This month’s cover story throws the spotlight on the ground-up technology transformation journey at Lanes Group – a leading water…
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This month’s cover story throws the spotlight on the ground-up technology transformation journey at Lanes Group – aleading water and wastewater solutions and services provider in the UK.
Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!
In a world driven by transformation, it’s rare a leader gets the opportunity to deliver organisational change in its purest form… Lanes Group – the leading water and wastewater solutions services provider – has started again from the ground up with IT Director Mo Dawood at the helm.
“I’ve always focused on transformation,” he reflects. “Particularly around how we make things better, more efficient, or more effective for the business and its people. The end-user journey is crucial. So many times you see organisations thinking they can buy the best tech and systems, plug them in, and they’ve solved the problem. You have to understand the business, the technology side, and the people in equal measure. It’s core to any transformation.”
Mo’s roadmap for transformation centred on four key areas: HR and payroll, management of the group’s vehicle fleet, migrating to a new ERP system, and health and safety. “People were first,” he comments. “Getting everyone on the same HR and payroll system would enable the HR department to transition, helping us have a greater understanding of where we were as a business and providing a single point of information for who we employ and how we need to grow.”
Schneider Electric provides energy and digital automation and industrial IoT solutions for customers in homes, buildings, industries, and critical infrastructure. The company serves 16 critical sectors. It has a vast digital footprint spanning the globe, presenting a complex and ever-evolving risk landscape and attack surface. Cybersecurity, product security and data protection, and a robust and protected end-to-end supply chain for software, hardware, and firmware are fundamental to its business.
“From a critical infrastructure perspective, one of the big challenges is that the defence posture of the base can vary,” says Cassie Crossley, VP, Supply Chain Security, Cybersecurity & Product Security Office.
“We believe in something called ‘secure by operations’, which is similar to a cloud shared responsibility model. Nation state and malicious actors are looking for open and available devices on networks. Operational technology and systems that are not built with defence at the core and not normally intended to be internet facing. The fact these products are out there and not behind a DMZ network to add an extra layer of security presents a big risk. It essentially means companies are accidentally exposing their networks. To mitigate this we work with the Department of Energy, CISA, other global agencies, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Through our initiative we identify customers inadvertently doing this we inform them and provide information on the risk.”
Persimmon Homes: Digital Innovation in Construction
As an experienced FTSE100 Group CIO who has enabled transformation some of the UK’s largest organisations, Persimmon Homes‘ Paul Coby knows a thing or two about what it takes to be a successful CIO. Fifty things, to be precise. Like the importance of bridging the gap between technology and business priorities, and how all IT projects must be business projects. That IT is a team sport, that communication is essential to deliver meaningful change – and that people matter more than technology. And that if you’re not scared sometimes, you’re not really understanding what being the CIO is.
“There’s no such thing as an IT strategy; instead, IT is an integral part of the business strategy”
WCDSB: Empowering learning through technology innovation
‘Tech for good’, or ‘tech with purpose’. Both liberally used phrases across numerous industries and sectors today. But few purposes are greater than providing the tools, technology, and innovations essential for guiding children on their educational journey. Meanwhile, also supporting the many people who play a crucial role in helping learners along the way. Chris Demers and his IT Services Department team at the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) have the privilege of delivering on this kind of purpose day in, day out. A mission they neatly summarise as ‘empower, innovate, and foster success’.
“The Strategic Plan projects out five years across four areas,” Demers explains. “It addresses endpoint devices, connectivity and security as dictated by business and academic needs. We focus on infrastructure, bandwidth, backbone networks, wifi, security, network segmentation, firewall infrastructure, and cloud services. Process improvement includes areas like records retention, automated workflows, student data systems, parent portals, and administrative systems. We’re fully focused on staff development and support.”
Our cover story this month focuses on the work of Chief Information Officer Simon Birch and Chief Customer & Transformation…
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Our cover story this month focuses on the work of Chief Information Officer Simon Birch and Chief Customer & Transformation Officer Danielle Handley leading Bupa’s digital transformation journey across APAC and delivering a positive impact with its Connected Care strategy.
Welcome to the latest issue of Interface magazine!
“ConnectedCare is our primary mission and we’ve been spearheading time, investment and creativity to reinvent and reinvigorate customer experiences,” says APAC CIO Simon Birch. “Delivering that ConnectedCare proposition to our customers is made possible by the collegiate focus of the organisation. Ultimately, what we’re able to achieve is supporting our most important colleagues, our healthcare practitioners working across our facilities.”
Reflecting on that transformation goal, Chief Customer & Transformation Officer Danielle Handley believes that stakeholder engagement and alignment, while building relationships across the enterprise, have been key to their early success. “We’ve found the champions within the enterprise who are going to form part of the coalition of the willing to start to lead transformation here at Bupa.”
Vodafone: Personalising Embedded Insurance
Halil Teksal, Global Head of Fintech at Vodafone, discusses disruption in insurance, personalisation, and giving customers exactly what they need at the right time. “The main thing we’re aiming for is simplicity. How can we have really easy-to-use personalised solutions? At the end of the day, that’s what customers want. When they buy a smart device, they want to buy the insurance quickly from a reliable provider. It’s important that we satisfy all of those needs.”
Young businessman writing on adhesive notes on glass partition in modern office, ideas, innovation, planning, strategy
Walden Group: Advanced technology for a healthier tomorrow
Denis Connolly, CIO of Walden Group and CEO of Walden Digital, talks about the incredible work the organisation is doing to leverage data and technology for the overall improvement of the world’s health. “We’ve created all these new initiatives just in the last year or so, moving from technology being a cost centre to being an R&D and development-focused organisation.”
Also in this issue, Samer Fouani, Head of Cyber Transformation & Identity Access Management at TAL discusses the cyber journey for colleagues and customers at one of Australia’s leading insurers; Mark Turner, Chief Commercial Officer at Pulsant, explores how medium-sized businesses can best leverage new developments in AI; Martin Hartley, Group Chief Commercial Officer of emagine, examined the role of artificial intelligence in personalising the customer experience for financial services and Marius Stäcker, CEO of ToolTime, shares his four top tips for successfully implementing new software and driving digital transformation.
Businesses have been forced to navigate and adapt to these challenges to ensure continuity, limit interruption and reduce risk
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From Brexit to the pandemic and the current geopolitical conflict, the supply chain industry has faced a flood of challenges in recent years. This has caused disruption to supply chains. Businesses have been forced to navigate and adapt to these challenges to ensure continuity, limit interruption and reduce risk.
Alice Strevens, Director Human Rights and Social Impact, Mazars
As part of this, it’s increasingly important for businesses to ensure they have robust human rights due diligence processes in place. These processes support companies in their decision-making during crises, and help them identify risks in their supply chains. This ultimately protects them in both stable and unstable times.
Human rights and environmental due diligence provides a basis on which to address environmental, social and governance issues that impact supply chain resilience. Companies that respond to crises with an approach based on due diligence are more likely to protect their relationships with suppliers. Plus, they get to mitigate the impact on workers in their value chain. An example of this is during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many companies saw buyers abruptly cancel orders, request refunds in full and pause orders for months. With many suppliers facing reduced sales at the time, it led to questions as to whether businesses were working alongside suppliers. Or taking advantage of the circumstances to get reduced costs.
It’s important to learn from these lessons to build strong sustainable supply chain strategies. This will help businesses remain resilient both in stable times. And in the face of significant events. There isn’t a perfect formula. However, the concept of double materiality (i.e. considering sustainability matters from both the perspective of the impact on people and the environment, and the perspective of the financial risks and opportunities to the business) is helping businesses to assess sustainability-related risk strategically.
Supplier engagement will ensure long-term success
Building a sustainable supply chain for the long-term requires engagement and collaboration with supply chain partners. Long-term relationships can provide a basis to share challenging risks and impacts transparently. Human rights and environmental due diligence foregrounds the importance of engagement and collaboration to mitigate identified risks and build resilience.
The responsible supply chain strategy should be integrated into the overarching sourcing strategy and supplier engagement approach. Delivery against the strategy should be built into performance targets and incentives. Regular reviews of impacts, targets and KPIs should be conducted at board level. Making use of the latest technological developments, including assessing their risk for social/environmental concerns and measuring and tracking performance. This will help companies stay ahead and be prepared in their processes.
An evolving regulatory landscape calls for preparedness
Another important point to keep in mind is the legislative landscape. This is especially pertinent in the EU, as the rules will make previous voluntary standards now mandatory and will impact large companies. This includes those in their supply chain, including in the UK.
Companies should therefore look to base their strategies on the authoritative voluntary frameworks on conducting human rights and environmental due diligence. Primarily the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct. This will set them up for meeting legislative requirements down the line. For example, Mazars and Shift co-wrote the UNGP Reporting Framework, which provides a framework for companies to adopt responsible practices, and manage human rights risks.
The future of supply chain is now
Ultimately, companies and suppliers should work together to ensure collaboration and a robust strategy which takes all parties into consideration. Listening to feedback and promoting good communication between stakeholders will ensure smooth sailing during the business-as-usual times. And the more tumultuous periods.
Implementing long-lasting strategies and creating resilience to risks will increase business’ market access and promote their financial value. Thus ensuring that they deliver quality goods and gain loyalty among suppliers.
This month’s exclusive cover story features a fascinating discussion with Dhaval Desai, Principal Group Engineering Manager at Microsoft, regarding a massive and sustainable supply chain transformation at the tech giant…
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This month’s exclusive cover story features a fascinating discussion with Dhaval Desai, Principal Group Engineering Manager at Microsoft, regarding a massive and sustainable supply chain transformation at the tech giant…
In the past four years, Microsoft has gained more than 80,000 productivity hours and avoided hundreds of millions in costs. Did you miss that? That’s probably because these massive improvements took place behind the scenes as the technology giant moved to turn SC management into a major force driving efficiencies, enabling growth, and bringing the company closer to its sustainability goals.
Expect changes and outcomes to continue as Dhaval Desai continues to apply the learnings from the Devices Supply Chain transformation – think Xbox, Surface, VR and PC accessories and cross-industry experiences and another to the fast-growing Cloud supply chain where demand for Azure is surging. As the Principal Group Software Engineering Manager, Desai is part of the Supply Chain Engineering organisation, the global team of architects, managers, and engineers in the US, Europe, and India tasked with developing a platform and capabilities to power supply chains across Microsoft. It’s an exciting time. Desai’s staff has already quadrupled since he joined Microsoft in 2021, and it’s still growing. Within the company, he’s on the cutting edge of technology innovation testing generative AI solutions. “We are actively learning how to improve it and move forward,” he tells us.
We also have some inspiring and informative content from supply chain leaders and experts at Schneider Electric, Smart Cube, Protokol, Red Helix and Astrocast. Plus, expert predictions for 2024 from leading supply chain leaders, as well as a round-up of the best events this year has to offer!
We look into the supply chain production process of Easter Eggs and the journey to their final destinations in supermarkets
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Chocolate is arguably the world’s most popular sweet treat. Depending on who you ask, of course.
After, perhaps Christmas, it is the most common time for people to indulge in chocolate if they don’t do so anyway throughout the year.
And synonymous with Easter are the eggs themselves which are loved by children and adults alike all over the world.
The journey to Easter Eggs
The supply chain process is split into eight stages of production: cultivating, harvesting, splitting, fermentation, drying, winnowing, roasting and grinding. Following production, the supply chain process is extended further with logistics which is the final step to providing customers with their favourite seasonal sweet treat.
The journey actually begins with cocoa tree plantations being established which is done by scattering young cocoa trees amongst new shade trees or by planting the cocoa trees between established trees. These are planted in humid tropical climates, with temperatures between 21 and 23 degrees Celsius. This is consistent rainfall periods and a short dry season because these conditions provide good quality cocoa.
Each tree produces 20-30 cocoa pods a year which grows straight from the tree’s trunk and main branches. With this tree also yielding fruit, the crop is carefully pruned, and as a result, it is easier to harvest the cocoa pods. The next step is the labour-intensive task of harvesting the crop.
The harvest is a whole community affair on small West African farms. Large knives are then used to detach the pods from the trees and placed in large baskets on workers’ heads. The pods are then manually split open to remove the beans so they are ready for the two-step curing process. Each pod consists of between 20-40 purple cocoa beans.
The curing process consists of fermenting and drying the beans to develop the chocolate flavour. There are several fermentation methods but the most traditional is the heap method. This requires placing mounds of wet cocoa beans in between layers of banana leaves on the ground for between five to six days. Following this, the drying stage begins. This involves the wet bunch of beans being spread out in the sun or using a more advanced method of special dying equipment.
From plant to factory
Often, a lot of large chocolate brands then buy the cocoa through intermediaries. The beans are then packed into sacks ready to be exported to the brands processing facilities in other locations globally.
After arrival, the beans are cleaned and quality inspected before the winnowing stage takes place. The dried beans are cracked to separate the shell from the nib which is where the small chunks are used to produce chocolate. Afterwards, the roasting phase begins in which the nibs are baked at high temperatures reaching 120 degrees Celsius in special ovens. This is where the colour and flavour is acquired.
Subsequently, the next stage is grinding which creates the basis of all chocolate products. The roasted nibs are grounded in stone mills until a thick liquid chocolate consistency is achieved.
Chocolate to egg
The final step is creating the chocolate egg masterpiece by using highly efficient computer-operated technology which has been used since the mid-20th century. The molten chocolate is placed in heated egg molds which are rotated so there is an even thickness. Following this, the eggs are left to cool and then removed from the molds. Once cooled, the eggs are wrapped in coloured foil and packaged into individual boxes before being sent out for retail. The transportation and exportation throughout the various supply chain stages is vital being a seasonal product. This means they are heavily relied upon for their timings to deliver to large supermarkets and independent stores.
Here are five of the best procurement schools in Europe.
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As procurement becomes an increasingly vital and strategic function within many organisations, people are beginning to realise the full potential of turning it into a career for themselves.
This has subsequently led to many universities noticing the demand in the industry and offering courses which equip students with the relevant qualifications and skills needed to succeed in the supply chain space.
With this in mind, here are five of the best procurement schools in Europe.
1. CIPS
Course: Various Where: Across England
Run by Oxford College of Procurement and Supply, there are 10 Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply centres in England offering several different qualification levels to choose from. The courses are recognised throughout the world as harnessing leading edge thinking and professionalism across the procurement and supply chain management space.
CIPS offers courses such as level three, four, five and six in procurement and supply with each qualification created to reflect current, emerging and best practice in procurement and supply chain management. Classes focus on exploring legacy purchasing and supply methods as well as techniques and theory to the application in a business environment.
CIPS doesn’t just offer in-person studying as courses are designed to suit individual lifestyles with virtual classrooms, part-time and weekend options to choose from.
2. Politecnico di Milano
Course: MSc in Supply Chain and Procurement Management Where: Milan, Italy
Renowned as being one of the best scientific and technological universities in the world, Politecnico di Milano offers an extensive portfolio of programmes in a variety of different spaces. Its supply chain master’s degree is a 12-month course aimed at equipping students with vital knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the industry.
The course also includes a number of practical activities in the programme such as lessons with international lectures, workshops on soft skills, company presentations, projects with companies, company visits and an international study tour in Rotterdam.
According to Politecnico di Milano, 86% of students were employed three months after graduation while 55% were also working abroad during the same period.
The course was ranked third in the TOP 2021 Eduniversal Best Masters Ranking (Global) and eighth in the QS Supply Chain Management Masters Rankings for 2023.
3. SKEMA Business School
Course: MSc (and MS) Supply Chain Management and Purchasing Where: Lille and Paris, France
Skema offers two supply chain management (SCM) and procurement masters: The premium international MSc Global Supply Chain Management in Lille taught in English, and the MS in SCM and Purchasing in Paris and Lille mainly taught in French. France’s highly-rated supply chain and procurement program has been designed with a progressive shift from theory to practice. The degree covers the entirety of supply chain activities from planning, purchasing, receiving, production, storage to delivery through nine compulsory and six elective courses.
The global MSc has a new cooperation with the leading prestigious business school, MIT in the US, plus another cooperation with Politechnico from Milano. The MSc master’s degree provides soft skills in supply chain and purchasing management as well as going into future trends in digitalisation, AI, sustainability, ethics, globalisation, risk management and agility. The course’s primary goal is to find future leaders who are seeking to make a positive impact on the world of supply chain management and procurement. The MSc is a full time program, complemented by paid internships in the area of the student’s choice, while the MS alternates weeks of classes with professionals at the forefront of their fields.
4. Audencia Business School
Course: MSc in Supply Chain and Purchasing Management Where: Nantes, France
Created in 2009, Audencia Business School’s programme will cover topics such as procurement, global sourcing and supply chain strategies. Other topics to feature includes green logistics, Big Data, digital transformation, negotiation and commercial law. The course will provide expertise from industry insiders as business executives visit and share professional insights during the programme.
The school works closely with the corporate world and is recognised for its responsible management practices. Audencia is triple-accredited, highly ranked and internationally oriented and according to its website, 79% of course graduates are employed before graduation. The course is available as a one-year or two-year master’s programme.
In autumn 2024, the course is set to be renamed to the MSc in Responsible Procurement and Supply Chain Management.
5. Cranfield School of Management
Course: MSc in Procurement and Supply Chain Management Where: Cranfield, United Kingdom
Cranfield School of Management provides students with specialist knowledge and skills in procurement needed to progress their careers
Cranfield’s Procurement and Supply Chain Management course has been co-designed with senior industry executives. This purchasing postgraduate course provides students with specialist knowledge and skills in procurement needed to progress their careers. Possessing one of the largest facilities in Europe, the course places considerable emphasis on how to overcome real-world challenges.
Students will gain an in-depth understanding of supply chain strategy and sustainability, procurement strategy, supplier selection and evaluation, negotiation and contact management. They will also be taught how to use data, models and software to solve problems and inform decisions, inventory and operations management and how to design effective supply chain operations.
Students will have the opportunity to attend a study tour and experience a different supply chain perspective elsewhere in Europe.
The course was ranked 11th in the world on the QS Supply Chain Management Masters Rankings for 2023.
Expert analysis of the tech trends set to make waves this year
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Digital transformation is a continuing journey of change with no set final destination. This makes predicting tomorrow a challenge when no one has a crystal ball to hand.
After a difficult few years for most businesses following a disruptive pandemic and now battling a cost-of-living crisis, many enterprises are increasingly leveraging new types of technology to gain an edge in a disruptive world.
With this in mind, here are what experts predict for the next 12 months…
1. Process Mining
Sam Attias, Director of Product Marketing at Celonis, expects to see a rise in the adoption of process mining as it evolves to incorporate automation capabilities. He says process mining has traditionally been “a data science done in isolation” which helps companies identify hidden inefficiencies by extracting data and visually representing it.
“It is now evolving to become more prescriptive than descriptive and will empower businesses to simulate new methods and processes in order to estimate success and error rates, as well as recommend actions before issues actually occur,” says Attias. “It will fix inefficiencies in real-time through automation and execution management.”
2. The evolution of social robots
Gabriel Aguiar Noury, Robotics Product Manager at Canonical, anticipates social robots to return this year. After companies such as Sony introduced robots like Poiq, Aguiar Noury believes it “sets the stage” for a new wave of social robots.
“Powered by natural language generation models like GPT-3, robots can create new dialogue systems,” he says. “This will improve the robot’s interactivity with humans, allowing robots to answer any question.
“Social robots will also build narratives and rich personalities, making interaction with users more meaningful. GPT-3 also powers Dall-E, an image generator. Combined, these types of technologies will enable robots not only to tell but show dynamic stories.”
3. The rebirth of new data-powered business applications
Christian Kleinerman, Senior Vice President of Product at Snowflake, says there is the beginning of a “renaissance” in software development. He believes developers will bring their applications to central combined sources of data instead of the “traditional approach” of copying data into applications.
“Every single application category, whether it’s horizontal or specific to an industry vertical, will be reinvented by the emergence of new data-powered applications,” affirms Kleinerman. “This rise of data-powered applications will represent massive opportunities for all different types of developers, whether they’re working on a brand-new idea for an application and a business based on that app, or they’re looking for how to expand their existing software operations.”
4. Application development will become a two-way conversation
Adrien Treuille, Head of Streamlit at Snowflake, believes application development will become a two-way conversation between producers and consumers. It is his belief that the advent of easy-to-use low-code or no-code platforms are already “simplifying the building” and sharing of interactive applications for tech-savvy and business users.
“Based on that foundation, the next emerging shift will be a blurring of the lines between two previously distinct roles — the application producer and the consumer of that software.”
He adds that application development will become a collaborative workflow where consumers can weigh in on the work producers are doing in real-time. “Taking this one step further, we’re heading towards a future where app development platforms have mechanisms to gather app requirements from consumers before the producer has even started creating that software.”
5. The Metaverse
Paul Hardy, EMEA Innovation Officer at ServiceNow, says he expects business leaders to adopt technologies such as the metaverse in 2023. The aim of this is to help cultivate and maintain employee engagement as businesses continue working in hybrid environments, in an increasingly challenging macro environment.
“Given the current economic climate, adoption of the metaverse may be slow, but in the future, a network of 3D virtual worlds will be used to foster meaningful social connections, creating new experiences for employees and reinforcing positive culture within organisations,” he says. “Hybrid work has made employee engagement more challenging, as it can be difficult to communicate when employees are not together in the same room.
“Leaders have begun to see the benefit of hosting traditional training and development sessions using VR and AI-enhanced coaching. In the next few years, we will see more workplaces go a step beyond this, for example, offering employees the chance to earn recognition in the form of tokens they can spend in the real or virtual world, gamifying the experience.”
6. The year of ESG?
Cathy Mauzaize, Vice President, EMEA South, at ServiceNow, believes 2023 could be the year that environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) is vital to every company’s strategy.
“Failure to engage appropriate investment in ESG strategies could plunge any organisation into a crisis,” she says. “Legislation must be respected and so must the expectations of employees, investors and your ecosystem of partners and customers.
“ESG is not just a tick box, one and done, it’s a new way of business that will see us through 2023 and beyond.”
7. Macro Trends and Redeploying Budgets for Efficiency
Ulrik Nehammer, President, EMEA at ServiceNow, says organisations are facing an incredibly complex and volatile macro environment. Nehammer explains as the world is gripped by soaring inflation, intelligent digital investments can be a huge deflationary force.
“Business leaders are already shifting investment focus to technologies that will deliver outcomes faster,” he says. “Going into 2023, technology will become increasingly central to business success – in fact, 95% of CEOs are already pursuing a digital-first strategy according to IDC’s CEO survey, as digital companies deliver revenue growth far faster than non-digital ones.”
8. Organisations will have adopted a NaaS strategy
David Hughes, Aruba’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, believes that by the end of 2023, 20% of organisations will have adopted a network-as-a-service (NaaS) strategy.
“With tightening economic conditions, IT requires flexibility in how network infrastructure is acquired, deployed, and operated to enable network teams to deliver business outcomes rather than just managing devices,” he says. “Migration to a NaaS framework enables IT to accelerate network modernisation yet stay within budget, IT resource, and schedule constraints.
“In addition, adopting a NaaS strategy will help organisations meet sustainability objectives since leading NaaS suppliers have adopted carbon-neutral and recycling manufacturing strategies.”
9. Think like a seasonal business
According to Patrick Bossman, Product Manager at MariaDB corporation, he anticipates 2023 to be the year that the ability to “scale out on command” is going to be at the fore of companies’ thoughts.
“Organisations will need the infrastructure in place to grow on command and scale back once demand lowers,” he says. “The winners in 2023 will be those who understand that all business is seasonal, and all companies need to be ready for fluctuating demand.”
10. Digital platforms need to adapt to avoid falling victim to subscription fatigue
Demed L’Her, Chief Technology Officer at DigitalRoute, suggests what the subscription market is going to look like in 2023 and how businesses can avoid falling victim to ‘subscription fatigue’. L’Her says there has been a significant drop in demand since the pandemic.
“Insider’s latest research shows that as of August, nearly a third (30%) of people reported cancelling an online subscription service in the past six months,” he reveals. “This is largely due to the rising cost of living experienced globally that is leaving households with reduced budgets for luxuries like digital subscriptions. Despite this, the subscription market is far from dead, with most people retaining some despite tightened budgets.
“However, considering the ongoing economic challenges, businesses need to consider adapting if they are to be retained by customers in the long term. The key to this is ensuring that the product adds value to the life of the customer.”
11. Waking up to browser security
Jonathan Lee, Senior Product Manager at Menlo Security, points to the web browser being the biggest attack surface and suggests the industry is “waking up” to the fact of where people spend the most time.
“Vendors are now looking at ways to add security controls directly inside the browser,” explains Lee. “Traditionally, this was done either as a separate endpoint agent or at the network edge, using a firewall or secure web gateway. The big players, Google and Microsoft, are also in on the act, providing built-in controls inside Chrome and Edge to secure at a browser level rather than the network edge.
“But browser attacks are increasing, with attackers exploiting new and old vulnerabilities, and developing new attack methods like HTML Smuggling. Remote browser isolation is becoming one of the key principles of Zero Trust security where no device or user – not even the browser – can be trusted.”
12. The year of quantum-readiness
Tim Callan, Chief Experience Officer at Sectigo, predicts that 2023 will be the year of quantum-readiness. He believes that as a result of the standardisation of new quantum-safe algorithms expected to be in place by 2024, this year will be a year of action for government bodies, technology vendors, and enterprise IT leaders to prepare for the deployment.
“In 2022, the US National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) selected a set of post-quantum algorithms for the industry to standardise on as we move toward our quantum-safe future,” says Callan.
“In 2023, standards bodies like the IETF and many others must work to incorporate these algorithms into their own guidelines to enable secure functional interoperability across broad sets of software, hardware, and digital services. Providers of these hardware, software, and service products must follow the relevant guidelines as they are developed and begin preparing their technology, manufacturing, delivery, and service models to accommodate updated standards and the new algorithms.”
13. AI: fewer keywords, greater understanding
AI expert Dr Pieter Buteneers, Director of AI and Machine Learning at Sinch, expects artificial intelligence to continue to transition away from keywords and move towards an increased level of understanding.
“Language-agnostic AI, already existent within certain AI and chatbot platforms, will understand hundreds of languages — and even interchange them within a single search or conversation — because it’s not learning language like you or I would,” he says. “This advanced AI instead focuses on meaning, and attaches code to words accordingly, so language is more of a finishing touch than the crux of a conversation or search query.
“Language-agnostic AI will power stronger search results — both from external (the internet) and internal (a company database) sources — and less robotic chatbot conversations, enabling companies to lean on automation to reduce resources and strain on staff and truly trust their AI.”
14. Rise in digital twin technology in the enterprise
John Hill, CEO and Founder of Silico, recognises the growing influence digital twin technology is having in the market. Hill predicts that in the next 20 years, there will be a digital twin of every complex enterprise in the world and anticipates the next generation of decision-makers will routinely use forward-looking simulations and scenario analytics to plan and optimise their business outcomes.
“Digital twin technology is one of the fastest-growing facets of industry 4.0 and while we’re still at the dawn of digital twin technology,” he explains. “Digital twins will have huge implications for unlocking our ability to plan and manage the complex organisations so crucial for our continued economic progress and underpin the next generation of Intelligent Enterprise Automation.”
15. Broader tech security
With an exponential amount of data at companies’ fingertips, Tricentis CEO, Kevin Thompson says the need for investment in secure solutions is paramount.
“The general public has become more aware of the access companies have to their personal data, leading to the impending end of third-party cookies, and other similar restrictions on data sharing,” he explains. “However, security issues still persist. The persisting influx of new data across channels and servers introduces greater risk of infiltration by bad actors, especially for enterprise software organisations that have applications in need of consistent testing and updates. The potential for damage increases as iterations are being made with the expanding attack surface.
“Now, the reality is a matter of when, not if, your organisation will be the target of an attack. To combat this rising security concern, organisations will need to integrate security within the development process from the very beginning. Integrating security and compliance testing at the upfront will greatly reduce risk and prevent disruptions.”
16. Increased cyber resilience
Michael Adams, CISO at Zoom, expects an increased focus on cyber resilience over the next 12 months. “While protecting organisations against cyber threats will always be a core focus area for security programs, we can expect an increased focus on cyber resilience, which expands beyond protection to include recovery and continuity in the event of a cyber incident,” explains Adams.
“It’s not only investing resources in protecting against cyber threats; it’s investing in the people, processes, and technology to mitigate impact and continue operations in the event of a cyber incident.”
17. Ransomware threats
As data leaks become increasingly common place in the industry, companies face a very real threat of ransomware. Michal Salat, Threat Intelligence Director at Avast, believes the time is now for businesses to protect themselves or face recovery fees costing millions of dollars.
“Ransomware attacks themselves are already an individual’s and businesses’ nightmare. This year, we saw cybergangs threatening to publicly publish their targets’ data if a ransom isn’t paid, and we expect this trend to only grow in 2023,” says Salat. “This puts people’s personal memories at risk and poses a double risk for businesses. Both the loss of sensitive files, plus a data breach, can have severe consequences for their business and reputation.”
18. Intensified supply chain attacks
Dirk Schrader, VP of security research at Netwrix, believes supply chain attacks are set to increase in the coming year. “Modern organisations rely on complex supply chains, including small and medium businesses (SMBs) and managed service providers (MSPs),” he says.
“Adversaries will increasingly target these suppliers rather than the larger enterprises knowing that they provide a path into multiple partners and customers. To address this threat, organisations of all sizes, while conducting a risk assessment, need to take into account the vulnerabilities of all third-party software or firmware.”
19. A greater need to manage volatility
Paul Milloy, Business Consultant at Intradiem, stresses the importance of managing volatility in an ever-moving market. Milloy believes bosses can utilise data through automation to foresee potential problems before they become issues.
“No one likes surprises. Whilst Ben Franklin suggested nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes, businesses will want to automate as many of their processes as possible to help manage volatility in 2023,” he explains. “Data breeds intelligence, and intelligence breeds insight. Managers can use the data available from workforce automation tools to help them manage peaks and troughs better to avoid unexpected resource bottlenecks.”
20. A human AI co-pilot will still be needed
Artem Kroupenev, VP of Strategy at Augury, predicts that within the next few years, every profession will be enhanced with hybrid intelligence, and have an AI co-pilot which will operate alongside human workers to deliver more accurate and nuanced work at a much faster pace.
“These co-pilots are already being deployed with clear use cases in mind to support specific roles and operational needs, like AI-driven solutions that enable reliability engineers to ensure production uptime, safety and sustainability through predictive maintenance,” he says. “However, in 2023, we will see these co-pilots become more accurate, more trusted and more ingrained across the enterprise.
“Executives will better understand the value of AI co-pilots to make critical business decisions, and as a key competitive differentiator, and will drive faster implementation across their operations. The AI co-pilot technology will be more widespread next year, and trust and acceptance will increase as people see the benefits unfold.”
21. Building the right workplace culture
Harnessing a positive workplace culture is no easy task but in 2023 with remote and hybrid working now the norm, it brings with it new challenges. Tony McCandless, Chief Technology Officer at SS&C Blue Prism, is well aware of the role organisational culture can play in any digital transformation journey.
“Workers are the heart of an organisation, so without their buy in, no digital transformation initiative stands a chance of success,” explains McCandless. “Workers drive home business objectives, and when it comes to digital transformation, they are the ones using, implementing, and sometimes building automations. Curiosity, innovation, and the willingness to take risks are essential ingredients to transformative digitalisation.
“Businesses are increasingly recognising that their workers play an instrumental role in determining whether digitalisation initiatives are successful. Fostering the right work environment will be a key focus point for the year ahead – not only to cultivate buy-in but also to improve talent retention and acquisition, as labor supply issues are predicted to continue into 2023 and beyond.”
22. Cloud cover to soften recession concerns
Amid a cost-of-living crisis and concerns over any potential recession as a result, Daniel Thomasson, VP of Engineering and R&D at Keysight Technologies, says more companies will shift data intensive tasks to the cloud to reduce infrastructure and operational costs.
“Moving applications to the cloud will also help organisations deliver greater data-driven customer experiences,” he affirms. “For example, advanced simulation and test data management capabilities such as real-time feature extraction and encryption will enable use of a secure cloud-based data mesh that will accelerate and deepen customer insights through new algorithms operating on a richer data set. In the year ahead, expect the cloud to be a surprising boom for companies as they navigate economic uncertainty.”
23. IoT devices to scale globally
Dr Raullen Chai, CEO and Co-Founder of IoTeX, recognises a growing trend in the usage of IoT devices worldwide and believes connectivity will increase significantly.
“For decades, Big Tech has monopolised user data, but with the advent of Web3, we will see more and more businesses and smart device makers beginning to integrate blockchain for device connectivity as it enables people to also monetise their data in many different ways, including in marketing data pools, medical research pools and more,” he explains. “We will see a growth in decentralised applications that allow users to earn a modest additional revenue from everyday activities, such as walking, sleeping, riding a bike or taking the bus instead of driving, or driving safely in exchange for rewards.
“Living healthy lifestyles will also become more popular via decentralised applications for smart devices, especially smart watches and other health wearables.”
The second issue of SupplyChain Strategy is live! Features exclusive articles on TTI and McPherson’s
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Our exclusive cover story this month sees us speaking to Heath Nunnemacher, VP of Global Electronics Sourcing at TTI, who details the streamlining of its procurement function into a more efficient and effective value-unlocking enabler of business.
Techtronic Industries (TTI) is among the world’s largest manufacturers of mostly cordless power tools, outdoor power equipment, and floorcare products for both professional users and do-it-yourself (DIY) consumers.
TTI’s growth has been extraordinary – 13 years of consecutive double-digit gross margin improvement, in fact. In 2021 the company set a new revenue growth record just shy of 35%, more than twice that of its closest global competitor.
A significant driver of that growth is a strategic focus on disrupting industries through leadership in cordless technology. To do so, it requires advanced electronics and collaboration with the most innovative and biggest players in the industry. But with the chip shortage crisis looming on the horizon in late 2020, the organisation found itself challenged by a severe lack of visibility in the electronics procurement function. Enter Heath Nunnemacher, the man charged with transforming electronics procurement for the overall betterment of the business.
Not only that, but we also have a fascinating discussion with McPherson’s Supply Chain Director Mark Brady. The health, wellness, and beauty giant McPherson’s has a rich history of agile procurement through resilience and collaboration and Brady reveals its secret sauce.
Plus, we detail the important supply chain trends to look out for in 2023 as well as five top supply chain events coming up!
A survey by researchers at WMG, University of Warwick saw 249 mid to large manufacturers from food and beverage to automotive, and pharmaceuticals to electronic equipment and more industries respond to the survey about their supply chain resilience in the current state and future potential…
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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many people across the world, one particular way includes supply chains, some people found they couldn’t buy pasta or loo roll, and it was the same for manufacturers, who suddenly had to change their strategies to ensure their supply chain during the pandemic.
There have been many challenges in the past for the manufacturing supply chain, such as the 2001 recession, SARS, 2011 Tohoku earthquake, 2016 oil crisis, and Brexit. Although there have been other pandemics such as swine flu and Ebola, the COVID-19 pandemic was nothing the modern world had ever seen before.
A survey by researchers at WMG, University of Warwick saw 249 mid to large manufacturers from food and beverage to automotive, and pharmaceuticals to electronical equipment and more industries respond to the survey about their supply chain resilience in the current state and future potential.
They found several impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, including:
· 58% of firms ae still experiences a decrease in demand 3 months post lockdown
· 66-73% of firms have been effective to responding to increases and decreases in demand
· Buffer management, multi-sourcing and visibility were favoured over agile production networks
· Cash management and securing supply were critical initial responses to the covid-19 crisis
· 84% of firms found their planning systems were effective, but still required human intervention
· The most apparent bottlenecks to their supply chain was people issues, such as warehouse staff being in quarantine at home
The researchers then assessed manufacturers supply chain resilience in three different times, business as normal, during COVID-19 and preparation for Brexit. For each time period they identified how 6 supply chain resilience practices that could be used proactively (pre-disruption), reactively (during and post disruption) or both. These included:
2. Visibility – Having access to real time data (Proactive)
3. Collaboration – Working with SC partners to deliver customer value (Proactive & reactive)
4. Buffer management – Utilising inventory and production capacity to enable material flow (Proactive and reactive)
5. Flexibility – Establishing multiple sourcing options (Proactive and reactive)
6. Adaptability – Transforming the SC in responding to dynamic business environment (Reactive
In normal operation firms found their practices to generally be effective. However, there was opportunity for improvements in visibility and collaboration to support improved supply chain planning. Firms also said they have been effective in managing buffers in normal operation.
During the Covid-19 pandemic firms utilised supply chain planning as a response to the pandemic with effective planning systems reported by 84% of manufacturers. However, this still required a high degree of human intervention. Buffer management and flexibility were found to be less effective than in normal operations. The survey found that 55% of manufacturers used inventory as their primary buffer against disruption, with only 32% utilising flexibility within the agile production systems of suppliers. Inventory buffers whilst effective if the disruption creates an upturn in demand, can be catastrophic to cash flow if demand drops.
Similarly to COVID-19 when it comes to Brexit they’ve found that an increase in collaboration has led to improved supply chain visibility and planning. However, the uncertainty of Brexit is a cause for concern in terms of supply base flexibility with firms unsure of what type of response will be required.
Professor Jan Godsell from WMG, University of Warwick comments: “It’s interesting to see that the lessons manufactures’ have learnt in developing supply chain resilience practices in response to COVID-19 pandemic are helping manufacturers to prepare for Brexit. However, the uncertainty of Brexit, particularly in terms of the impact of flow of material is challenging for developing supply base flexibility. Whilst manufacturers can proactively prepare for Brexit, a high degree of adaptability will be required to buffer against the unknown.
“All manufacturers should consider assessing their current level of supply chain resilience to identify the areas in which their current supply chain resilience practices could be developed. Working collaboratively with supply chain partners to improve supply chain visibility and planning are the key building blocks. More effective use of inventory and capacity buffers, and flexibility within the supply base can further improve resilience. Some disruptions cannot be predicted, and supply chains need to the capability to adapt.”
Heineken, the world’s most global brewer, has been working with JDA Software, Inc., for more than five years on its…
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Heineken, the world’s most global brewer, has been working with JDA Software, Inc., for more than five years on its large-scale cloud-based digital planning transformation. HEINEKEN has recently committed to extending its JDA footprint in specific geographies, which is already live in five operating countries (Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Poland and France). With a strategy to shift from a sales & operations planning (S&OP) model to an Integrated Business Planning (IBP) model, HEINEKEN is fundamentally upgrading the way it plans its business with JDA.
HEINEKEN is the world’s most international brewer, and the number one brewer in Europe, with operations in more than 70 markets globally. It is the leading developer and marketer of premium beer and cider brands. Led by the HEINEKEN® brand, the Group has a portfolio of more than 300 international, regional, local and specialty beers and ciders. They are committed to innovation, long-term brand investment, disciplined sales execution and focused cost management. Through “Brewing a Better World”, sustainability is embedded in the business and delivers value for all stakeholders.
“We have some of
the most complex and volatile markets in the world and have been working with
JDA to make faster, more well-informed decisions, which directly impact
everyone in the value chain” said Joost Luijbregts, senior Director Global
Customer Service / Logistics / Planning, HEINEKEN. “With JDA, we have taken big
steps forward – fundamentally changing the way we plan our business in terms of
S&OP and scenario planning. As our partnership with JDA continues to
strengthen, I am looking forward to work with JDA on our journey towards IBP.”
HEINEKEN
embarked on its strategy to shift from an S&OP approach to an IBP approach,
uniting sales, marketing, finance, supply chain and procurement together to
make well-informed decisions, and plan and forecast for the future. New
scenario planning capabilities have allowed the business to make trade-offs on
costs, margins and capacity. Since deploying this strategy across Europe,
HEINEKEN has seen an increase in forecast accuracy, reduction in stock-outs and
improved inventory turns and productivity.
Moving forward,
HEINEKEN will bring the integrated JDA solution to most of its larger global
locations, signifying the largest cloud-based solution at HEINEKEN. Going
forward, HEINEKEN has its sights set up harnessing the power of artificial
intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with JDA, as it begins a pilot
project using JDA Luminate Demand Edge.
“We’ve formed a
strategic relationship with HEINEKEN with a foundation built on trust and
openness, which is highly critical as we develop the next phase in their IBP
roadmap,” said Johan Reventberg, president, EMEA, JDA. “With a clear roadmap
for the future, HEINEKEN is well-positioned to continue driving a leadership
position in the market, while delivering superior customer levels across all
its 70+ markets.”
In a world awash with a seemingly never-ending list of technology buzzwords such as automation, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence…
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In a world awash with a seemingly never-ending list of technology buzzwords such as automation, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to name a few, AI is one such technology that is moving away from simple hype and stepping closer to reality in procurement.
Here, CPOstrategy looks at 5 ways in which AI is being utilised in procurement…
Procurement, by its very nature, is tasked with handling huge quantities of spend and with spend comes spend data. Often described by leading CPOs as a repetitive task, understanding and sorting that spend data is now being achieved through the implementation of AI.
Through the use of AI, procurement teams can remove human error, increase efficiency and realise greater value from spend data.
Chatbots
One of the biggest ways in which AI is being implemented around the world is in the customer interaction space. In telcos, for example, customer support can now be handled via a highly developed AI chatbot that uses legacy data and context to provide real-time, and unique, solutions for customers.
In procurement, chatbots follow a similar path for both internal and external customers. With tailored and context-aware interactions, chatbots create an omni-channel user experience for all stakeholders in the procurement ecosystem.
Supplier risk identification
Procurement and risk go hand in hand and one of the biggest risks is identifying and working with the right partner. Working in partnerships, which ultimately proves to be a failure, can be extremely costly and so AI is now being used to reduce the risk of failure.
Machine Learning technology, powered by AI, captures and analyses large quantities of supplier data, including their spend patterns and any contract issues that have emerged in previous partnerships, and creates a clearer picture of a supplier in order for the procurement teams to be able to identify whether this particular partner is right for them – without spending a penny.
Benchmarking efficiency
Benchmarking is key to any organisation’s ambition to measure and continuously improve its processes, procedures and policies. In procurement, organisations such as CIPS are used as examples of best practice in which procurement functions all over the world can benchmark against and identify any gaps.
Similar to supplier risk identification, AI can be implemented within ERP systems to analyse the entirety of data that passes through procurement and present this key data in easy to digest formats.
Examples include data classification, cluster analysis and semantic data management to help identify untapped potential or outliers in which procurement teams can improve their processes.
Purchase order processing/Approving purchasing
Procurement has evolved from its traditional role as simply managing spend into a strategic driver for a number of organisations all around the world.
As the role of the CPO has changed, technology such as AI has been implemented to free up their time from the menial tasks (such as PO processing and approving purchases), allowing them to spend more time in areas of growth.
AI software can be used to automatically review POs and match them to Goods Receipt Notes as well as combining with Robotics Process Automation (RPA) to capture, match and approve purchases through the use of contextual data. This contextual data allows AI to identify and make decisions based on past behaviour.
Part four of a six-part supply chain masterclass with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner of supply chain at Gartner. Frank explains…
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Part four of a six-part supply chain masterclass with Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner of supply chain at Gartner. Frank explains how to build a supply chain excellence operating system, enabled by a centre of excellence.
Frank Vorrath, Executive Partner of Supply Chain at Gartner
One of the key things identified within your concept of a supply chain excellence operating system is two-directional thinking, where you’ve got people working in the business and people working on the business – could you elaborate on that, please?
Transformations are really driven by future growth ambitions of those organisations, or if they are looking and expanding into new areas and new business models. Lots of things are changing very fast and exponentially. If you look at that, that sets limitations for organisations to actually do the same things as they did in the past. From a structural point of view, your current capabilities won’t allow you to compete in the future. You have to think about how you are going to approach that.
There’s also a limitation in terms of resources. The concept of perform and transform is simple to understand, which means you still have to focus on your core business and create results and good performance, while at the same time transforming. The concept is almost like running a sprint and a marathon at the same time. If you think about what you can do with the same setup and structure you have without investing, and potentially a different set of excellences, then it’s probably stretching your current resources to a limit.
If you think about the transform activity you
have to do as an organisation, you think more about what you need to do to be
successful in the future. If you think about the sprints, you still have to
focus on your core business and on day-to-day good performance, and you also need
to think about what enables you to perform day to day, running these sprints,
making sure you keep and stay focused on delivering performance end results to
your business and to your customers as well meeting their objectives and needs,
but also transforming the organisation at the same time and building the new
muscles you need in the future related to the capabilities.
What sort of
challenge does this balancing act, between the two areas, present?
If you do that with your current resources you have available in your business you may find yourself in a position that is too much a stretch for your resources: to be able to deliver on your expectations. Somewhere, you need to balance it. The question is can you balance that with your existing resources and the existing structure you have, or perhaps you have to set up a different structure – where you have people working in the business and people working on the transformation. Both are equally important to you as a business because one is really keeping the lights on and delivering the performance you need today, which is finding the capabilities you have to build for the future. That needs to be balanced. Is it easy? Probably not. But is it required? Absolutely.
Where does
change management come into the equation?
With change management and transformations, it’s really shifting the mindset and the behaviour and actions towards generating more an improved and sustainable business performance and results. It’s about having clarity of the destination, and a clear understanding of why are you doing this, and what you want and need in order to transform.
The next important part of change management is role modelling. Your leadership plays such an important role here in championing the transformation with clear and defined specific communication and milestones. Taking people along with you on this journey and having an understanding of ‘walk the talk’, and being visible and aligned on a leadership level creates the pull in an organisation.
There’s also organisational capabilities, the resources I need, the financial commitment that an organisation has to make to transform, because it can be dependent on the maturity of that organisation. Sometimes you have to be able to invest first to generate the benefits later on. You have to be able to have governance in that model, which is strictly focused on priorities for the business as an outcome and is steering the organisation through that transformation. The culture and the mindset of the people, the knowledge and skills have to be in place, and it has to be somewhere measured and sustained.
Also, you have to be able to reinforce. How do you align your goals and objectives and your incentives structures on the two important activities, perform and transform, in a balanced way? Not just incentivising generating results today, but also incentivising transforming the organisation to be able to compete in the future. It’s not just continuous improvement. It’s building an operating system, considering what drives change, creating push and pull in an organisation, and really with the mindset of the future to improve, as well as building muscle, creating sustainable business performance and end results, and meeting the never-ending customer expectations in future.
How does a
role model approach help overcome the challenges in change?
It has to start at the top of an organisation, which means you have to be very clear, very concise and compelling. People need to understand why you are doing this, and be very clear about the outcome, when you want to do certain things, and what it’s actually going to do for the organisation. Take people along the journey and bring them in a way in that they have a stake in the game, so they are able to participate and provide their input into the transformation. That’s really important when you start your change management and transformation.
You also have to somewhere create an excitement
factor for your people to believe that the future you’re going to create for
them is a future where they want to be part of, where they want to be proud of,
so they are excited to actually take you as an organization forward into that
future.
How do you
bring the customer into the conversation?
It’s key to incorporate customers into it. Don’t
be shy in asking your customer how can you serve them better. How can you
create more a collaborative joint partnership together? It’s no longer about
vendor and supply and customer relationship, it’s about a partnership on a more
strategic level. As a business, if you’re able to figure that out and bring
your key customers in, listen to them and make them part of it, or even make
them a joint development in terms of building an operating system, even better.
You may want to consider joint investments into building the capabilities you
need in future, especially in areas when it comes to looking into talent related
to emerging technologies, data, data scientists, etc.
You really have a scarcity and you have to build and think about how you want to build these kinds of talents in your organisation from a different perspective and different ways. You may want to do this jointly together with your customers, because they probably have the same needs like you have in their own business, and the same kind of limitation and challenges to find the right talents. Instead of just doing it on your own and being completely internally focused, combine the inside out with the outside in. The key in that is your customer or your customers.
How
important is it to develop an end to end supply chain IT strategy and
technology roadmap so that the technology and the procurement transformation
are aligned?
You have to have an end-to-end view of your technology. Technology can’t be seen in isolation with what you are trying to accomplish with the strategic objectives of your business related to the value proposition you have. Technology and digitalisation, you can be taken from two angles and that’s what I’m seeing currently happening in the marketplace. On the one side, you see companies focusing and creating new business models through digitalisation related to their products and services, selling outcomes and solutions instead of selling products and devices.
On the other side, you see a lot of activity in terms of digitalisation in the supply chain. These two things are connected, but we also know that 70% of the initiatives currently in the marketplace are disconnected. Technology is creating new business models, using data to access and provide insights to your business for better and informed decision making. Data could also mean monetising that data and creating new business models. Technology, from your business process optimisation point of view, can create a new level of maturity in terms of efficiency.
That’s where a lot of companies are focusing on and deploying new technologies because they want to figure out if there are business benefits they can introduce to the business and to harness new capabilities and with automated processes that reduce time, errors, cost, and also increase the efficiencies they have in their business. To be able to do that, you need to have a blueprint and an understanding of where you are at currently with your technology landscape and your applications, and also where you want to grow in the future.
What is the overall journey of this centre of excellence system, where it starts with developing infrastructure, building supply chain excellence capabilities, and then reaching a stage where that supply chain excellence is woven within the organisation’s DNA?
The ideas of transform and perform, and the
resource constraints that organisations are having by using the same resources
has been recognised in the market widely and you have seen over the last couple
of years more and more organisations actually building a centre of excellence.
With a centre of excellence, you have to consider that there are different
centres of excellence. Now you have to have a functional centre of excellence
where you just focus on building the maturity in certain areas of your supply
chain.
You could also have a logistics centre of
excellence. You could have other centres of excellence, like a manufacturing
centre of excellence. The goal is to design your centre of excellence and be
aligned with the main activity across your whole value chain, which means if
you are a manufacturing organisation and a supply chain organisation or procurement,
you would organise your centre of excellence in a way that would incorporate
the strategy element into that. There are different ways of structuring a
supply chain centre of excellence.
My recommendation, if a business can afford it,
would be to focus on end to end, rather than just functional, because if you
just focus on functional excellence, again, your integration and collaboration
across the different functions might be a bit of a challenge.
Is
excellence an ever-moving target?
You always have to work on that. You’re never
done. If you really think about your
plan of a transformation, does it stop after three years? No, it’s not going to
stop.
What you’re hoping for when you had enough momentum, excitement and generated the results, is the building of a culture and a DNA. That is probably the longest part of a transformation which is never-ending, because if you think about it from a leadership point of view, when you build it with your team and operating system, you want to build something which is sustainable and not dependent on you as a leader or your team. It should be there, even if you move on. It should be part of the culture so that people and generations after can still build from what was built, to make it better.
Eman Abouzeid, Global Procurement and Supply Chain Professional, discusses how important ethics and CIPS’ code of conduct is to fellow…
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Eman Abouzeid, Global Procurement and Supply Chain Professional, discusses how important ethics and CIPS’ code of conduct is to fellow industry professionals
Understanding
ethics and exercising good ethical behaviour are vitally important areas within
the procurement and supply profession, and the procurement professional should
always disclose any potential conflict of interest and follow the advice given
from a person in authority.
In this article, I am demonstrating the importance of the CIPS code of conduct in procurement and supply management and outline the actions and behaviours that all CIPS members must follow, as CIPS code of conduct promotes the adoption of ethical processes within procurement and supply, and encourages individuals to raise any concerns regarding unethical behaviours with a person of authority within the organisation.
CIPS
is the global leading organisation serving procurement professionals. As such,
CIPS has a code of conduct that all CIPS members are expected to follow. The
code is current and reflects modern business environments.
The purpose of this code of conduct is to define behaviours and actions which CIPS members must commit to maintaining as long as they are members of CIPS.
Member
of CIPS worldwide should encourage their organisations to adopt an ethical
procurement and supply policy based on the principles of this code and raise
any matter of concern relating to business ethics at an appropriate level
within their organisations.
Let’s briefly survey and explain the different sections of CIPS code of conduct, in order to define what are the behaviours and actions that CIPS members must commit to maintain.
Enhancing and protecting the standing of the profession
This
part of the CIPS code of conduct is to do with how a procurement professional
should always operate in ways that both enhance and help to protect the
standing of the profession. Furthermore, it ensures that CIPS members should
act in a professional way in both their working and personal life, and they should
always operate in accordance with their organisation’s policies while being
mindful of the profession they are representing – this part of the code of
conduct includes the following practices:
Never
engaging in conduct, either professional or personal, which would bring the
profession or the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply into disrepute.
Not
accepting inducements or gifts (other than any declared gifts of nominal value
which have been sanctioned by your employer).
Not
allowing offers of hospitality or those with vested interests to influence, or
be perceived to influence, your business decisions.
Being
aware that your behaviour outside your professional life may have an effect on
how you are perceived as a professional.
Maintaining the highest standard of integrity in all business relationships
Integrity
is about being honest and ethical, and working to or portraying conduct which
reflects strong moral values. This part of the CIPS code of conduct outlines
why a CIPS procurement professional should maintain a high standard of
integrity within business relationships, and includes the following principles:
Rejecting
any business practice which might reasonably be deemed improper.
Never
use your authority or position for your own financial gain.
Declaring
to your line manager any personal interest that might affect, or be seen by
others to affect, your impartiality in decision making.
Ensuring
that the information you give in the course of your work is accurate and not
misleading.
Never
breaching the confidentiality of information you receive in a professional
capacity.
Striving
for genuine, fair and transparent competition.
Being
truthful about your skills, experience and qualifications.
Promoting the eradication of unethical business relationships
Ethical behaviour is very
important within procurement, procurement professionals can help eradicate
unethical behaviour through not creating or maintaining a relationship with businesses
that do not promote good ethics – Such eradication of unethical business
practices is done by the following practices:
Fostering
awareness of human rights, fraud and corruption issues in all your business
relationships.
Responsibly
managing any business relationships where unethical practices may come to
light, and taking appropriate action to report and remedy them.
Undertaking
due diligence on appropriate supplier relationships in relation to forced
labour (modern slavery) and other human rights abuses, fraud and corruption.
Continually
developing your knowledge of forced labour (modern slavery), human rights,
fraud and corruption issues, and applying this in your professional life.
Enhancing the proficiency and stature of the profession
The code
of conduct in this section asks members to bring skills, competences and a good
reputation to the procurement industry. In addition, CIPS members are expected
to keep their CPD up to date and undertake a certain amount of training,
reading or knowledge gathering each year. In doing so, procurement
professionals can apply their knowledge within their employment and help to
develop both themselves and colleagues.
This can
be achieved by:
Continually
developing and applying knowledge to increase your personal skills, and those
of the organisation you work for.
Fostering
the highest standards of professional competence amongst those for whom you are
responsible.
Optimising
the responsible use of resources which you have influence over for the benefit
of your organisation.
Ensure full compliance with laws and regulations
The final part of the CIPS code
of conduct is related to complying with legislation and regulations through:
Adhering
to the laws of the countries in which the procurement professionals practice,
and in countries where there is no relevant law in place they will apply the
standards inherent in this code.
Fulfilling
agreed contractual obligations.
Following
CIPS guidance on professional practice.
Last but not least, the CIPS
code of conduct outlines what is important to help a procurement professional
practise in a professional, ethical, and effective way. This code is reviewed
regularly to keep it relevant and is approved by CIPS Global Board of Trustees.
In conclusion
Procurement
professionals who are perfectly familiar with the CIPS code of conduct and its
correct standards, and follow such standards at all times can help their
organisations to achieve long-term success, being more financially successful, and
create and sustain a good reputation.
Ethics
in procurement and supply operations are a moving goalpost that procurement
professionals should ensure they keep up to date with. Legislations and
standards can change frequently so it is significant to always follow the
current version of the employer’s code of ethics in order to ensure that
procurement best practices are used.
I hope this has
been of interest to you and furnished you with some knowledge to consider.
Our cover story this month, features David Medori, Chief Procurement Officer at William Hill who reveals how strategic procurement is aiding the global gaming giant…
During 2018, 600 million bets were placed with William Hill, further establishing its reputation as a world leader in gaming. Employing more than 15,500 people in 10 countries, the 85-year-old bookmaker and games provider is continually innovating new and engaging ways to bet and game, whether in shops, sports books, online or mobile devices.
Leading a procurement function in this world-renowned brand and
operating on varying platforms in differing geographies is no easy task,
whether your requirement is software, hardware or professional services.
William Hill’s Chief Procurement Officer, David Medori, is responsible for
procurement of all third-party goods and services, covering indirect and direct
procurement. We met up with David at William Hill’s brand-new headquarters in
Tottenham Court Rd, London, to see how the procurement function is transforming
under his leadership…
Elsewhere, we spoke to Edgar Lim, Vice President of Technology and
Procurement at EnterSolar to explore how a sound procurement philosophyachieves growth in a “solar-coaster” market. Jon
Hansen tells us the 3 Obstacles To Digitally Transforming Your Supply
Chain and we also catch up with Tradeshift co-founder
Gert Sylvest, and CPO Roy Anderson, who reveal how their global open business
platform is transforming the future for buyers and sellers.
We also list the top 5 key influencers in procurement and reveal the
biggest events and conferences from around the globe.
Gartner Inc released the results of its Supply Chain Top 25 ranking for 2019, with Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle and Nike among…
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Gartner Inc released the results of its Supply Chain Top 25 ranking for 2019, with Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle and Nike among the global leaders for supply chain best practice.
Announced at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference in early May, 2019 represents the 15th consecutive year that Gartner has collated the Top 25 as a platform for insights, learning, debate and contributions to the rising of supply chain practices on the global economy.
The Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2019
Rank Company
1) Colgate-Palmolive
2 ) Inditex
3 ) Nestlé
4 ) PepsiCo
5 ) Cisco Systems
6 ) Intel
7 ) HP Inc.
8 ) Johnson & Johnson
9 ) Starbucks
10) Nike
11 ) Schneider Electric
12 ) Diageo
13 ) Alibaba
14 ) Walmart
15 ) L’Oréal
16 ) H&M
17 ) 3M
18 ) Novo Nordisk
19 ) Home Depot
20 ) Coca Cola Company
21 ) Samsung Electronics
22 ) BASF.
23 ) Adidas
24 ) Akzo Nobel
25 ) BMW
The Supply Chain Top 25 rankings are defined by two main areas: business performance and opinion. Business performance in the form of public financial and CSR data provides a view into how companies have performed in the past, while the opinion component offers an eye to future potential and reflects leadership in the supply chain community.
As the pressure to create the perfect supply chain continues, it has become apparent that human processing alone won’t be…
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As the pressure to create
the perfect supply chain continues, it has become apparent that human
processing alone won’t be able to keep up with greater complexities and a high
volume of orders. Businesses must ensure their establishing a strong
relationship with their suppliers, manufacturers and consumers, and are driving
continual improvements.
Supply chains used to be
very siloed meaning organisations would have different systems and reports for
each supplier. Unfortunately, this approach provided no real visibility of what
was happening behind the curtain, or between the siloes, and caused confusion
for all involved. As more firms have recognised that suppliers are an extension
of their in-house teams and should be treated as such, closer relationships
have been forming. Technology has helped this process as it’s enabled improved
communication and transparency.
To stay ahead of the competition, having excellent supplier relationships that are supported by the right technology will be key. Over the next decade concerns around sustainability are set to drive consumer behaviour, therefore organisations need to keep a close eye on their supply chain, as well as their internal practices to establish a sustainable platform. Establishing a strong relationship with suppliers will make them more willing to give companies improved levels of visibility, helping to refine their end-to-end supply chain processes.
Through providing one central location of information, businesses can ensure cross-functional supply teams are using the most up-to-date information to guarantee that they are only placing businesses with approved suppliers. This strategy enables organisations to plan and manage all of their interactions with the suppliers to mitigate the risk of poor collaborative practice and identify opportunities for growth.
The role of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain technology in the supply chain is growing. The
introduction of blockchain will provide companies with the ability to fulfil
vital parts of a product’s journey; this will give them a competitive edge, as
they have the insight needed to deliver an immutable, reliable record. And with
the addition of AI, these businesses will also be able to process the large
volumes of data available, quickly and intelligently. All these factors will be
key to unveiling even more essential information about operational performance,
providing the opportunity for organisations to reconsider supply chains both
tactically and strategically. The extended insights can also drastically reduce
the risk associated with embracing new suppliers, while providing businesses
with the details they need to reassure consumers that they’re embracing
ethical, valuable practices.
Global procurement market intelligence firm SpendEdge has released its Global E-Commerce Logistics Category of its Procurement Market Intelligence Report. According…
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Global
procurement market intelligence firm SpendEdge has released its Global
E-Commerce Logistics Category of its Procurement Market Intelligence Report.
According to SpendEdge, “the growing popularity of the e-commerce industry has spurred the rise
in intra-regional and cross-border trade which is supported by the prevalence
of favourable e-commerce trade policies across the globe”.
The improving purchasing power is, according to the report,
giving freedom to the working-age population to exhibit a significant
incremental spend on e-commerce websites, which consequently, is accelerating
spend momentum of the e-commerce logistics market.
This e-commerce logistics market intelligence report offers
a comprehensive analysis of the primary cost drivers and its subsequent impact
on the overall pricing. Current supply market forecasts and the spend
opportunities for the suppliers are also outlined and the category spend is
analysed from the perspective of both buyers and the suppliers.
SpendEdge procurement expert Anil Seth said: “Buyer’s
service requirements vary based on their geographic location. This makes it
essential for them to select suppliers based on their capability to provide
customised services.”
In the news again, retail giant Walmart has revealed that it is taking control of its own rail supply chain….
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In the news again, retail giant Walmart
has revealed that it is taking control of its own rail supply chain. The
company has launched a pilot programme that will see them use name-brand
freight containers to cut out third-party rail companies and middleman fees.
The Raymond
Group in India has announced that it plans to reshuffle its own
supply chain so as to manage demand and supply more effectively. The move is
powered by the shifting sands of economic outlook and market demand and is
designed to put the company on a more competitive footing.
A smart sensor that allows for total supply chain visibility and
increased security has been implemented by Kerry
Logistics Network. The sensor forms part of the organisation’s shift
to using the Internet of Things (IoT) to optimise its supply chain and its
deliverables.
On the security frontier, research from security specialist Symantec
has found that vulnerabilities in commercial software and operating systems
were increasingly being used to launch cyberattacks. These supply chain attacks
use loopholes in third-party solutions and increased by a startling 78% from
2017 to 2018.
Along with security issues, technology and the changing nature of the supply chain will be hot topics at the 2019 Retail Supply Chain Conference that opened its doors in Orlando, Florida, today. Keep an eye on the hashtag #Link2019 to keep up to date on insights and commentary from the event.
ResearchAndMarkets has released its global supply chain analytics market forecast to 2023 today. Focusing on supplier performance analytics, demand analysis and inventory analytics, the research has estimated that the market is set grow to $US 7.1 billion by 2023 with a CAGR of 14.6 percent. The release stated that there is a ‘need to analyse demand patterns, develop effective production plans and improvise forecast accuracy…’ To add some weight to the research burden, Acumen Research and Consulting released its own research on 24 February that outlined how the supply chain analytics market will be worth around $US10.7 billion by 2026.
Meanwhile: the release of foldable smartphones – a trend that’s now
impossible to ignore as Samsung reveals remarkable, Huawei competitive and LG
broken – has a knock-on effect on the supply chain;
there are fabrics
that can remember your passwords; a Business
Insider Intelligence’s research report examines the impact of edge
computing solutions; and IBM
reveals five technologies that it believes will disrupt the food supply
chain.
In a bid to shift the costs of drugs for patients and hospitals, non-profit organisation, Civica RX, is preparing to…
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In a bid to shift the costs of drugs for patients and hospitals,
non-profit organisation, Civica
RX, is preparing to up-end the supply chain for drug sourcing in the
USA. According to Bloomberg, the company is aiming to address critical drug
shortages by finding the quickest routes to market. Using a three-pronged
approach that includes sourcing from existing drug companies and hiring
contract manufacturers, Civica RX is looking to change the high cost of critical
drugs and increase supplies.
KPMG has released a report that outlines the risks and the hype that
surround the digital supply chain. The report takes a long hard look at the
security threat that comes in alongside digital investment and transformation
and warns that cyber criminals are ‘realising that the shortest way is not
through the front door, but through the “weaker links” that make up a digitally
enabled supply chain’.
Still with KPMG and technology threats, another report released by
both KPMG and Oracle
examines the security gaps that exist in cloud services. The global survey is
designed to provide decision makers with relevant insight into the threats with
commentary from 450 participants.
In Canada, the Supply
Chain Management Association (SCMA) celebrated its 100th anniversary
and used this as an opportunity to announce the beneficiaries of the SCMA
Fellow Award. The prestigious award that recognises excellence in supply chain
leadership was given to Madeleine Paquin, President and CEO of Logistec
Corporation in Montreal, and Robert Wiebe, Chief Administrative Officer for
Loblaw Companies Limited in Toronto.
Data Analyst, Ken Gibson of Black Ink Technologies, examines how blockchain
can play a pivotal role in reducing the increasing complexities of the supply
chain. He points out that ‘supply chains have gotten to be ridiculously
complex…’ and points to the growing need for reliability in management,
administration, sourcing and control.
AP
Møller Mærsk (APMM)’s fourth quarter results
were released on 21 February, revealing a company still busy with its
restructuring. The numbers released were didn’t impress investors, however, and
it seems the company has a way to go before reaching the levels that will
rebuild confidence.
Also in the news: Goldspot
Discoveries, the first AI mining company, has just listed on the TSX
Venture Exchange; the Tri-County
Defense Supply Chain and Business Resource Fair allows for
businesses to connect to government contracting; supply chain integrity
solutions provider, Overhaul
Group, announced that Robert Pocica has joined as a Senior Advisor
to the board of directors; and Gizmodo
wins the headline of the day with ‘Thank god phones are getting weird again’…
The future of the supply chain industry has long been held in the hands of technology and innovation. These have…
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The future of the supply chain industry has long been held in the
hands of technology and innovation. These have shifted the goalposts, placing
customers in the driving seat and changing how they engage with brands and
business. In a recent article
by James Manyika and Susan Lund in the Harvard Business Review, this shift is
taken into deeper context as they examine how the ‘Next Era of Globalization
will be Shaped by Customers, Technology, and Value Chains’. Kicking off with
the statistic that three quarters of companies say that their global investment
strategies are changing thanks to uncertainty over trade policy.
At the NRF
2019 Big Show, this trend was placed in sharp relief as brands
showcased the technology designed to drive customer experiences. From
artificial intelligence to virtual reality, numerous solutions were on display,
all providing the sector with much-needed insight into what could potentially
lie ahead and what could be used, right now, to transform customer experiences.
While on the topic of experiences, Ford has decided to shift its
focus from comfortable cars to intelligent beds. The company believes that
these high-tech beds will save marriages as an embedded conveyor belt – built
with car technology – gently rolls unruly sleepers back into position. Using
the Lane Assist technology, it’s called, somewhat unimaginatively, the Lane
Keeping Bed.
Pensa Systems and Birdzi, two startups immersed in the development of retail experience technology solutions, have revealed they’re joining a Dallas-based venture firm called RevTech. The company specialises in retail technology and tools that allow stores to become part of the so-called Age of Amazon with innovations in in-store drones, voice-activated assistants and more.
Retailers are under pressure to invest in digital and its potential.
The question is – who will succeed? The digital leader or the digital explorer?
An in-depth article in Retail
Customer Experience tries to answer the question as to which mindset
is winning the race to digital transformation, and why.
In New Zealand, the government announced a proposal to merge all of
the 16 polytechnics
around the country into a single national institute. The goal is to reform the
organisations in an attempt to redress some of the challenges it faces in falling
enrolments and increasing debts.
According to the report, out of the 16 institutions, nine were in
deficit while 11 suffered falling enrolments in 2017.
Also in the news was: the Selfcare
Summit 2019 that reimagines retail for wellness, Virtual Vision’s
launch of a platform
designed to create smarter physical stores, the partnership
between the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and the startup Smarter
Sorting for AI-based compliance, an analysis
as to what lies ahead for retail with regards to predictive analytics, and FDA
testing of a secure supply chain pilot programme.
