The industry disruptors redefining innovation in 2020

VOL 09 | ISSUE 01 | 2020

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The Industry Disruptors Redening

Innovation in 2020

Better Approach

Build-On EdTech for a Better World

Power Up Be Smart – or Vanish Why Utilities need to actively develop smart Micro-Grids

VIVIAL Transforming the Marketing Technology Industry

Editor’s Desk

T

he technology and innovation industry is unavoidable. If businesses have to stay ahead of the curve, they need to stay strive by developing and acquiring new technologies in the organization.

Let’s Disrupt!

The entrepreneurs have to take risks in these rapidly evolving consumer demands. They play an optimistic role in supporting the achievement the goal of the organization with technological tools. Leaders today need to be committed in identifying new opportunities which will help the business to grow at a higher level.

Building a community of innovative employees leads to build a culture of disruption. With the pandemic still into focus, the importance of technology in various fields like education and healthcare has increased. The companies today have the opportunity to display their leadership at a global level with the new and advanced technological tools introducing in the companies.

While the digital platform provides unending knowledge and resources for the organizations. It becomes the responsibility of the disruptors to gain all the offerings. As the digital platform is considered to be the future of all the industries. It enables transparency, real-time information, and improved customer experiences for the people.

Being agile and connected with the new market models is the need of the hour for the companies.

After all, an open-minded leader is ready for the changes if needed in the companies. The technology disruptions bring us cloud computing, blockchain, machine learning, and the Internet of things. Effective use of these transformational solutions is the true meaning of the digital revolution.

It is not just about today but the future of digital transformation with these next-generation

technologies like blockchain, machine learning, IoT, and others. These disruptions will continue to grow into all the adjacent markets across different cultures as the business has to build relationships with partners around the world.

After all, the focus of the leaders is expanding the business across all the markets on the globe. To show these features, Insights Success lists its upcoming edition of The Industry Disruptors Redefining Innovation in 2020 and applying all the above facts is featuring the cover story Vivial.

Vivial is a groundbreaking marketing technology (Martech) company that offers a full range of customer engagement tools to help businesses better connect with customers. Vivial provides a full range of marketing solutions, including content marketing, social media management, text messaging services, mobile-friendly websites, and the latest local search products to ensure high rankings on Google and other search engines.

Other Disrupting Companies include ConnectWell, a leading-edge provider of digital health and wellness content that is academically sourced and designed for a consumer audience to engage people in their total health and wellbeing.

Elemica - A Digital Supply Network platform that enables manufacturing businesses to support their trading partners with a real-time information sharing environment to ensure supply chain excellence. LeapRate - specializes in providing news and information on the global Forex sector.

Lastly, do not forget to go through the CXOs written by the industry experts and articles written by our in-house editorial team.

Enjoy Read!

rohit.chaturvedi@insightssuccess.com

08 Vivial Transforming the Marketing Technology Industry

CONTENTS

C O V E R S T O R Y

ARTICLE

16

Better Approach Build-On EdTech for a Better World

Power Up

26

Be Smart – or Vanish Why Utilities need to actively develop smart Micro-Grids

ConnectWell Disrupting the Healthcare System by Engaging People in their Health and Well-being

Elemica

24

The Best Performing Supply Chain Management Company

LeapRate Covering the World of Forex Trading

30

20

Editor-in-Chief Sumita Sarkar Managing Editor Anish Miller

Executive Editor

Assistant Editors

Rohit Chaturvedi

Jenny Fernandes

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

David King

Asha Bange

Kartik Balapurkar

Co-designer Kushagra Gupta

Senior Sales Manager

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Andy Mitter

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Martin, Sagar

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Aidan, Sanket

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza

SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar

Research Analyst Frank Adams

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com September, 2020

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We are also available on : Copyright © 2020 Insights Success, All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success.

Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success.

The

INDUSTRY

DISRUPTORS Redefining Innovation in 2020

Company Name

Featuring Name

Brief

ConnectWell connectwell.com

Andrea Bloom Founder & CEO

ConnectWell is a leading-edge provider of digital health and wellness content that is academically sourced and designed for a consumer audience to engage people in their total health and well-being.

Elemica elemica.com

Arun Samuga Chief Technology Officer

Elemica is the leading Digital Supply Network for Process Manufacturers.

LeapRate www.leaprate.com

Vivial Inc vivial.net

Nigel Frith LeapRate is the leading news website covering the world of the Valentina Kirilova CEO global Forex market. & Editor in Chief

Jim Continenza Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Vivial is a groundbreaking marketing technology company that offers a full range of customer engagement tools to help businesses enhance the way they connect with customers, build loyalty, manage content and track results.

Transforming the Marketing Technology Industry

“With easy-to-use customer engagement tools, we help businesses build, implement and optimize marketing programs to reach consumers quickly and effectively. We do the work so you can focus on what's most important to you – running your business.”

COVER STORY The Industry Disruptors Redefining Innovation in 2020

_ JIM CONTINENZA Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Y

ou’ve spent so much time and energy getting your business up and running. Now, it's time to market your business to connect and engage with customers. Here the question arises: where to start? One word: Vivial.

Vivial is a digital marketing agency whose mission is to help local businesses grow. Vivial partners with clients across nearly 6,000 industries to help businesses of all sizes connect and engage with customers, build loyalty and track results. The company offers a comprehensive and easy-touse suite of integrated marketing solutions to make sure local businesses are found wherever and whenever consumers are searching for products and services.

Vivial is dedicated to helping their customers engage and interact with consumers through a variety of strategies, including social media, content marketing, text messaging and more. At Vivial, on-demand support is included with every offering. An experienced account coordinator oversees the entire program and is supported by a team of marketing experts—including content writers, editors, social media strategists and mobile experts—to deliver the best results.

A Highly Innovative and Deeply Committed Leader

An innovator in the marketing technology (martech) industry, Jim Continenza is the Chairman and CEO of Vivial. Jim is responsible for the strategic vision of Vivial and charged with leading a team of more than 1,000 individuals across 20 markets—from Anchorage to Honolulu to the Big Apple. He is advancing the martech industry by making the complex simple and offering a straightforward suite of integrated online, social and mobile solutions for business owners.

In a career that began more than 30 years ago as a sales representative, Jim has worked his way through the ranks of numerous technology and telecommunications companies.

As a decisive and driven senior executive, Jim's foresight, strategic focus and proven ability to lead and transform has resulted in substantial returns for many companies.

In the marketing technology industry, where rapid change is inevitable, falling behind is not an option. Jim stays ahead of the curve on the latest trends and technologies to ensure Vivial is providing the best tools and services to positively impact businesses. He continues to make financial and technology investments to evolve Vivial's products, not only benefiting the business, but the hundreds of thousands

of businesses that rely on Vivial for strategic marketing. He continually strives to innovate by developing and acquiring new technologies that provide companies with a seamless experience to help them reach customers quickly and easily while increasing ROI with actionable consumer insights.

Under Jim's leadership, Vivial continues to experience consistent growth.

At the helm of a growing company, Jim must create an exceptional and positive culture for the staff. Vivial offers a laid-back environment where everyone works hard and has the opportunity for growth. Employees are encouraged to share innovative ideas, and everyone's input is requested and valued – on decisions both big and small. The environment at Vivial is opportunistic and thriving, and employees seamlessly collaborate across departments.

Under Jim's leadership, Vivial mobilized quickly to move from an in-office workforce to a 100% remote company as a result of the COVID pandemic.

Vivial provides competitive compensation, best in class training, and industry leading products and services.

Employees work hard for the success of the customers because if customers succeed, the company succeeds. And when that happens, they celebrate those successes with fun perks including Victory Parties, Fun Flashes, and Team Outings. Vivial promotes a family atmosphere where everyone works together for a common goal to help the local business customer.

Under Jim's leadership, the company has also developed and participated in a myriad of community programs, from supplying fully-stocked backpacks to students in need to delivering food gift cards to veterans getting back on their feet, or helping communities recycle outdated phone books.

The company recently completed a virtual 5K to raise funds for the Gary Sinise Foundation. It is because of these benefits and programs that Vivial continues to receive Best Place to Work honors across multiple office locations each year. And in 2020 Vivial earned the Great Place to Work certification.

Leading the Industry in Innovation Vivial employs the “build, partner or buy” philosophy to ensure they are providing the best solutions for customers.

Over the past few years, Vivial has made nearly a dozen acquisitions to obtain new platforms, people and technology to stay on the cutting edge of marketing technology. The company has invested more than $100 million to support the continuous growth and expansion of its marketing

Testimonials “Vivial is a great marketing resource for small businesses in the digital age. First and foremost, it is affordable. The reps are knowledgeable, open and friendly, and always available. Your best bet when a full-time digital marketing department is not in your budget.” Jim Montague

“Finding the right SEO company is crucial to any company's success. I'm very thankful to be working with the great people over at Vivial. Very responsive and knowledgeable about SEO and Google rankings.” Lenny Buccellato, Competition Locksmith

“Vivial brings together all critical marketing functions under one umbrella, meaning a business owner will have one solution for their needs with a seamless infrastructure and a single point of contact. We conduct the research, build the campaign, continually monitor and optimize and provide an easy-to-use dashboard to review trafc and lead details. Said simply, we do the work while the client focuses on running their business.”

platform, mobile messaging suite, fulfillment process, and product development.

At the heart of Vivial's offering is its Marketing Platform which was acquired as a foundational platform and has since grown into an all-inclusive dashboard, making it easy to manage all aspects of digital marketing in one place. The platform provides customizable websites, content marketing, search optimization and more for businesses of all sizes. The company has continued to make investments in the platform's technology, adding social media advertising, text messaging capabilities and Google My Business management and tracking.

Vivial integrated with Facebook and Instagram to enable paid advertising directly from the Vivial Marketing Platform. This allows customers to implement Facebook and Instagram advertising without having to go through the social media sites' user interfaces. The company was at the forefront of integration with Google and Google My Business into the Marketing Platform to improve clients' online visibility. Vivial developed a client app for customers to manage their Marketing Platform dashboard on the go.

The company has made significant network investments to strengthen and expand its text messaging service, including infrastructure upgrades, international expansions, and Mobile Wallet/Push. Vivial has also invested in Rich Communication Services (RCS) which is the future of

mobile messaging. This format changes the way businesses interact with their customers allowing them to build deeper, more personalized connections with consumers.

When it comes to the future, Vivial will remain a leader in the marketing technology industry. The company will continue to propel the industry forward by staying on top of shifts in technology, advertising, marketing and customer behavior. The company does this by understanding and analyzing these shifts to help businesses reach customers quickly and easily. Vivial will continue to identify ways to expand its presence both domestically and internationally by building or strategically acquiring platforms and technologies required to stay on the leading edge of marketing technology. In terms of goals, the company is committed to identifying new opportunities to add to the Vivial portfolio, along with enhancing the ways it helps businesses engage with their customers on a personal level.

Vol 10 | Issue 04 | 2020

Best

20

The

Performing

CEOs to Watch, 2020

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Tech Insight Haseeb Awan

Incentives Solutions A True Partner and Reliable Strategic Advisor

CEO

Ponari A Procient Business Leader with Extensive Work Experience

16 | September 2020

www.insightssuccess.com

Better Approach

Build-On EdTech for a Better World

T

he education technology industry has even become important in this pandemic world.

The Edtech industry is providing education to every single student. The effective use of technology with education is building a culture where it has become accessible and effective for the students.

The digital platform for education supports both the teachers and the students. With the tools, the EdTech offers to build a community of learners is developing in society. For example, if a student has a doubt, being close with the platform solutions are shared immediately.

reaches the most remote locations of the world as well. It is the duty of the government to make available infrastructure facilities available everywhere in the country. So that 100% participation engagement is possible in all the areas of the world.

It is a platform where mentors, educators, guest speakers, hosts can serve their wisdom and experiences for the students. This also creates interest among the students when learning from a technological method which is the need of the hour.

Comparing it with the traditional way of teaching students cannot relate to the methods and the examples, as we have come a long way forward.

Finally, no matter how good the technology is, it is upon the humans to decide how good it is. The use of EdTech with a personal touch should be the goal of it.

No matter how good it is, if it lacks the human touch of teaching it will be of no use.

We should consider ourselves very lucky to be a part of this digital revolution where larger engagement of students can be involved. Already the lockdown has caused enough damage to the education world. Be it national or international, schools and universities are disturbed completely.

The Teaching method will see the revolution post covid with the EdTech ecosystem. The teachers have to review their old and conventional methods of teaching with innovative and technological tools. The EdTech will become more relevant because it matches the career aspirations of the students.

Today, there are a lot of platforms available for EdTech companies. The EdTech industry should always aim to reach every single student even the one who is far remote from the technology and build a network of education. The government will have to support this cause by building all the facilities required to make this dream come true. And, ensure all the children across the world reach their highest potential.

Thanks to the EdTech offerings of providing online education to continue teaching worldwide with customized learning and activities. Thinking from a global perspective it supports the sustainable literacy goals of increasing the literacy rate in the world.

Students also participate in higher amounts as it www.insightssuccess.com

September 2020 | 17

The Industry Disruptors Redefining Innovation in 2020

ConnectWell: H ealthcare is an industry that was late to adopt technology. As the culture and mindset, and organizational barriers to adoption are being broken down, digital health has the potential to transform the way people interact with the healthcare system, receive healthcare, and engage in their own health. Insights Success in this edition “The Industry Disruptors Redefining Innovation in 2020” is applauding some of the industry disruptors who are leading with innovation and excellence.

One such industry disruptor is ConnectWell, a leadingedge provider of digital health and wellness content that is academically sourced and designed for a consumer audience to engage people in their total health and wellbeing. The company believes that the future of the healthcare industry will be one where the patient (the healthcare consumer) is in the center, having the knowledge and skills to be a committed and vested partner in their own care. ConnectWell and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health plan to be a big part of this future as its suite of health and wellness content provides the means to educate and empower people.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Insights Success and ConnectWell’s CEO, Andrea Bloom: How do you consider your company an industry disruptor in healthcare?

A paradigm change is needed in the U.S. healthcare system.

“Medicare for all”, “Universal coverage”, “Build on the Affordable Care Act”. These are some of the campaign messages touted for 2020 as a solution to our healthcare crisis. But what we really need is “health engagement” on a national scale. Health engagement has the ability to reverse our country’s never-ending trend toward increased chronic disease and healthcare spending.

Chronic diseases account for 86% of healthcare costs in the U.S. The Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease estimates that by 2030, 83 million people in the U.S. will have three or more chronic health conditions, up from 31 million in 2015. The New England Journal of Medicine predicts that by 2030, 50% of American adults will be obese. These trends need to stop if we are going to reverse our healthcare expenditures and help people thrive physically and mentally.

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Disrupting the Healthcare System by Engaging People in their Health and Well-being

The demands on the healthcare system have dramatically shifted from acute care to chronic care. The system is effective in addressing acute issues, whereby patients are seen by a physician and are diagnosed and prescribed treatment. However, because physician visits tend to be infrequent and hurried, the healthcare system is not suited to helping people manage long-term chronic conditions.

With the advent of digital health, there is a different model of healthcare emerging where people can get the information they need to engage in their health on a continuous basis.

What led to the inception of the company?

My passion for providing people with prevention, wellness and disease management education started during my time at Johnson & Johnson’s Diabetes Care division. This is where I learned how people with Type 2 diabetes can successfully manage their disease through healthy eating and increasing their physical activity.

However, I realized that many people were exposed to these lifestyle practices only after they were diagnosed. People have an opportunity to prevent, delay, and reduce the severity of chronic diseases if they have ongoing access to a trusted, comprehensive source of information that engages them to be more proactive in preventing disease and adopting healthy habits. The impetus behind ConnectWell and forming our partnership with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health was to provide this information to the population at large through our customers’ platforms in a format that makes it easy to integrate wellness into daily living.

Describe your company’s cutting-edge solutions.

ConnectWell offers three key components of Digital Health and Wellness content that work together to support total health and well-being: Health & Wellness Digital Library: Extensive coverage of health, wellness, and disease topics from A to Z Ÿ Wellness Initiatives: Wellness education with strategies and tools to help in the adoption of healthy lifestyle practices Ÿ Healthy Recipe Collection: Healthy recipes that are tasty, easy to make, and made from whole foods and healthy ingredients Ÿ

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We license our content suite to a wide range of companies across the healthcare spectrum including payers, providers, health coaching companies as well as employers and their benefits management partners. Customers integrate our offering into their proprietary delivery platforms in creative ways to engage individuals in their health and wellness.

What technologies are you leveraging to make your solutions resourceful?

Being located in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, ConnectWell has had the advantage of tapping the tremendous technological talent available nearby and being able to deliver digital health and wellness information in innovative ways. The underlying architecture of ConnectWell’s content offering makes it visually oriented and easy to navigate, while providing seamless integration into the digital delivery portals of our customers.

ConnectWell’s content is tagged for easy topic search, where it can be directed to consumers based on their individual health and wellness needs. ConnectWell merges the Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities of our partners with our propietary Application Programming Interface (API).

Could you shed some light on the tagline “Integrating Wellness into Life”?

Regarding ConnectWell’s tagline, Andrea says, “With our

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digital content we provide anywhere, anytime access to validated information that is current, actionable, and comes from a credible independent source.”

How do your services differ from the other companies’ offerings?

ConnectWell’s partnership with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health ensures that our content suite incorporates leading-edge developments and trends in healthcare. UC Berkeley’s tight partnership with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical School and Health Center guarantees that ConnectWell is accessing the latest treatments and trends in medicine. The content suite is free of advertising and industry sponsorship and is university-sourced, scientifically rigorous, and clinically current. Content is derived from peer-reviewed medical journals and vetted scientific sources, and is written by medical experts, specialists, and thought leaders in their respective fields. Digital content is crafted in short, easy-toread segments, and has relevance to a wide-range audience.

All content is updated annually and whenever new standard-of-care guidelines are published.

Describe the values that drive your company.

We are a mission-driven company in a partnership with a leading school of public health with a legacy of commitment to social change, innovation, and leadership.

September 2020 | 21

About the Leader Andrea Bloom is the Founder & CEO of ConnectWell and guides the company’s vision of empowering people in their health by being a trusted source of comprehensive digital health and wellness content. Andrea is a seasoned healthcare executive and entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in various product development, marketing, international, business development, and consulting roles.

Prior to founding ConnectWell, Andrea worked for leading healthcare companies (Johnson & Johnson, Roche), medical device start-ups (Metrika, iCare, Calibra Medical) and health-related nonprofits (Institute for the Future, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, American Heart Association, and Institute for Responsible Nutrition).

Andrea received a BA in Economics from University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

This partnership enables ConnectWell to serve large communities and cross socioeconomic and geographic boundaries through distribution over a wide range of digital health platforms, ensuring access to the most trusted source of health and wellness content.

Testimonials “Livpact’s online platform provides busy caregivers the support, knowledge and resources they need to effectively manage their loved one’s care. Now with ConnectWell’s expert health and wellness content, we’re able to add significant depth to our offering.”

Cary Ussery, Founder and CEO of Livpact “WellAware is the first digital technology that tracks and analyzes personal health data to improve the early detection and prevention of chronic disease. Our partnership with ConnectWell is a game changer for entering the U.S. market. ConnectWell is also a game changer for the entire healthcare sector as it moves from treating diseases to empowering individuals to take healthcare matters into their own hands and create better health and wellness for themselves.”

Matthew Toms, Co-Founder and CEO of WellAware

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Andrea Bloom Founder & CEO

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The Industry Disruptors Redefining Innovation in 2020

Elemica: T

he basis for competition for manufacturing businesses today is not between companies but between supply chains, which need to be agile and transparent for businesses to succeed. Supply chain visibility brings transparency to what is happening within the supply chain. When supply chains are connected to a Digital Supply Network, visibility to future demand, disruptions, and challenges are seen and strategies designed to help the business overcome any issues. Understanding what is happening within suppliers, logistics service providers, buyers and other trading partners can mitigate any unforeseen risks.

The Elemica Digital Supply Network platform enables manufacturing businesses to support their trading partners with a real-time information sharing environment to ensure supply chain excellence. The result is an uninterrupted supply for critical parts in real-time, less waste, tracking and tracing of shipments, and the ability to respond quicker to changes in demand for improved customer expectations and better bottom-line profitability.

Leading with Advance Technology A disruptive company is one that offers technology that makes significant changes within the market by disrupting established processes, products and mindsets to transform a business. Elemica patented Digital Supply Network (DSN) is a disruptive technology that integrates and synchronizes product, demand, and supply networks. The data is used for analytics, delivering intelligent visibility in terms of logistics, customer service, and procurement to drive new revenue streams and business models.

Elemica's Digital Supply Network is more effective than competitors because many companies on the network are discovering that their suppliers, customers, and logistics service providers are already on the network. The effort to on-board partners is quick and easy and decreases with network reuse.

Exclusive Pack of Services Elemica created a Digital Supply Network connecting global manufacturing industries with their suppliers, logistics service providers, and their customers. This digital

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The Best Performing Supply Chain Management Company

network facilitates global trade and transactions enabling business with each other for maximum efficiency. The network and unique applications allow participants to react to supply/demand changes for their products.

Elemica's offerings include Elemica Buy, Sell, Move, See, and Quality. Elemica Buy leverages digital procure-to-pay process automation to manage supplier relationships.

Elemica Sell automates the order-to-cash process with customers. Elemica Move connects companies with their logistics service providers for transportation execution, visibility, and freight cost management.

Elemica See brings visibility from raw materials to end customer delivery for real-time monitoring of orders and shipments. Elemica Quality ensures supply chain product quality by connecting trading partners into the quality and compliance-based solution.

Coping with Advancement Disruptive logistics and supply chain technologies include cloud computing, blockchain, machine learning, and the Internet of Things. The Elemica cloud-based network is based on event management and rules that run a consistent canonical model that is completely API-driven. With this base, the rationalization of business processes is modeled to take advantage of machine learning and blockchain quite easily.

Elemica has integrated with the Internet of Things (IoT), capturing data from devices and sensors for many years.

Blockchain has been implemented with clients to address specific use cases for their supply chains allowing 3rd parties to leverage the blockchain, applications, smart contracts, and functions of the blockchain.

A Perfect Fit for a Perfect Job Arun Samuga is Chief Technology Officer of Elemica a global SaaS-based Supply Chain Network so ware solu on.

He joined Elemica in 2009 through a merger with Rubber Network. Promoted to CTO in 2018, Arun leads Elemica's global development organization and is responsible for the con nued development of new so ware products and solu ons.

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Arun has more than 25 years of relevant global industry experience in the Software and IT Services market. Prior to Elemica, Arun worked for RubberNetwork as the Director of Supply Chain Implementation and as a Supply Chain Project Manager. He was also a Senior Integration Consultant and Integration Technical Lead.

Arun is a member of the Forbes Tech Council and Supply Chain Insights Network of Networks. He has been awarded a Provider Pros to Know award several times from Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine. He also has achieved 3 US patents for messaging technologies over the Digital Supply Network. He frequently writes articles for industry and trade journals. Arun is an MBA graduate from Georgia State University with a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Multi-national Transportation Management System

Solid Technology Partner Today and in the future, Elemica supports clients as a solid technology partner. The organization facilitates and supports the digital transformation of client organizations through innovation. Next-generation technologies like blockchain, machine learning, IoT, supply chain quality, and others continue to be integrated into the network based on market demands. Elemica will continue to grow globally and vertically into adjacent markets including automotive, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense, food & beverage and CPG. Elemica utilizes Universal Business Documents (UBDs) that have a "connect-once, connect-all" philosophy. Universal Business Documents enable the synchronization of how a business communicates with each other across different cultures, languages, time zones, and country-specific governance using a common method. UBDs are important as businesses enable relationships with partners around specific supply chain processes.

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Arun Samuga Chief Technology Officer

“

Elemica is the leading Digital Supply Network for global manufacturing industries, accelerating digital transformation by connecting, automating, anticipating, and then transforming inter-business supply chain processes for the products they buy, sell, move, and comply.

“

Elemica will introduce several new products in 2020 from development and acquisition. The company recently acquired EyeFreight, a leading multi-national and multimodal transportation management system (TMS). The addition of the TMS capabilities from EyeFreight with the Elemica Digital Supply Network provides clients, a single platform for multi-national shipment optimization, freight settlement, and execution.

September 2020 | 25

Be Smart – or Vanish Why Utilities need to actively develop smart Micro-Grids

T

he energy market is changing rapidly. This is true not only for the USA and Europe but on a global level. Possibly the most important change is the one towards more decentralized systems. This is challenging the utility industry.

Utilities historically have developed by integrating small microgrids which grew around mills and other small-scale generators (today we would say prosumers). This is why utilities developed along the entire value chain: They integrated these micro distribution grids in a more stable larger (Transport) grid and replaced decentralized generation by more cost-efficient central power plants. This highly efficient centralized system was allowing industrial development as we know it. At its time it was possibly the only way to serve large, strongly energy depending production like steel, paper or the upcoming chemical industry. The centralized energy system did not result from an oligopolistic market, but the industry structure derived from an efficient technical design.

There are several reasons why this formerly beneficiary system is challenged today. Not all apply in all markets but some of them do, so decentralization of energy markets is a global trend. Specifically, in most

26 | September 2020

industrial markets the new energy regime is driven by politics favoring small scale, decentral renewable generation. Subsidies on renewables devalue existing large thermic power plants. Even large-scale hydropower plants do not easily pass strict environmental and social feasibility analysis. But independent of any political setting there is another more fundamental reason for the growing competitiveness of a decentralized energy design. While the first phase of industrial development is known for its industrial clusters (often grown close to energy sources like coal or water) which shaped many geographic areas for more than a century, later phases are much more dynamic and do less depend on geographic proximity. Within a dynamic industry setting where businesses are set up and closed or moved somewhere else on a regular basis a static centralized infrastructure loses competitiveness.

In many emerging markets this dynamism as well expands towards those areas which are today not connected to the central grid but offer inexpensive land or new agricultural products which can be sold abroad at high prices. Finally, the political will and the industrial demand for decentralized systems today encounter renewable generation even at small size at competitive costs

compared to large size thermic power plant. For the most prominent renewable technology photovoltaic in the North (with less radiation) this competitiveness is given only as grid parity, meaning central generation plus transport is as expensive as photovoltaic on site. In the Southern hemisphere photovoltaic is already a competitive source empowering decentralized energy infrastructure.

While decentralized generation has caught up with centralized generation plants, distribution systems with a large portion of decentralized renewable generation capacity are often inefficient. There are basically four reasons for this inefficiency: (1) Missing price mechanism supporting grid operations, (2) high costs to operate such a system stable, (3) large amount of excess energy (exported or not being used at all) and (4) sub-utilized interface between microgrid and its feeder system. These are basically the same reasons that in the last century supported the centralization of the grid system. What is needed is an intelligent or smart decentralized distribution system.

An intelligent distribution system with mainly decentralized generation requires more than smart meters and it is different from today popular so

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Power Up

About the Author Dr. Karl Kolmsee the CEO of Smart Hydr o Power , studied agricultural and philosophy at the universities of Hamburg and Goettingen, Germany. After his PhD he has spent most of his professional career in the energy business – first as consultant at A.T. Kearney later as manager at E.ON, Europe’s largest private utility, and member of the board at Schmack biogas, one of the pioneers of the biogas market in Europe. In 2009 Karl Kolmsee has been nominated professor for energy management at Applied University of Kufstein, Austria. His main areas of academic work are international energy markets and renewable energy. In 2010 he founded Smart Hydro Power to focus on design and commercialization of kinetic pico hydro power systems with main focus on rural electrification for emerging markets like India, Latin America and Eastern Africa. Today Smart Hydro Power offers complete solutions for off grid solutions and micro grids.

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September 2020 | 27

called smart home or home storage solutions. These offer photovoltaic, battery and basic load management for the individual household. Some providers of home storage solutions integrate customers in a community model to allow exchange of autogenerated electricity. But these communities are barely more than contract partners within a fixed price net metering model. Individual home solutions – even within sales-and-purchase communities – do not solve any inefficiency issues decentralization faces. These systems are either completely self-sufficient – in this case they are expensive – or they rely on central grid services like a parasite of its host. Sustainable decentralization requires an intelligent control and steering mechanism between the households which build a microgrid.

While there are possibly different steering mechanisms, establishing a local market with the price as variable that guides demand and supply according to the aggregated demand function and the aggregated cost functions seems promising. Technically this does require a dynamic forecasting and load management (at least for major loads which are used in a price-sensitive manner).

At first glance a market model would solve the four major issues shown above. It would set a price for photovoltaic and battery storage which would control demand and thereby reduce necessary installed reserve storage and generation capacity. This mechanism would

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as well be consistent with the functioning of the feeder grid and could therefore supply itself services to this grid which would be valued with the same “currency”.

Technically this steering mechanism might be completely decentralized based on individual processors in each household like the blockchain technology (once necessary processing capacity comes down to acceptable limits) or it might work between a central unit and individual processors. In either way it steers the local market place towards an efficient optimum given generation, demand and battery storage capacity at a defined point in time.

Micro grids do open (within a given legal framework) a possibility for traditional utilities to re-define their role using some of their traditional strengths. But new entrants can equally well enter this space and perform wherever the incumbent does not adapt. This gives room to numerous co-operations between new entrants or between new companies and the incumbent offering their services or developing new business models along the value chain. Incumbent utilities may be smart – or vanish.

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LeapRate Covering the World of Forex Trading

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n independent research and advisory firm and a leading online magazine, LeapRate specializes in providing news and information on the global Forex sector. The dominance of LeapRate makes it the first magazine covering the news for the Forex and leveraged (CFD) trading sector in Europe. The company is privileged to get breaking news, exclusive interviews and stories from a wide range of sources, covering such topics as forex, trading technology, market liquidity, digital currencies, prime services and data, among other areas. The majority of its audience are associated with the forex industry and have an interest in keeping abreast of what is going on in their sector.

€40m in financial trading websites, (such as Leaprate) creating one of the largest trading publishing networks globally.

LeapRate has professional reporters as well as industry friends and contacts who keep the news channel active.

Valentina Kirilova is one of the reporters, who has been responsible for LeapRate’s exclusive pieces and most of its content for more than 4 years now. Following the acquisition last year, she became LeapRate’s Chief Editor.

Kirilova’s work has always focused on technology and finance. Prior to LeapRate, she used to be in charge of DF Markets’ website content, including the broker’s blog.

Product Development is the Key Through Leaprate’s coverage of market news, it helps keeping its audience informed of regulatory, strategic and other important changes that could affect their business.

Throughout the years, LeapRate has gained trust of its audience as a neutral and accurate media and is keeping it that way. This is the most important achievement for the company.

Product development is key to Leaprate’s success and it will be revamping and releasing new features such as its business directory & marketplace.

An Elite Team Leaprate was purchased in 2018 by Catena Media Plc. Catena Media runs leading site brands within casino, sports betting and the financial segment that focus on markets across the globe. It is the largest online publisher lead generator in iGaming and fast becoming a driving force in the financial trading sector. In 2017-18 Catena invested

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Catena Media appointed Nigel Frith to head up its expansion into the financial services sector. Nigel Frith brings more than 18 years of digital experience to the role with 8 of those running regulated consumer finance publishing companies, having previously served as global general manager of money transfer comparison site FXcompared.com. He has also worked for performance marketing specialists Inspire Digital, Simply Media Publishing and ValueClick Europe.

Efficiently Delivering Information It is the well written exclusives and the simple approach to data without oversimplifying, which are always on the top of its daily list, that keeps LeapRate ahead in the competition. Alongside, its sophisticated content and articles designed for maximum impact to the informed reader are the other essential dynamic factors of the company. It’s the efficient delivery of information its audience appreciate the most.

A Strive for Excellence LeapRate is striving to expand its operations in the APAC region. The company is soon going to have a revamped version of its own business directory, which will help its B2B clients to promote themselves as a service to other

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The Industry Disruptors Redefining Innovation in 2020

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Top coverage and expert analyses and commentaries of the financial trading sector. Find anything you need from Forex, prime services and data to Crypto and FinTech in one place.

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Valentina Kirilova Editor in Chief

Nigel Frith CEO

businesses. It will continue establishing new partnerships.

In addition, it will also keep getting top coverage of the news out there on time and investigate important FX industry related current matters for its audience.

Testimonials from Clienteles “We are proud to be part of LeapRate.com & I truly appreciate the enthusiasm and integrity of Valentina Kirilova & Jason Hopgood (Head of Sales). I feel the quality and its distribution area makes it worth the investment. I would like to say thanks to Val & Jason, who were very willing to make sure we have the results we desire.”- Ahu Arslan, Global Marketing Manager at Global Kapital Group.

“LeapRate is a great place to get the latest industry news and updates and stay up-to-date with the key developments in the global markets. When I want to catch the breaking

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industry news I always go to LeapRate.” - Justin Pooni, Head of Branding and Communications, ACY Securities.

“I have been working with LeapRate for a number of years as they are one of the most authoritative and respected media titles targeting the global retail FX and CFD broker community. Wigwam PR has a broad range of market leading clients in this sector including Prime of Prime brokers, trading technology firms, risk management and regulatory technology organisations. We have a strong network of contacts in the industry and are aware that whenever LeapRate posts a news story from one of our clients on their website, that the stories are widely read by a relevant global audience. LeapRate’s daily e-newsletter provides an easy to read, invaluable overview of the key industry stories each day.” – Vanessa Green, Director, Wigwam PR.

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