Lufthansa Industry Solutions do to help its customers achieve this?

How innovative is the aviation industry and what projects are pioneering?

Liebhart: It’s varied. We focus our efforts on both disciplines for our customers: cutting costs and increasing revenue opportunities. Regarding costs, we help through the deployment and operation of our DevOps platform for example, which is available for our customers to use. Additionally, the combination of our industry and technical expertise allows us to help our customers not only obtain the right data, but also draw the right conclusions from it and implement it technologically in automated systems. Our experience in designing and implementing customer interfaces and background systems allows us to save customers a lot of time, resulting in speed advantages.

Liebhart: In terms of innovation, the industry is not as bad as it is often portrayed. However, we must not forget that the industry is subject to a great deal of regulation, meaning a lengthy decision-making and approval process awaits many innovative projects. But I am convinced that the speed is increasing despite the tense economic situation, especially in the case of those projects that contribute greatly to the company’s business. Despite the difficult overall situation, I am pleased to be able to carry out projects with my customers at such an exciting time, projects that will help to change logistics lastingly and make it even better than it already is in many respects.

LUFTHANSA CARGO

of new digital services to our clients.”

At the end of last year, the firm introduced a new dynamic pricing and has recently launched a smart booking API to increase the connectivity to their partner and customer network. The next big milestone will be a completely refreshed client-facing booking frontend in November. Göttelmann is also helping to renovate the internal sales system like CRM and the pricing tools.

“It’s clear our current priority lies with the sales side, however, we continue 114

to invest in our other domains too.

In handling, we got rid of our legacy host application already some years ago, and now have a state-of-theart IT platform which is the base for customer oriented process innovations like eFreight, targeting for 100% paperless document flows, or selfservice terminals to reduce waiting time for the truckers. In addition, a completely new production planning system is introduced for the internal capacity planning, steering and monitoring in our Frankfurt freight hub. And last but not least, we have migrated our analytics environment to the cloud and will also modernise our traditional OCTOBER 2020

“ We want to drive digitalisation in the air freight industry to offer our customers better, faster and more convenient services” — Boris Hueske, Head of Digital Transformation, Lufthansa Cargo

#GoDigital

CLICK TO WATCH

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1:01

115 BI and data warehouse over the next

services,” he says. “We’ve been quite

years to better support data-driven

busy over the past one and half years

decisions. We still invest lots in IT and

but the global situation is very differ-

plan to continue that as we move for-

ent now. Although we already had

ward as well.”

some good solutions in place prior to

Boris Hueske, Head of Digital

COVID-19, we extended our services

Transformation, states that the

on digitised processes. For example

impact of digitalisation accelerates

the high share of electronic docu-

the change happening in the logistics

ments we receive in the meantime

and transportation industry. This also

allows us to pre-check the information

requires the right perspective on IT

provided by the customer on a ship-

and data as a production factor. “We

ment and give feedback upfront on

want to drive digitalisation in the air

completeness and correctness which

freight industry to offer our customers

makes the freight delivery at the air-

better, faster and more convenient

port much easier and faster.” t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

A Partner in Pricing PROS is an important partner in our digital transformation.

With PROS real-time pricing solutions, we’ve revamped how we provide services to customers while giving our internal teams the tools they need to work with greater speed and efficiency.�

Lars Mueller L U F T HA NS A C A R G O Director of Pricing

pros.com

info@pros.com

Learn more about the PROS solutions that are transforming businesses now.

“ COVID-19 has sped up a number of initiatives to drive automation and support new working models in a bid to connect our clients and partners” — Jochen Göttelmann, Chief Information Officer, Lufthansa Cargo

“We’ve accelerated the rollout of our new pricing services, for dynamic prices, the spot quotations. The automated price calculation is based on analytics available for our customers 24/7 which makes it easier to get an offer. We improved our API services for our customers which allows direct bookings by customer interfaces through the API into our system. The tracking services through the API are improved and provide an automated update if there’s a change in the shipment status. We’ve had a full set of improvements during the

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117

LUFTHANSA CARGO

118

1994

Year founded

$2.5bn+ Revenue in US dollars

past 18 months based on digitalised processes, the improved IT infrastructure and new technology focusing on customer-driven services.”

Hueske adds that he believes that logistics still has work to do to catch up with other industries that are further along on their digital transformation journeys. “Compared to other sectors logistics is a little behind the

4,500 Number of employees

digitalisation development but also in logistics digitalization accelerates and was massively accelerated by the COVID19 crisis,” he explains. “The industry still has papers left in the processes that accompany shipments

OCTOBER 2020

and is still working on modernising

at Lufthansa. “It’s clear that COVID-19

backend IT systems. One topic we are

has a severe impact on our invest-

working on is to further digitalise the

ment capabilities as an airline group.

booking process of further services

But it has sped up a number of initia-

that couldn’t be booked through

tives to drive automation and support

online services yet. It’s really about

new working models in a bid to con-

driving the digital processes forward

nect our clients and partners,” adds

for our customers. Our core pro-

Göttelmann. “I believe that some of our

cesses shall become digital, real

projects have even accelerated over

time and convenient.”

the past few months as a result of the

Göttelmann believes the coronavi-

crisis. IT always has a cost component,

rus has actually acted as a catalyst for

but is also a strong enabler to make

the acceleration of digital initiatives

a business run more efficient and to 119

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

Jochen Göttelmann Title: CIO

Company: Lufthansa Cargo

Industry: Air Freight

Location: Frankfurt

After studies and a PhD in mathematics, physics, computer sciences and economics Jochen Göttelmann started his professional career as software developer at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. After several IT positions in reinsurance and IT consulting he spent 12 years at Allianz Global Investors before he joined Lufthansa Cargo as CIO in 2015. He always worked in IT with a high business focus, dedicated to apply technology to enable business and drive digitalisation.

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

LUFTHANSA CARGO

“ It’s now more important than ever before to determine what is adding value to the company and what no longer serves us” — Jochen Göttelmann, Chief Information Officer, Lufthansa Cargo

120

OCTOBER 2020

121

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Microsoft enables digitalization in logistics for resilient, intelligent supply chains Learn more

drive costs down through automation

our portal or APIs. We’re seeing a

and digitalisation.”

large trend in online booking because

“It’s all about information and trans-

it is the most accurate information

parency,” adds Hueske. “It’s important

available and the customer is in need

to provide customers with as much

of this information at the moment.

information as early as possible,

We’ve been lucky that we’ve been pro-

whether that’s about the capacity

active enough in the past to develop

available or shipment status. But, this

solutions and we’ve got some good

is centered around the availability of

services in place for our customers

data and the right interfaces through

and accelerate that rollout.”

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

Boris Hueske

123

Title: Head of Digital Transformation Company: Lufthansa Cargo Industry: Air Freight

Location: Frankfurt

Boris Hueske has a degree in business administration of the Philipps University Marburg with a focus on logistics and finance. Within 20 years of industry experience in logistics, transportation and airfreight he took over management positions at DB Cargo, Lufthansa Cargo, XPL and Aerologic in the fields of supply chain management, sales, strategy, JV management, finance, revenue management and digitalistion. Since 2018 he is responsible for defining and achieving the Digital Transformation approach of Lufthansa Cargo with activities in automation, new digital services and digital business models.

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

LUFTHANSA CARGO

PA R T N E R M E N T I O N S

124

Lufthansa Industry Solutions: The internal company with a strong cross-industry expertise is one of the most important partners for Lufthansa Cargo’s digital transformation mainly in the business domains Sales, Analytics and Revenue Accounting.

As an IT service provider they combine technical know-how with process and industry knowledge and entrepreneurial thinking.

PROS: Lufthansa Group has had a longstanding, strategic partnership with PROS for its deep expertise in pricing and revenue management, and more recently, quoting that powers Lufthansa Cargo’s booking and pricing platform. PROS has established itself as a strategic SaaS partner for Lufthansa Cargo’s digital OCTOBER 2020

transformation by powering accelerated quoting, delivering real-time pricing, modernizing the customer experience, and eliminating revenue leakage through consistent, disciplined pricing management.

Microsoft: Microsoft enables Lufthansa Cargo’s digital transformation substantially as supplier for cloud services. Since we started the cloud transformation, all new software products are designed cloud-native on the Microsoft Azure PaaS and IaaS layers. Also our new CRM system is based on Microsoft Dynamics. Microsoft Teams has been introduced Lufthansa Group-wide already in 2019, enabling seamless communication and collaboration throughout the whole crisis.

“Compared to other sectors logistics is a little behind the digitalisation development, but this has been massively accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis” — Boris Hueske, Head of Digital Transformation, Lufthansa Cargo Hueske recognises that the global

With the future in mind, Göttelmann

situation has been difficult to navigate,

adds that focusing on what is actually

particularly for airlines, however, he

generating value is essential moving

stresses it is why it’s key to gain ground

forward. “From an IT side, it’s all about

on harnessing efficiency in digitalisa-

continuing to modernise the landscape

tion. “It’s a very unique situation in air

to enable the digital transformation,”

freight and for airlines at the moment,”

says Göttelmann. “It’s now more impor-

he explains. “COVID-19 has majorly

tant than ever before to determine

impacted the industry and we have

what is adding value to the company

to consider that in the future too. We

and what no longer serves us. That’s

had significant reduction in capacity

the challenge for us; we need to revise

in our markets on the passenger side,

our service portfolio. We also have to

with almost 50% of the capacity being

ensure we’re flexible and enable our

provided through passenger aircraft.

planning and governance processes to

We don’t know how fast this will change

be faster and more agile.”

either. However, it shows the importance of data insights and analytics. We confirm our goal to have greater data insights and leverage data in the best way to improve services and transparency for our customers.” t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

125

126

The Evolution of Data Centre Management WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

127

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SERVERFARM

Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing at Serverfarm, discusses the history of Serverfarm, how the sector has evolved and current industry trends

I

n a digitally-driven world led by automation and optimisation, the critical infrastructure powering such innovation is

undergoing its own transformation. A perfect storm is pushing the business community to embrace new ways of streamlining IT and data centre operations – in order to keep pace with unprecedented capacity 128

demands while minimising costs.

As a company that’s been at the forefront of the sector for the past 20+ years, Serverfarm is at the heart of that effort, helping service providers and enterprises digitally transform their IT and data centre environments. In an often challenging business climate, Serverfarm sees automation, efficiency and sustainability as the path forward.

“Quite early on in our life as a company, we identified two things,” explained Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales and Marketing. “The first thing that we spotted towards the end of the nineties is that the real estate part of data centres - the buildings, the land and the locations that they reside in - are actually very inefficient. In fact, in terms of real estate assets, data centres are probably the least efficient.”

OCTOBER 2020

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SERVERFARM

“ We spotted towards the end of the nineties that the real estate part of data centres — the buildings, the land and the locations that they reside in — are actually very inefficient” 130

— Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

Shenoy explains that the reason behind this is because most data centres have much more capacity than is, or can be, utilised. “We saw this as an opportunity in that market to really help customers become more efficient. We would buy data centres from customers and lease back just the portion that they needed. For us as a company, this marked our first change in our operating model from being a real estate acquirer into a real estate operational company. As a result, we started to run these environments for companies.”

In the 10 proceeding years, Serverfarm came to its second conclusion: that the same inefficiencies in the real estate space were beginning to emerge in the infrastructure space.

“The way that people deployed physical infrastructure, mechanical and electrical systems, IT, and network and storage environments was also inefficient. Again, most companies were building more capacity than they needed. The end result for us as a company meant that we started to become a much broader operating company in terms of the sorts of services that we were providing to our customers.”

OCTOBER 2020

As a result of these changes to

Serverfarm developed its award-win-

its operating model, Serverfarm has

ning InCommand Services to achieve

moved further into the IT environ-

this goal for customers. InCommand

ment over the years, helping with

is an integrated service platform

capacity planning, asset management

that brings together people and pro-

and change management so that it

cesses into a portal-based solution

can bring together the three main

for maximum data centre operational

elements that make up a data centre —

efficiency – creating a cloud-like expe-

the real estate, the facility environ-

rience for data centres.

ment and the IT environment. “When

When it comes to digital innovation

you bring those three together, that’s

at Serverfarm, Shenoy believes that

when you can really make data cen-

in the last 10 years there has been a

tres reliable and efficient. You cannot

relatively big shift in the market.

make a data centre efficient by simply

“Firstly, the large hyper-scale cloud

focusing on one of these elements.”

providers have come into the market

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

Arun Shenoy Title: SVP Global Sales and Marketing

Location: London

Industry: Information Technology & Services Arun Shenoy is responsible for developing the success of Serverfarm’s Data Centre colocation and InCommand Services business globally. He joined Serverfarm from Schneider Electric where he was Vice President of the IT and Data Centre business in the UK & Ireland. Arun has previously worked at major companies including Intel, ABB, IBM and Romonet in general management, sales and marketing roles with over 20 years in software, services and technology markets. t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

131

SERVERFARM

132

OCTOBER 2020

133

“ Simply buying and deploying a platform isn’t enough, you have to change and refine the processes and ensure that you have the right people” — Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

FULL DATA CENTER LIFECYCLE SERVICES WITH MILITARY PRECISION The Data Center Services Company You Can Trust.

Providing skilled personnel to deploy, maintain, manage, secure and decommission data centers while closing the industry’s talent shortage by connecting veterans with careers.

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Changes in the Industry CLICK TO WATCH

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1:16

135 to solve a very important problem -

Other trends Shenoy has seen in the

increasing efficiency and agility when

industry include the need for capac-

it comes to building and deploying

ity. “In the last six months, the need for

applications that their businesses

capacity has been continuing to grow,

needed. Cloud became a very obvious

and with the industry becoming much

solution for that.” However, Shenoy

more mature and industrialised, it is

doesn’t expect the data centre indus-

interesting to see the shape and size

try to be completely cloud based for

of this change. The industry isn’t just

at least seven to ten years. “Most will

building faster and bigger, but also dis-

adopt a hybrid approach. As a result,

tributed. This evolution is driving these

in order for companies to maintain

hyper-scale environments.” In parallel,

reliability and efficiency when it comes

another trend Shenoy has seen in the

to physical infrastructure, I believe our

industry is edge computing - “the idea

role in the industry is to help custom-

of creating a much more distributed

ers solve these challenges.”

internet and network of data centres,” t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

SERVERFARM

Serverfarm Partnerships

i3 When it comes to collaborative partnerships li ke i3 and Serverfarm, Ansett explains that “respecting each other and what the other person does, avoiding situations 136 where people become dogmatic, and a general sense of just wanting to do a good job,” are essential.

“Serverfarm finds data centre assets and develops their potential in ways that others can’t see. We are the engineering side to this – that is we provide consulting and engineering services purely in mechanical, electrical and power.

Their approach is different and the reason it is a successful partnership is because we understand what they are trying to achieve,” adds Ansett.

“Collaborations like this are vital.

Together, we get on with it. In order to do good work – which is why i3 exists - you need OCTOBER 2020

collaboration, you need skill and you need motivation. This partnership provides all three.”

“ In order to create enormous benefits and value opportunities for our customers, we require a selection of strategic partners.”

— Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

Serverfarm & NYI Webinar: Our New Disrupted Reality: The Future of Internet Infrastructure CLICK TO WATCH

|

1:02:15

NYI Phillip Koblence, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of NYI co-founded the company in 1996. “At NYI we run mission critical data centres, offering customisable hybrid solutions and high-touch managed services across the United States (US). We focus on optimising infrastructure and providing a seamless client experience by cutting through complexity and hype.”

When it comes to NYI’s partnership with Serverfarm, Koblence explains that “the unique thing about Serverfarm is that they fill the gap in the industry when it comes to data centres and critical infrastructure. You have this large multinational organisation that has a culture and customer experience focus that aligns almost perfectly with what we have been preaching to our customers for over 20 years.”

Salute When developing a successful partnership, Jason Okroy, Co-Founder and CEO at Salute Mission Critical explains that, “highly tuned processes executed by disciplined staff enabled by technology produces world class results. Seldom do you see all three of these come together and with Salute Mission Critical and Serverfarm’s combined strength we become unique and set apart from all other providers.”

For its partners Salute Mission Critical supports IT infrastructures.

“We support the day to day operation of the business – security, remote hands, engineering,” adds Okroy. t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

137

SERVERFARM

138

OCTOBER 2020

“ The industry isn’t just building faster and bigger, but distributed too. This evolution is driving hyper-scale environments” — Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm

he explains. “As a result, anything that is IoT related - smart homes, smart cities, smart government, digital transformation - has driven the market to really grow in parallel in these two areas. So very large hyper-scale facilities, but also a much greater deployment of distributed edge environments. Which, in turn, makes data centre management a much bigger challenge, and the processes and people much more important.”

Running in tandem to these trends is the data centre sustainability question: how can the industry do its part to fight

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

139

SERVERFARM

climate change while still delivering the capacity that the world needs? The answer, for Serverfarm, is in repurposing existing facilities instead of building new ones.

To analyse the carbon savings potential from the reuse of an existing facility, Serverfarm asked an independent consultant, HKS, to calculate the carbon cost of using an existing data centre compared with a new build of the same scale. Buildings and construction directly represent around 140

39% of all annual global greenhouse gas emissions, according to HKS. HKS analysed Serverfarm’s completed Chicago facility, a six-story building of just under 150,000 square feet with a capacity for housing more than 4,000 server cabinets. Reusing this building eliminates the carbon emissions for a standard new construction building, resulting in a modeled 88% embodied carbon emission reduction.

More and more, enterprises and service providers look to data centre professionals to make their IT operations more sustainable – and, therefore, efficient. When it comes to helping their customers, Serverfarm OCTOBER 2020

141

“ Modernisation versus new build means reduced greenhouse gas emissions now, which is our greatest urgency” — Arun Shenoy, SVP Global Sales & Marketing, Serverfarm t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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Ed Ansett @ i3 Solutions CLICK TO WATCH

|

5:00

143

explains that their data centre man­

With customers striving to discover

agement as a service (DMaaS) is

the right way to deploy technology,

more than just a platform, it’s the

software and hardware tools, Shenoy

people and processes too. “DMaaS

believes that, “most organisations find

is the ability for any organisation to

this challenging because they are only

truly understand what they have,

solving one part of the problem - the

where it is, how it is being used, and

technology. Simply buying and deploy-

how useful, reliable and efficient it is.

ing a platform isn’t enough, you have to

In other words, having an overall view

change and refine the processes and

of the entire infrastructure coming

ensure that you have the right people.”

together in one environment. To do

In order to help its customers, part-

that in the most effective way possible,

nerships with other companies such

organisations need to bring together

as i3, NYI and Salute are incredibly

the people, processes and platforms.”

important, and a big part of its strategy. t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

SERVERFARM

144

NYI Partner Video CLICK TO WATCH

OCTOBER 2020

|

7:43

“Part of that is down to the complexity of the work that we do for our customers, which requires an ecosystem to come together. In order to create enormous benefits and value opportunities for our customers, we require a selection of strategic partners. This is not something that we can do on our own. In fact, it’s not something that any company can do on its own. Bringing together the right partners is critical.”

By teaming up with some of the most experienced, cutting-edge partners in the industry and listening closely to evolving customer needs over the past 20+ years, Serverfarm has emerged as an innovator and disruptor in the data centre management as a service (DMaaS) space. Serverfarm is now delivering DMaaS at over 100 locations across 40 countries. DMaaS, to Serverfarm, goes much deeper than simply offering DCIM software in the cloud; it delivers a fully managed service for busy C-suites who want to focus on their core business. It’s the answer to the latest demand from enterprises and service providers alike.

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

145

146

OCTOBER 2020

147

SIMPLIFYING CLOUD TRANSFORMATION WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH

PRODUCED BY

JAMES BERRY t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

GREEN DATACENTER AG

Roger Sueess, CEO of Green Datacenter, discusses the company’s cloud transformation and hyperscale capabilities alongside its commitment to sustainability

A

ccording to Gartner, by 2025, 80% of enterprises are set to migrate away from on-premise data centres, instead out-

sourcing to third party data centres and in clouds.

Colocation represents, therefore, an unstoppable trend in the market.

148

Given this trend, increasingly companies are wanting to move away from CAPEX-heavy onpremise solutions and find new, more flexible methods to benefit from the cloud while accommodating legacy systems. Many are therefore seeking a hybrid cloud solution, utilising both private and public cloud, along with a provider to host their systems.

It is precisely this market which Green Datacenter, a leading Swiss provider of data centre services, caters to. Defining itself as the leading data hub for enterprises, integrators, and cloud providers, the company is rated as a leading provider by the independent market research company ISG. So far, Green has three data centre locations in Switzerland: Zurich West, a colocation campus

OCTOBER 2020

149

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

GREEN DATACENTER AG

“ YOU HAVE TO COMBINE ECOLOGICALLY SOUND SUSTAINABILITY WITH WELL THOUGHT OUT ECONOMICS” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter

a hyperscale campus. Just last year we opened the first Swiss hyperscale data centre. We implemented the design principles and the type

150

with three data centres, Zurich City,

of efficiency that those types of

designed for the finance sector, and

clients are looking for.” Green is

Zurich North. Currently, the company

in the process of opening a fourth

is preparing to open a fourth location.

location, which will be another fully-

Green is also expanding one of the

fledged hyperscale campus. “We’re

existing sites. “Two of the locations

very excited about that, because it

are data centres within the urban area,”

will give us geo-redundant capabili-

says CEO Roger Sueess. “The third is

ties beyond what we have today.”

This is an exciting time for data centres as their importance keeps growing. The economy is becoming more digital every day and the data volume is increasing. “You might not think that there’s much behind data

OCTOBER 2020

Roger Sueess explains how sustainable Green’s data centres really are CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:16

151 centres, but actually there’s a lot of

geographically diverse and ‘capacity

innovation – particularly when it comes

pinched’, Green is unlike its competi-

to sustainability and efficiency,” says

tion. While some data centre providers

Sueess. While efficiency reduces

are focusing on hyperscalers, smaller

costs for providers and custom-

ones only focus on colocation. Sueess

ers, Green also wants to reduce the

emphasises that Green combines

ecological impact by developing sus-

both and offers the ramp up to the

tainable solutions. Suess believes that

public cloud with connectivity and

ecological sustainability and economic

hybrid-platforms – especially on an

success do go together. It takes expe-

international level. “We’ve been invest-

rienced staff, he says, as well an open

ing to become the enabler for our

and creative work culture to achieve

clients to connect to the Far East.

ambitious goals.

We pride ourselves on having the

In Switzerland, where the data centre market is fragmented,

fastest connections to several other locations across Asia.” t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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Green will keep a strong focus on

with a very different growth paradigm.

colocation and hybrid IT architecture

A smaller, colocation-type business

for mid-sized firms, yet it also has

may require a couple of kilowatts in

the ambition to significantly grow its

power. Mid-size companies might

data hub for hyperscale businesses

require a couple of hundred kilowatts,

and companies, with the Zurich West

maybe a room to themselves. At the

campus’ configuration enabling organ-

hyperscale level, you’re talking mega-

isations to benefit from short paths

watts, and they’re extremely precise

for the networking of their IT infra-

in how they want to have things set up.

structures – a key advantage for future

Uptime is the highest priority because

hybrid IT architectures. “Hyperscalers

their services are so broadly used,

are a very different type of clientele,”

and then there’s expansion capability.

says Sueess. “The way they look at

That’s why we’re investing further and

consuming capacity is in big volumes

will build an additional Metro campus.”

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

Roger Sueess Title: CEO

Location: Switzerland

Industry: Information Technology & Services Roger Sueess is the CEO of Green Datacenter, a Switzerland-based company providing data centres and colocation services. “I started back in the day doing a computer science and electrical engineering baccalaureate at university. My background in development, starting as a consultant and freelancing, was quite helpful because I started to learn how to leave an impact on people.

I spent around 20 years within the banking industry in different roles, at two of the biggest Swiss banks. And then last year I joined Green as CEO.” t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

153

GREEN DATACENTER AG

Sueess is passionate about the imperative for cloud transformation, which Green is well placed to assist with.

He explains that, especially for the bigger companies, moving to the cloud means having to change their culture, the way they develop and the way they consume services, all while remaining secure.

Accordingly, the company has created the Green Cloud Ecosystem, which involves the company and assembled partners offering a unique proposition that allows them to harness legacy sys154

tems, using private cloud offerings, while also having direct access to a variety of public clouds. “Usually, there’s a danger of diluting yourself if you try to do everything,” he adds, “but we’ve assembled the right team of like minded partners to get that done for our clients.”

While the Green in the name originally referred more to bringing connectivity into more suburban and rural areas, the company has fully embraced its more modern connotations. This includes undergoing a transformation that has seen additional emphasis placed on its core values. Green, Sueess notes, is a part of the company’s DNA and drives its focus on sustainability.

SEPTEMBER 2020

155 DI D Y O U K N O W?

• 5 data centres around Zurich • Currently operating 15,000 m2 of data centres space • 48 carriers connected • Expansion plans for further 3 data centres in Lupig, plus several additional data centres on a new Metro-Campus • Realised the 1st data centre for hyperscalers in Switzerland • Last completed data centre in Sept. 2019 (investment: 70 million CHF)

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

GREEN DATACENTER AG

“ WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON HAVING THE FASTEST CONNECTIONS TO SEVERAL LOCATIONS ACROSS ASIA” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter

156

SEPTEMBER 2020

That commitment has led to sev-

the beginning, affecting everything

eral concrete achievements. “Since

from building design to rack arrange-

the beginning of the year our data

ment – a complex task considering the

centres are powered entirely by sus-

interplay of different parameters, and

tainable energy. We encourage our

something in which Green has gained

customers to choose their energy

considerable expertise. As a result, its

mix accordingly.” Sueess is also clear

data centres achieve a power usage

that sustainability and profitability are

effectiveness of 1.19 when working at

not mutually exclusive. “It’s impor-

maximum capacity, an achievement

tant to get that balance between the

essentially impossible to match in

profitability that you still need as a

companies’ in-house data centres.

business with the right solutions from

As with all companies around the

a sustainability perspective.” Green

globe, Green has had to reckon

therefore builds sustainability con-

with the ongoing COVID-19 pan-

siderations into its data centres from

demic. Effectively dealing with it

Roger Sueess explains Green Datacenter’s role in the industry CLICK TO WATCH

|

3:31

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

157

GREEN DATACENTER AG

Ihr Partner im Datencenter fĂźr Elektrotechnik.

Nur gemeinsame Erfolge sind wahre Erfolge! www.etavis.ch

159 was especially critical for Green, as

very digitally and flexibly, the fact that

Sueess explains: “For us, being criti-

it’s pushed 95% of our staff out of the

cal infrastructure, it was important to

office and into their homes now lets

let people know they could rely on

us say quite confidently that we can

us. We had to keep the business run-

push that envelope even further.” That

ning, so we very quickly switched to

approach has borne fruit, for instance

digital channels.” Instead of simply

in the 24 hour switch to home working

weathering the storm, Green has

for the company’s support centre.

found the pandemic to have increased

With the proliferation of technolo-

the pace of pre-existing plans. “It cer-

gies requiring more and more powerful

tainly accelerated some of the things

levels of connectivity, Sueess is con-

we wanted to do. Roadmap-wise, it

fident that Green is perfectly placed

hasn’t really changed. I think what it

to thrive going forward. “The whole of

changed for us as a company is that,

society is adopting Big Data, 5G, gam-

while we have had the ability to work

ing, streaming, even IoT and the edge. t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

GREEN DATACENTER AG

“ GREEN IS A PART OF OUR DNA AND IT STANDS FOR SUSTAINABILITY” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter

160

SEPTEMBER 2020

161

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

GREEN DATACENTER AG

162

“ WE’RE EXCITED TO MAKE THE JOURNEY AS EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR PEOPLE TO CONSUME DIGITISED SERVICES AND THE CLOUD” — Roger Sueess, CEO, Green Datacenter OCTOBER 2020

Roger Sueess: leadership adaptation during the COVID-19 pandemic CLICK TO WATCH

|

2:22

163 We’re excited to make the journey as

Swiss business, connecting compa-

easy as possible for people to become

nies across all industries with ultra-fast

digital and get to the cloud.”

speeds and low latencies. As the only

That mission statement reflects

carrier-neutral Swiss data centre pro-

the breadth of Green’s offering and

vider with over 25 years of experience,

why it attracts the customers it does.

Green will continue to be trusted and

With step-by step cloud solutions

respected for both its connectivity and

and broad partner ecosystems, its

commitment to sustainability.

tailored solutions include data centreas-a-service, private cloud and public cloud. Operating five data centres across three sites for geo-redundancy, Green’s high density data centre (the first in Switzerland) is a lynchpin for international cloud providers to access t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVE TECHNOLOGIES: DATA-DRIVEN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 164

WRITTEN BY

MATT HIGH PRODUCED BY

LEWIS VAUGHAN

OCTOBER 2020

165

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVES

Head of Digital Operations, Dr Nick Miesen discusses digital transformation of operations and the power of data

A

passion for digital technology, and it’s power to drive business optimisation and operation excellence, underpins much

of Dr Nick Miesen’s career. Miesen, who has more than 12 years’ experience in areas as diverse as 166

aerospace, chemicals, supply chain and manufacturing, and fast-moving consumer goods, brought that experience to Henkel Adhesive Technologies at the start of this year. Since, he has been responsible for driving digital change in the organisation’s supply chain, supporting Smartfactory capabilities roll-out across the organisation and leading the company’s Global Digital Quality programme.

As one would expect, Miesen is well versed in the latest digital technologies. He is also a vocal proponent of the importance of perfecting the operational basics that underpin those technologies. “Looking retrospectively at the concept of digital transformation, particularly four or five years ago when I was working at AkzoNobel, there was a fair amount of hype around digital.

That’s over,” he says. “Companies are realising OCTOBER 2020

167

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVES

there’s a lot of tough work in adopting digital strategies and that there’s no

“ The foundation of any digital transformation is the people”

silver bullet. If your processes aren’t standardised and you don’t have the basics in place then worrying about the ‘sexy’ tech like AI or VR just won’t work - you’ll stay locked into the experimental phase.”

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

Miesen elaborates on the ‘digital backbone’. This refers to the infrastructure, strategies and processes in place that enable technology adoption to be maximised and bring operational

168

excellence. “It’s really important to

OCTOBER 2020

Henkel Adhesives: Don’t Let A Little Fastener Become a Big Problem CLICK TO WATCH

|

0:51

169 not be blinded by new innovations,” he states. “From my perspective, the foundation of any digital transformation is the people - I’d rather have 1,000 highly capable individuals trained in the basics than a couple of master coders. That strong foundation across the organisation lets you build out the entire decision making process, to properly analyse and problem solve and achieve the low hanging fruit first.

There’s a bigger picture, of course, and a full strategy but only focusing on that just isn’t a sustainable approach to building operational excellence.” te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVES

170

In January this year Miesen joined

us house all our data in a single sys-

Henkel Adhesive Technologies as

tem. That’s a great starting point for

Head of Digital Operations and was

digital, and not something I’ve seen in

tasked with building a digital supply

other companies I’ve worked with.

chain. The business, which is a lead-

“But, objectively, I saw very early

ing solutions provider for adhesives,

on that there was the potential to

sealants and functional coatings

do much more with the data,” he

globally, was already in a strong posi-

continues. “For example, there was

tion digitally, he says. “I found the

a lot of data around introducing new

business to be really advanced, and

platforms and systems, but not a lot of

quite visionary in terms of that digital

utilisation of that data and that’s really

backbone I mentioned. We have a

where I saw my role coming in - to take

major programme being finalised to

advantage of and build on the great

consolidate all SAP systems and let

work that has already been done, to

OCTOBER 2020

E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

171

Nick Miesen Title: Head of Digital Operations Company: Henkel Industry: Adhesive Technologies Location: Amsterdam Red thread in Miesen’s career is data for business optimisation, from Operational Excellence (L6S) to Digital Transformation.

He has over 12 years’ broad industry experience in aerospace, chemical and FMCG. Miesen worked in various roles, mainly in innovation or supply chain, at the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Deloitte, AkzoNobel and Heineken. In 2016 he cofounded an Advanced Analytics startup, Jugaad.

In the beginning of 2020 he started as Head of Digital Operation at Henkel Adhesives Technologies. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, a MSc in Physics & Astronomy and is certified (Master) Black Belt. te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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HENKEL ADHESIVES

bring in those low hanging fruits and

“ The high-level strategy is to build digital operations”

build out the basics in the best way.”

Since joining Henkel, Miesen has led the company’s Global Digital Quality programme, which aims to predict and improve product quality, he has strategised, planned and deployed digital programmes and

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

sought out opportunities to introduce new technologies to the business.

“The high-level strategy is to build a digital supply chain,” he says. “But, it’s important to be very clear on what

174

that actually means.

“First and foremost, it’s about the seamless flow of data both ways that’s the backbone,” he continues.

“But within that are several smaller objectives. You need connectivity, for example. So, data needs to be transferred and centralised and then you need visualisation of all that data. That plays into the global quality function I am responsible for, as if you can have a global solution whereby we can track and visualise any variations in quality of material input and finished goods.

Having the whole organisation globally able to visualise all that data gives the ability to make better decisions and OCTOBER 2020

175

work towards operational excellence

regressions, then move along the level

and create customer value.”

of complexity so that you can gain

With this step in place, Miesen

greater understanding by using statisti-

explains that the focus shifts first

cal analysis,” he says. “The next step is

towards being more predictive and

to add intelligence to those statistics,

then bringing greater intelligence

which enables you to analyse, prove,

and algorithms into the process. The

predict and understand anything.

former, he explains, revolves around

“Those, for me, are the key steps in

using the data collected to model

the sequence of building that digital

processes, from the simple to the very

supply chain. We move from simple data

complex. “You start with simple linear

to advanced data analytics, and as we te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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177 do it the supply chain becomes increasingly digitised for us, our suppliers and

“ We move from simple data to advanced data analytics, and as we do it the supply chain becomes increasingly digitised for us, our suppliers and our customers”

our customers. It’s quite conceptual but it’s a very clear and defined process.”

While for Miesen the process is clear there are, he concedes, still challenges to overcome in digitising a supply chain operation. “We still have data in different systems and formats. The biggest hurdle is getting that data into the right place and in the right order.

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

To a degree, the analytics and visualising of the data is the easy part. The big challenge is found in knowing which sets of data to address first, in trying te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

HENKEL ADHESIVES

to align the different ambitions and functions of the various stakeholders and standardising the operations process. If we do that, it’s really the biggest step to take forward.”

Henkel’s size, too, poses challenges to operational excellence.

Miesen and the team are responsible for optimising operations across 140 sites. “I don’t need to explain that, to implement a digital journey across so many facilities means you have to work smart. This is why we’re adopt178

ing a Smartfactory approach, which includes a manufacturing execution system (MES), a robust ERP layer and a host of other smart tools,” he explains. “It’s a really powerful technology to have available, particularly as we have a long-term strategy to move towards full automation at our sites.” Furthermore, on the subject of enabling digital transformation, Miesen adds, “I see the development of the Vegam system as the answer to a customisable digital future; a digital twin with the ability to create an interactive layer with the ERP systems is a powerful tool, from the shop floor to the board room.”

OCTOBER 2020

1876

Year founded

€20bn+ Revenue in euros

52,000 Number of employees

te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

179

HENKEL ADHESIVES

Of course, since Miesen joined the company in January, the world has seen significant disruption as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. For businesses in every sector, the impact has been enormous, forcing a shift in both how existing operations are carried out and, in a broader context, in the implementation of new technology.

Naturally, Henkel prioritised the safety and wellbeing of its employees while ensuring it could continue to operate and supply its customers.

180

“The biggest change, like everyone else, was in facilitating a remote working environment,” says Miesen.

“I think, collectively, we are all very proud of Henkel’s response to the cri-

“ Data is power and to have that database in place will enable the next step”

sis, particularly across such a broad and diverse business. It’s definitely brought several new technologies into the picture too, as well as refocused everyone’s views on using technology. For example, things like augmented reality innovations have

— Dr Nick Miesen, Head of Digital Operations, Henkel Adhesive Technologies

OCTOBER 2020

come into focus with us deciding to use Microsoft’s HoloLens system, which will facilitate remote workshops, remote audits and more. More

181

broadly, I think this will change some

our understanding of exactly what the

of the more conservative thinking

customer wants. Data is power and to

around technology and business.”

have that database in place will enable

Disruption aside, Miesen is resolute

the next step - to the lab, to the testing

in his commitment to Henkel’s digital

facility and intelligent modelling. That’s

journey. His immediate focus remains

where you’ll see the real benefit of this

on building an innovative digital sup-

journey, it will absolutely keep us ahead

ply chain while changing the way that

of the curve.”

Henkel does business to be more agile and lean. “If we build our processes to be better and use our data in the most effective way, this will feed into our product development processes and te c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

EEI Corporation: Digital Transformation in Construction WRITTEN BY

WILLIAM SMITH PRODUCED BY

KRIS PALMER 182

OCTOBER 2020

183

t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

EEI CORPORATION

Lauro Matias, CIO of EEI Corporation, discusses the technologies involved in its digital transformation and its response to COVID-19

L

auro Matias is the CIO of the Philippines’ EEI Corporation, a leading construction company in the country. “First and fore-

most, we’re a general contractor company – the biggest one in the Philippines. Unlike engineering, 184

procurement and consulting firms, we do not end up owning or operating any of the property we have been tasked to construct, such as heavy civil infrastructure, electromechanical, petroleum refineries, beer-making and geothermal facilities, large building complexes, etcetera.”

AI and machine learning have played a significant part in predicting construction outcomes. “The primary algorithm we’re using considers multiple risk factors such as fluctuating prices, labour availability, weather and environment disruptions or major change orders, and then tells us whether or not we’re still going to make money at the end. Typically these projects last for about three years, so AI is invaluable. We’re exploring the use of machine learning studios available in AWS, Azure or GCP, trying to push it into the cloud. That’s OCTOBER 2020

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EEI CORPORATION

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“ Digital business strategy is about the extension of a company’s physical reality and strategic capabilities using digital technology” — Lauro Matias, CIO, EEI Corporation

because right now it’s running on laptops, where it might take days to process the information - and on any given day, we have something like 40 projects happening.”

Another AI use case comes in pedestrian simulation. “If you want to evacuate people, how long will it take from the farthest point? What happens if the fire’s in the middle? What happens if the fire spreads in, let’s say seven minutes, because of a petroleum spill?. Those things require simulation, and we’re using AI for that.”

OCTOBER 2020

Matias is overseeing the imple-

payroll time and attendance. Tableau

mentation of a comprehensive data

connects to our Primavera system,

strategy across the organisation. “We

the premier planning and scheduling

have field data collection, from mobile

software by Oracle.” That data is used

apps and IoT, for instance. Then we

to derive actionable insights. “We bring

have data governance and simula-

information up to Tableau so that we

tion. We use Tableau and Aufinia, a

can see and project into the future

Vietnam-based company which spe-

how many man hours and labour count

cialises in fraud analytics in terms of

we need, and the type of skills, trade

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

Lauro Matias

187

Title: CIO

Company: EEI Corporation

Industry: Construction

Location: Philippines

Lauro MATIAS is the VP of IT for EEI Corporation, and a member of the IT council and the IT Governance Board of the Yuchengco Group of Companies. Prior to this, he was the CIO at Starbucks Philippines, the Global CIO for Jollibee Foods Corporation, and a senior IT expatriate of eight years - first as Asia Pacific VP IT at Lafarge Boral Gypsum Asia LBGA based in Shanghai, and then later based in Jakarta, with Indonesia’s Sinarmas Group of Companies, as VP and Chief IT Advisor for its palm oil and wireless telecoms divisions, and its mobile commerce business unit.

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189 and resources which are required. For

project sites are Synology drives that

example, how many plumbers do we

backup to AWS, so our backups are no

need? what type of equipment, how

longer tape drives, they’re backed up

much material is needed, and so on.”

on the cloud. We’re just launching with

“I have been a proponent of the

Office365 this month, and we’re using

cloud since I discovered elastic cloud

a cloud-based anti-spam system as

computing, offered by a company

well as digital signatures.”

not yet known to many as AWS, since

One of the core technologies

at the time, we still referred to the

deployed by the company is building

company as Amazon,” says Matias.

information modeling (BIM). “We’ve

Accordingly, he has made sure many

been a long time user of Autodesk, but

of EEI Corporation’s systems are

here BIM has never had the same sort

cloud-based. “We are using Oracle

of focus as in Singapore, for example,

for our ERP and migrated to its cloud

where the government itself is man-

ERP called Fusion. Our backups on our

dating the use of BIM. Our government t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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190

is still asking for real blueprints on

While new technology can some-

paper. As a general contractor, we are

times be a hard sell, such was the

in a strange position where Autodesk

excitement around introducing BIM

is helping us use BIM, not just for mod-

at EEI Corporation that teams across

elling the finished product, but also in

the company wanted to be involved.

developing siteworks more efficiently,

“Everyone wanted to be part of it,

so that we can reuse material for the

designers, architects, field engineers,

future. It’s a whole new ballgame, and

everyone,” enthuses Matias.

Autodesk have realised it’s something they can use worldwide as well.”

OCTOBER 2020

Like all companies, EEI has been affected by the ongoing COVID-19

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“ It’s not just about physical health it’s also emotional health” — Lauro Matias, CIO, EEI Corporation

pandemic, especially so, given its role in the construction industry and the necessity of workers being on site. “Because we’re a construction company, we also have to look at resumption of construction, leveraging digital and virtual construction, the judicious use of barriers and so on. The typical measures in an office would be physical distancing and isolation. Our t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

EEI CORPORATION

Shaping the Future of Construction through Digital Transformation.

CIM Technologies is at the forefront in supporting digital transformation in Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry by offering technology solutions and services.

job was to make sure that we minimise the susceptibility of the worker to other illnesses that make them more vulnerable to COVID-19.” A number of strict personal hygiene measures have therefore come into place. “No open wounds, proper grooming, breathing

“ First and foremost, we’re a general contractor company” — Lauro Matias, CIO, EEI Corporation

exercises. It’s not just about physical health - it’s also emotional health. If you get stressed after picking up a heavy load, we have strict rest breaks to make sure that your temperature goes down.”

193

Technology has played a significant role in its response, such as altering the pre-existing method of clocking in. “Before COVID-19, our best way of measuring time and attendance was the handpunch - a technology which analyses hand and bone patterns to identify who you are. But now that would require surface contact, and would result in contamination happening left and right. What we did was create an in-house mobile app that scans employee’s QR-coded IDs, enabling contactless clock-in and clock-out.”

One thing which Matias evangelises passionately about is the t e c hnobusi l o gyma ne ssc ga zhiinefe.. acom s ia

EEI CORPORATION

1931

Year founded

$23.6b+ Revenue in US dollars

24,457 194

Number of employees

difference between information technology and digital technology, and the ramifications that it has for businesses. Information technology refers to traditional corporate technologies, focused on durability, streamlining and the integrity of formats, while digital technology is consumer focused and pervasive, with often conflicting standards.

Adopting digital methods as a business is in vogue, but Matias sounds caution and has no truck with those who recommend the ‘uberisation’ of any kind of business they encounter.

OCTOBER 2020

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“Of the many speakers that talk

parking lots’. I don’t follow along with

about digital transformation, the one

advising everyone to become Uber.

type I am very disappointed with is

For me, digital business strategy is

the one that tells the audience to dis-

about the extension of a company’s

rupt, disrupt, disrupt and be like Uber,

physical reality and capabilities using

Amazon, AirBnB - without providing an

digital technology.”

embraceable framework on how to go

As for the future, Matias is not

about it. And so they lose their audi-

resting on his laurels, having devel-

ence very fast, who for the most part

oped a framework to help chart the

have brick and mortar businesses but

possibilities for where the com-

are being told to ‘crowdsource their

pany could go next for this new t e c hno l o gyma ga z in e. com

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OCTOBER 2020

“ I have been a proponent of the cloud since I discovered elastic cloud computing” — Lauro Matias, CIO, EEI Corporation normal. “My boss is the head of business transformation,” says Matias, “which includes IT, Innovation, and Corporate Development. The Business Transformation group has been tasked, not just with the transformation of EEI Corporation’s current construction operations and synergies, but in paving the way for the company to explore all possible ventures and adventures outside the construction industry space.

For EEI Corporation, this new normal is an opportunity to reinvent itself.”

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