Business Chief USA March 2019

HHH USA 

EDITION 

MARCH 2019 

www.businesschief.com 

Unlocking 

potential 

through data 

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC 

FINTECH 

DIGITAL 

TRANSFORMATION 

OF PROCUREMENT 

VP Global Procurement 

Nirav Mehta on the company’s 

journey to customer centricity 

TOP 10 

Smartest cities 

in the USA 

City Focus 

CHARLOTTE 

Which companies are 

leading its technology 

transformation?

FOREWORD 

W 

elcome to the March issue of 

Business Chief USA. 

“What gives us an edge is our scale 

– we’re the number one in the industry 

and we have been at it the longest,” 

says Ben Hawksworth, Chief Technology 

Officer at Progressive 

Leasing. In our lead feature 

this month, Hawksworth 

explains how the company 

is helping creditchallenged 

customers 

with a disruptive digital 

transformation that harnesses 

agile methodology 

and applies it to fintech at scale. 

From its 27,000 retail locations and 

online, Progressive Leasing’s leaseto-purchase 

option has helped millions 

of customers and their families. 

Hawksworth insists that “we measure 

usability, we practice design-first 

thinking and, at the end of the day, 

we’re really passionate about taking 

the friction out of the process for our 

customers at every step”. 

Also highlighted this month is 

Edgewell Personal Care, whose 

motto of ‘challenge to win’ is taking 

the company on a journey to transform 

its procurement function, 

enabling a consumer-centric, sustainable 

future, and Infor USA, the 

industry-leading software 

company using cuttingedge 

analytics, data 

lake technology and its 

own artificial intelligence 

to unlock the human 

potential of its customers. 

This month’s City Focus 

takes a look at Charlotte, North 

Carolina, and three of the disruptive 

‘unicorns’ that call it home. You can 

also find Charlotte on our list of the 

top 10 smart cities in the country. 

Enjoy the issue! 

Harry Menear 

harry.menear@bizclikmedia.com 

03 

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CONTENTS 

10 

Procurement’s 

role in Edgewell’s 

transformation 

and digitization 

44 

Ahead of 

the curve 

SOFTWARE 

ENABLING 

5G 

30

REINVENTING 

UPSKILLING 

FOR THE FOURTH 

INDUSTRIAL 

REVOLUTION 

54 

64 76 

City Focus 

CHARLOTTE 

OPEN DATA ADDRESSING 

WORLD HUNGER — 

SOLVING THE 

AGRICULTURAL CRISIS 

FOR A MORE 

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 

86 

TOP 10 

Smart cities 

in the USA

CONTENTS 

100 148 

Progressive Leasing 

Infor 

162 

116 

Choice 

Financial 

PAY-O-MATIC 

130 

Boise State 

University

214 

Traffix 

230 

176 

Calgary Drop-In 

Dimension Data 

186 248 

Hyster 

PBL Insurance 

198 

Emmerson 

Packaging

10 

MARCH 2019

SUPPLY CHAIN 

Procurement’s 

role in Edgewell’s 


and digitization 

11 

WRIT TEN BY 

CATHERINE STURMAN 

PRODUCED BY 

DENITRA PRICE 


EDGEWELL PERSONAL CARE 

With the motto of ‘challenge to win’, 

Edgewell Personal Care has been 

on a journey to transform its 

procurement function to enable 

a consumer-centric, sustainable 

future. VP Global Procurement 

Nirav Mehta tells us more… 

12 

T 

he procurement function has evolved 

from purely transactional – such as 

managing purchase orders, payments 

and invoices – to a strategic role across 

organizations. Shifting its value proposition to 

become an integral part of a business, procurement 

is expected to deliver a significant impact 

on bottom line margins using innovative 

sourcing strategies and cost saving levers. The 

value proposition is evolving even further, where 

procurement has sought to impact the top line 

of an organization by delivering supplier-enabled 

innovations, forming an integral part of 

corporate social responsibility (CSR) and 

sustainability objectives, mitigating all kinds of 

external risk to supply continuity, finances or 

even brand equity. 

A clear example of that is how businesses, 

presently faced with political uncertainty, 

government regulations and ongoing trade 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

wars on a global scale, are looking at the 

procurement function. Such volatility has put 

unprecedented financial and supply chain 

risks on businesses, which is where procurement 

needs to be in driver’s seat. 

On top of this, the ongoing digital disruptions 

impacting every industry, has resulted in 

increased pressure on businesses to transform 

their models. The procurement 

function must play a critical role in digital 

transformations of businesses, while 

also transforming itself. 

“I believe these are significant 

challenges, but it makes our role 

in procurement very exciting and 

valuable at the same time,” reflects 

Nirav Mehta, Vice President of 

Global Procurement at Edgewell 

Personal Care (EPC). Joining the 

business four years ago and 

appointed as Vice President in 2018, 

Mehta’s diverse background in the 

consumer goods industry made him 

the perfect choice to take the business 

on its next stage of growth. Working 

for Coty, Avon and L’Oréal amongst 

others, he reflects that he joined “this 

gem of a company” due to its “phenomenal 

culture” and its “collaborative and 

down-to-earth people.” With several 

13 



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SUPPLY CHAIN 

“We have deployed 

technology-enabled 

solutions at every stage 

of the procurement 

value stream, with 

the objective to 

reduce redundancies, 

and automate and 

streamline processes” 

— 

Nirav Mehta, 

Vice President of Global Procurement 

at Edgewell Personal Care (EPC) 

strong fundamentals in place for the 

business to succeed long-term, including 

strong personal care brands under its 

umbrella, Mehta is enthusiastic about 

the role procurement and supply chain 

is playing in its transformation. 

“We like to call ourselves a small big 

company. It also describes our culture 

and our entrepreneurial mindset to 

a great extent. Like a startup, perhaps, 

but with the resources of a large 

organization,” he says wistfully. “We 

are not so big that the bureaucracy and 

politics of decision making, or lack of 

empowerment can stifle our growth 

and innovation. I believe this is a great 

asset that we have, and we try to 

leverage it. Our company’s motto, in 

simple words, is ‘challenge to win’. We 

consider ourselves challengers to our 

competitors in the industry.” 

Technology continues to accelerate 

the transformation of every industry, 

and the consumer-packaged goods 

(CPG) and personal care sector is no 

exception. Whether it is e-commerce 

or direct-to-consumer type business 

models. EPC was previously geared 

15 



16 

towards competing with larger CPG 

companies and serving large, brickand-mortar 

type retailers. As digitization 

continues to shift the goalposts, 

a significant number of niche brands 

are not only challenging market share 

and the price positioning of bigger 

players, but also the traditional business 

models which have remained relatively 

unchanged – until now. 

“I would say even consumer behaviors 

are changing,” observes Mehta. 

“In the past, consumers used to be 

a lot more loyal to big brand names, 

but nowadays are looking for more 

personalization and are more willing 

and open to try new brands and new 

products that appeal to their individuality, 

that the values of these brands 

align with the values of themselves.” 

“You see this huge influx of really 

small, niche piranha brands in every 

consumer goods sector. That niche 

value proposition is targeted to a very 

specific segment of consumers, 

appeals to them and is successful in 

grabbing pieces of market share. At 

the end of the day, when you add all 

that up, it becomes a challenging 

marketplace for incumbent players.” 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

With shifts in consumer behavior, an 

evolving landscape from brick-and-mortar 

to e-commerce, as well as business 

models changing to direct-to-consumer 

and subscription-type models, these 

tensions, on top of such geopolitical 

uncertainties, has created a hotbed 

of challenges for companies like EPC. 

EPC is undergoing a journey to transform 

each area of the business. From taking 

a closer look at changing consumer 

behaviors and delivering agile innovation 

through simplified ways of working, the 

business is also deploying new digital 

tools to become increasingly proactive 

amidst changing market trends. 

The procurement team at EPC is 

at the front and center of navigating 

through these complex challenges. 

Recently, the business effectively 

managed an ongoing threat posed 

by the steel import tariffs by the US 

government. Due to its proactive 

approach, the business was one of 

the first to be granted exemptions by 

the US Department of Commerce. 

“When the US government announced 

the 25% tariff on imported 

steel, it was one of the key challenges 

we were facing in our shaving business 

17 

EXECUTIVE PROFILE 

Nirav Mehta 

Nirav is a veteran of CPG industry. In his 20 years of 

experience, he has worked across numerous leading 

global CPG companies like Coty, Avon, L’Oreal and 

Edgewell. He brings significant cross-functional leadership 

experience in Plant Engineering, Manufacturing, 

Package Engineering, Supply Chain, and Procurement. 

Nirav is passionate about Procurement, as it demands 

a combination of soft skills like Negotiations and 

relationship building, as well as sound business acumen, 

financial skills, macro-economics, and category expertise. 



18 

because our razors are manufactured 

with imported blade steel. It was 

a challenging situation because 

something like that can immediately 

have a big impact on the margins of 

that line of business. We took a very 

systematic, and what I would consider 

a very organized approach towards 

managing that risk in a four-step 

approach,” he explains. 

“The first step was to really understand 

the policy, go down to the details 

and really understand what the tariff 

is being applied on. What categories 

of steel is the tariff being applied for? 

What countries are exempt? What 

countries are not exempt? What are the 

criteria for exemption? These tie back 

to our category expertise as well, where 

we had a very in-depth understanding 

of the macroeconomics, the cost 

drivers and the marketplace for blade 

steel. This really helped us to incorporate 

a sourcing strategy that would 

allow us to manage some of these risks. 

“The second step was assessing the 

risk exposure, understanding the full 

value stream within our supply chain 

“In the past, consumers 

used to be a lot more 

loyal to big brand names, 

but nowadays are looking 

for more personalization 

and are willing to try 

new brands that appeal 

to their individuality” 

— 

Nirav Mehta, 




SUPPLY CHAIN 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘EDGEWELL’ 

19 

where there could be an impact. After that, 

step three was taking some immediate actions. 

We were very proactive in terms of filing 

a petition, we were in very close contact with 

our suppliers and made sure that we aggressively 

appealed and made our case with the 

US Department of Commerce. We also 

sought advice from experts within the trade 

field,” he continues. 

“As a result of all these efforts, we were one 

of the first to be granted an exemption for the 

blade steel category. As a final step, we are 

considering our long-term strategic decisions 

and how we can build more flexibility and 

agility within our supply chain and mitigate 



20 

such impacts in the future. Whether it is 

alternative sourcing and manufacturing 

strategies, or changing up product strategies 

or our specifications. However, we are not 

done here, as there are still ongoing efforts 

to ensure we strategically manage impact 

of tariffs on various other categories, including 

imports from China.” 

EPC Procurement Managers are tasked 

with not only understanding EPC’s business 

needs, but also develop their expertise on 

macroeconomics, cost drivers, competitive 

benchmarking, external innovations and more. 

The procurement team is then able to utilize 

this insight and intelligence to implement 

multi-year sourcing strategies. These multiyear 

strategies will then define how to deliver 

further value within the different lines of 

businesses at EPC. The team is also driving 

value through commodity risk management 

across all lines of business. By implementing 

strategies for most of its commodities to share, 

transfer, operationalize, deflect or even hedge 

ongoing risks, EPC has different strategies 

dependent on each commodity and what is 

happening in the supply markets. Taking 

advantage of these levers has allowed the 

team to provide increased visibility to its 

business stakeholders. 

“It’s understanding where an impending 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

$2.3bn 

Approximate 

revenue 

2015 

Year founded 

6,000 

Approximate number 

of employees 

21 

significant business risk is and being proactive 

about mitigating and managing such risk,” 

stresses Mehta. “It also helps us provide 

a more accurate and consistent picture to our 

shareholders and our investors in terms of 

what they can expect from our financials. 

I think that’s been a great value that the 

procurement team has been able to deliver.” 

To support this further, EPC has placed 

significant investment in new technologies 

to transform its procurement and supply 

chain capabilities. Focusing first and foremost 

on the basics, the business is presently 

upgrading its ERP systems and overhauling 



22 

“We want to align with 

suppliers that really 

share our vision and 

values and to include 

more active 

participation from 

suppliers in terms 

of sustainability” 

— 

Nirav Mehta, 



its digital foundations to provide the right 

level of data integrity and governance. 

“If you don’t have sound fundamentals 

to build upon, you can easily end up 

spending millions of dollars on some 

technology and spinning your wheels but 

not get the most out of it,” reflects Mehta. 

“We have deployed technology-enabled 

solutions at every stage of the procurement 

value stream, with the objective 

to reduce redundancies, automate where 

possible and streamline processes.” 

“We have digitized our sourcing 

capabilities to a great extent by implementing 

new technological solutions 

for Spend Analytics, eRFx, Contracting 

and Procure to Pay solutions. We are 

also looking to transform our vendor 

life cycle management,” says Mehta. 

“What constitutes the onboarding of 

new suppliers, vendor master automation 

and self-service, to performance 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

23 

management of our suppliers, to 

offboarding and exiting suppliers upon 

the ending of a relationship. We are 

utilizing digital solutions not only to 

make the procurement function more 

efficient and streamlined, but also to 

develop and train our colleagues.” 

Introducing a web-based learning 

and training platform, EPC has sought 

to provide a personalized capability 

assessment and training plan for every 

individual within procurement. The 

technology will aim to develop a consistent 

level of competency across a number 

of important focal areas, where the 

existing skills and knowledge of every 

employee is assessed against the 

competencies and skills required for 

their position, Mehta explains. The 

technology will then illustrate a set of 

interactive courses each employee 

must take online to close any skills gap. 



24 

“All in all, we’ve been utilizing technology 

solutions to a great extent. People, skill 

and capability development, while having 

streamlined, automated processes are 

enabling faster decisions,” he says. 

EPC’s technological focus has even 

extended to towards its supply relationship 

management (SRM). Developing 

sophisticated criteria around segmenting 

its supply base to gain a greater 

understanding of its strategic suppliers, 

as well as ones which are critical to the 

business, EPC has issued scorecards 

to measure supplier performance, 

drive collaboration and improve the 

overall performance and relationship 

with its key partners. 

EPC Procurement is also playing 

a critical role in adding value to EPC’s 

corporate social responsibility (CSR) 

and sustainability priorities. 

“We have a pretty strong supplier code 

of conduct but we have also developed 

a sustainable sourcing policy, where 

we’ve made sustainability and corporate 

social responsibility key factors in 

determining our supplier selection and 

onboarding criteria,” says Mehta. “We do 

evaluations of our key suppliers based 

on their commitment to their people, their 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

25 

CSR, and how well they are managing 

their environmental footprint. We want 

to align with suppliers that really share 

our vision and values and to include more 

active participation from suppliers 

in terms of sustainability. We in EPC 

Procurement are in a unique position to 

influence our suppliers to do the right 

thing for the people and for the planet.” 

Through three main pillars: people, 

products and the planet, EPC has 

a number of success stories highlighting 

its commitment to ensuring a sustainable 

future. Its recent Banana Boat sun care 

line, Simply Perfect, now has 25% fewer 

ingredients. Its Bulldog skincare brand 

has also recently launched an original 

natural bamboo razor instead of using 

plastic, which has been met with 

applause. “For Bulldog, we have also 



COMPANY FACTS 

• EPC adopted a hands-on 

mitigation and trade tariff 

management strategy, 

leading the business to be 

granted exemptions by the 

US Department of Commerce 

• EPC is upgrading its ERP 

systems and overhauling its 

digital foundations to provide 

the right level of data 

integrity and governance 

26 

• EPC is exploring innovative 

technologies, such as robotic 

process automation to automate 

manual and repetitive 

tasks, such as contract and 

shopping cart reviews 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

moved from sourcing fossil fuel-based 

plastic to bio-based plastic. When you look at 

activities like the sourcing of our palm oil, we 

have also made a commitment to source 

100% of our palm oils from sustainable 

sources,” adds Mehta. 

By making a significant effort to transform 

the procurement function and working to 

ensure all its supply sources are fully 

accountable, EPC continues to do the right 

thing. Serving local communities and 

developing sustainable products and 

services which promote innovation, passion 

and creativity across all avenues, 

the company will continue to 

challenge convention to drive 

future growth, harness an agile 

mindset as the CPG industry 

continues to evolve, and deliver on 

its long-term vision, placing consumers 

at the core and supporting their 

overall wellbeing. 

27 


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LEADERSHIP 

30 


Ahead of 

31 

the curve 

Business Chief sits down with technology industry 

veteran and entrepreneur Ravi Rishy-Maharaj 

to talk about his journey, the challenges of doing 

business 10 years ahead of the market, and how 

he arrived at his latest project: GigSky 

WRITTEN BY HARRY MENEAR 


LEADERSHIP 

32 

A 

veteran of cutting-edge tech startups and 

software giants, Ravi Rishy-Maharaj can look 

back across a career spanning more than 30 

years spent pushing the outer reaches of innovation. 

“I’ve always had a drive for doing something new or 

interesting anyhow, but what I’m interested in all of 

the time it seems is solving a problem.” From electric 

vehicle batteries in 1984 to video conference calling 

in 1990, from Apple to his own startup Kinaare 

Networks, he has remained firmly ahead of the curve. 

This month, we talked to Rishy-Maharaj about his 

journey, the challenges of doing business 10 years 

ahead of the market, and how he arrived at his latest 

project: GigSky. 

Launched in 2010, GigSky provides users with 

international data services using eSIM technology. 

Today, GigSky is “on probably 100mn iPhones out 

there by now,” says Rishy-Maharaj, as well as “Google, 

which is supporting dual SIM Android coming up 

this year. All of the mobile platforms that matter, 

GigSky is integrated into them.” With his Palo Alto- 

headquartered venture at the forefront of the eSIM 

market, as well as delving into the applications of 

IoT and blockchain, we asked Rishy-Maharaj about 

a life led on the digital frontier. “My career, I think, 

most of the time has just been enjoying moving from 

one area of technology to another. I enjoy physics, 

I enjoy chemistry, I enjoy electronics and software 

programming and then system design and systems 

architecture and computing, et cetera. It’s just 



33

LEADERSHIP 

34 

moving on from one interest to the 

other and enjoying the ride.” 

In 1984, Rishy-Maharaj started 

working at PowerPlex, a four-person 

startup funded by Brown, Boveri & Cie 

and Magna International. “It was the 

first greenwave of electric vehicles. 

And we were working on bringing 

sodium sulfur batteries to market.” 

Laughing, he admits the market may 

not have been ready to embrace the 

technology in 1984. “The battery, it had 

a couple of hundred sodium sulfur cells 

in it. And the thing about sodium sulphur 

is that it has to operate at 300 degrees 

celcius for the charge to be created. 

It was actually quite safe but, well,” he 

laughs again, “it looked like a coffin.” 

Rishy-Maharaj explains that in 1984, 

“It turned out that the market wasn’t 

ready for sodium sulfur batteries. The 

electric vehicle then was a little ahead 

of its time, if you know what I mean.” 

Of course, half a decade later, in the 

early 1990’s, concern over air quality 

conditions lead to the beginning of 

green vehicle adoption, although sales 

of electric vehicles in the United States 

didn’t exceed 500,000 until midway 

through 2016. In 2018, the global electric 

vehicle market reached over US$118bn 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘GETTING STARTED WITH GIGSKY SIM’ 

35 

and in 2022, Bloomberg predicts 

that EV pricing will reach parity with 

gasoline-powered transportation. 

Following two-and-a-half years 

at PowerPlex, Rishy-Maharaj moved 

to Compressed Natural Gas Fuel 

Systems (CNG), where he worked 

on designing a computer system 

to augment gasoline fuel delivery 

systems in cars. “In one instance you’re 

running on gasoline, then you flick 

a switch, and now you’re running on 

compressed natural gas,” he says. 

“But when you did that, you actually 

switched over to a completely different 

engine control system. I was the guy 

designing that system.” 

Rishy-Maharaj stayed with CNG 

for two years before shifting industries 

entirely. He ended up at Nortel Networks 

in ‘88 as a switching engineer working 

on Customer Local Area Signaling 

System (CLASS), the precursor to 

caller ID, signalling and voicemail. “My 

career had been up to that point highly 

technical,” he explains. At Nortel 

Networks, Rishy-Maharaj seized the 

opportunity to combine his engineering 

expertise with a desire to explore more 

business-centric opportunities. “Nortel 


LEADERSHIP 

36 

put together an exploratory marketing 

group in 1990,” he says. “At that time, 

we used to use dial up modems to 

connect to the internet, or to connect 

to the cloud, whatever the cloud was 

at that point in time. We said, ‘hey look, 

there’s this thing that’s happening. 

People want to communicate, they want 

to communicate better, et cetera.’ So 

in 1990 we came up with a multimedia 

communications concept.” Rishy-Maharaj 

excitedly lists the functions: “It 

was voice and video and file transfer 

and point-to-point screen share. In 1990! 

The video screen was only one inch and 

in black and white. It was just amazing. 

We launched the product, called Vivid, 

that ran on a video compressing card that 

had to go into Mac UCI because the 

only computer that you could do this 

on was an Apple computer. Windows 

95 wasn’t out yet. Obviously,” he laughs. 

“We kinda got in cahoots with Apple 

in 1990,” he adds. “In fact, I was working 

so closely with Apple out of Nortel in 

Canada, Apple offered me an opportu- 


37 

nity to come down to California and 

work for the company in 1995 as the 

first telephony product manager they 

ever had.” Rishy-Maharaj moved to 

Cupertino, California that year from 

Toronto. Even though the company 

experienced challenges during the 

mid-nineties, he looks back on his 

tenure as an interesting and exciting 

time. “Apple was going through some 

very tough times in ‘95. Jobs was not 

back yet. People were leaving. I ended 

up running the whole networking and 

communications product management 

team for a while.” He chuckles and 

groans in quick succession. “It was just 

one thing after the other.” 

After leaving Apple a little over a year 

later, Rishy-Maharaj moved on to stints 

at Sun Micro and OpenTV, working on 

microelectronics implementation and 

interactive entertainment software until, 

in January 2000 he founded his own 

company, Kinaare Networks. After his 

experience with Universal Plug and 

Play (UPnP) at Open TV, Rishy-Maharaj 


LEADERSHIP 

38 

wanted to explore new developments 

in microelectronics and the cloud. He 

reflects on that time in California with 

his family: “We were still isolated on the 

West Coast, 2,500 miles away from our 

closest relatives. I was also pursuing 

this idea that you could plug a device 

into the internet and it would connect 

to a cloud service and it would express 

its capabilities. That became a service 

discovery feature called : Kinaare Plug 

and Play (KP&P).” His family’s separation 

from their relatives in Toronto also 

became part of the inspiration for 

Kinaare’s first product. Combining the 

desire to connect over large distances 

with his new UPnP technology, the 

company’s first product became an 

intelligent picture frame. “You’d plug it 

in, it would connect to the internet, it 

would discover a server that it would 

connect to, and then people would 

subscribe to that service,” he explains. 

“I thought of my family initially. The idea 

was that people would publish, their 

pictures that could be dispersed all 

over the world and cycled through 

these digital picture frames that would 

be on your desk. People could share 

their photos with each other.” Among 

other products, Kinaare’s digital picture 

“I’ve always had 

a drive for doing 

something new 

or interesting 

anyhow, but what 

I’m interested 

in most of the 

time is solving 

a problem” 

— 

Ravi Rishy-Maharaj, 

Founder and Chief Executive 

Officer, Gigsky 


frame was an early entrant into the 

Internet of Things (IoT) - a concept first 

linked to an internet-enabled Coke 

machine at Carnegie Mellon in 1982 

and officially named in 1999. “IoT, cloud 

services, services discovery, social by 

sharing photos with each other. That 

was the idea behind the company,” 

Rishy-Maharaj says. 

“But guess what? 2000, the whole 

market collapsed.” The dot-com crash 

caused over $5trn in damage to global 

markets between March 2000 and 

October 2002. Rishy Maharaj sighs. 

“The market timing was just deplorable. 

I put a lot of my money into that company. 

I wiped out all my resources. In fact, 

I had to declare bankruptcy at one 

point in time.” 

Although the market context 

proved infertile, the technology at the 

core of Kinaare has since become 

part of the digital landscape. Once 

again finding himself at the outer 

limits of business-technology 

innovation, Rishy-Maharaj took the 

collapse of his company as a lesson 

to be applied to the future. “Market 

timing is a huge part of being an 

entrepreneur,” he explains. “It didn’t 

matter if I had a lot of money; I was too 

39 


LEADERSHIP 

40 

far ahead of the market.” This realization 

remained with him, and was central to 

the inception of GigSky in 2008. 

“When I started GigSky, I wanted to 

solve an immediate problem so that, 

once the product came to market, 

people would see it as a solution to 

a problem they had and buy it,” he 

explains. Unfortunately, old habits die 

hard. Rishy-Maharaj came up with the 

idea for GigSky in 2008 while working 

for a friend’s startup that required him 

to travel far and often. You’d go to a 

company and it would be like extracting 

teeth to find a connection within their 

network. There was no wifi. So some 

guy would come running with a big, long 

“The idea was that 

people would 

publish their pictures 

and they would be 

dispersed all over 

the world through 

these picture frames” 

— 


Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gigsky 

ethernet cable plugged into some 

connection point 100 meters down 

the hall - it was just really painful.” 

The frustrations of internet connection 

in a world without ubiquitous wifi 

prompted him to jury rig his own 

solution from a portable wifi box and 

a wifi dongle from a local carrier. “Local 

carriers were selling plastic SIMs at 

that point in time. The plastic sim would 

come with local data service. Not a lot, 

but I could still buy 250 megabytes of 

local conductivity for maybe $20, 


41 

versus buying roaming service from 

AT&T for $2,000.” 

Even though GigSky passed on 

building its own personal wifi hotspot, 

the idea of switching between local 

carriers for cheap data became the 

core of the business. By sticking with 

a data-only service, GigSky kept costs 

low. “I really didn’t need to pay the telco 

some big fee for roaming for voice. 

Even though so many times people 

said to me, ‘you should deliver a voice 

service,’ I said, ‘No. It’s just about data. 

Data will grow. Let’s focus on doing 

that and doing it right.’ It was the right 

thing to do.” 

The first GigSky service launched in 

early 2013, “And here we are,” says 

Rishy-Maharaj. “We didn’t have to build 

hardware, the programmable SIM 

became eSIM, and the App ended up 

being integrated directly into iOS and 

Windows.” GigSky’s collaboration with 

Apple began in 2014. “Someone at Apple 

sent a message to our info email account 

saying ‘We’d love to meet with one of 


LEADERSHIP 

42 

your directors. We’d like to talk to you 

about your business.’” He laughs, “we 

were wondering if it was junk mail or 

somebody pulling a fast one. But lo and 

behold it was Apple, and here we are on 

probably 100mn iPhones.” 

GigSky continues to grow each year, 

helping its growing user base stay 

connected, wherever they might be, for 

a fair price. Rishy-Maharaj admits there 

are challenges to finding competitive 

pricing across over 190 countries. “We 

try to ensure that, if you buy our five 

gigabyte plan, you’re basically spending 

$10 per gigabyte. Prices will get better 

as we go along.” 

He explains that “the idea behind the 

eSIM is the ultimate in convenience. It’s 

to provide the ultimate choice in terms 

of connectivity. This year GigSky is going 

to be integrated into dual eSIM android 

devices going forward.” Airlines are 

also using GigSky to collect data for 

post-flight analysis, and Rishy-Maharaj 

also hints at upcoming applications 

involving blockchain. It’s no surprise that, 

in the year the eSIM is predicted to 

become mainstream, Rishy-Maharaj is 

turning his eSIM company to explore 

new technological frontiers. “How else 

can the e-sim be leveraged with other 


“We were wondering 

if it was junk mail 

or somebody pulling 

a fast one. But lo and 

behold it was Apple, 

and here we are 

on probably 100mn 

iPhones” 

— 


Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gigsky 

43 

non-obvious technologies to deliver an 

even better user experience? That’s 

what we’re after at GigSky.” He laughs, 

acknowledging his signature move as 

he signs off. “I wish I had another 20 

years to see what this thing turns into. 

But the next few years at least are going 

to be a very exciting time.” 


TECHNOLOGY 

44 

SOFTWARE 

ENABLING 5G 

Folke Rosengard, Head of Business 

Development, Nokia Software, 

explores how 5G serves as more than 

just an answer to the burgeoning 

IoT and digitalisation landscape 

WRITTEN BY FOLKE ROSENGARD 



45

TECHNOLOGY 

46 

W 

e at Nokia believe that we are in 

front of one of the biggest upsides 

in the whole telco industry in a 

long time, thanks to the digitalization trend 

and IOT. IOT will add a massive amount of 

new connections; and the digitalization trend 

creates a growing demand for a multitude of 

diverse connections including use cases with 

high bandwidth, low latency and ultrahigh 

reliability. 5G is the ideal solution to respond 

to this demand, however 5G is much more 

than simply a new Radio Access Network 

(RAN) generation. It comes with sophisticated 

software that affects all parts of the 

network, including how service providers 

operate the network and how they offer 

profitable and compelling services. It is a 

whole new business system that enables service 

providers to respond to the massive 

demand fueled by the Internet of Things (IoT) 

and digitalization trend in a profitable way. 

5G requires a tight connection between 

network, operations and business with all the 

systems and processes working together to 

deliver and monetize the 5G use cases for 

consumers and enterprises. Software is the 

key for realizing 5G capabilities in an efficient 

way. Technical capabilities such as dynamic 

slicing of mobile networks and a servicebased 

architecture to enable multiple and 


47 

“5G is the ideal solution 

to respond to this demand, 

however 5G is much more than 

simply a new Radio Access 

Network (RAN) generation” 

— 

Folke Rosengard, 

Head of Business Development, 

Nokia Software 


TECHNOLOGY 

48 

“We believe ‘Cloud 

Native software’ 

is a fundamental 

principle for 

software of the 

5G era” 

— 

Folke Rosengard, 

Head of Business Development, 

Nokia Software 

diverse use case requirements based 

on agile, flexible and real-time digital 

fabric are critical for telcos to maximize 

and exploit 5G capabilities. 

Network providers must have a strong 

digital fabric that’s built on applications 

with five key characteristics: 

01. INTELLIGENT 

Analytics and machine learning in 

everything are critical to manage an 

ever-growing volume of data. Great 

experiences are the ones that are 

personal, contextual and fast. These 

rely on the ability to augment human 

intelligence with machine learning and 

analytics. They use the data to provide 

a 360-degree view of the experience 

and decide what actions will produce 

the best outcomes. 

02. AUTOMATED 

Manual processes are too slow to 

handle the big data explosion. As such, 

intelligence workflows and bots should 

push automation to extremes to ensure 

we can drive insights to action with 

efficiency and speed using closedloop 

fundamentals. 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘5G IN ACTION’ 

49 

03. SECURE 

With more of our lives online, customers 

must know they can trust their providers 

to handle their data. The new digital 

fabric must include security in its 

foundation to provide customers with the 

highest level of protection in the digital 

world. 

04. CLOUD-NATIVE 

To respond with agility at a better cost 

point, software needs to be built for the 

cloud, from both the technological and 

consumption-model perspectives. 

05. OPEN 

It’s unlikely that service providers will 

rely solely on one infrastructure vendor 

or partner, one revenue-sharing 

relationship or service. Applications 

must be multi-vendor, open and 

lightweight - and the complexity of the 

network must be removed or abstracted. 

5G will enable a range of new use 

cases with a variety of specific requirements. 

To support each use case in an 

optimal way, security capabilities will 

need to be more flexible. For example, 

security mechanisms used for ultra-low 


TECHNOLOGY 

50 

latency, mission-critical applications may 

not be suitable for massive IoT deployments 

where devices are inexpensive 

sensors that have a very limited energy 

budget and transmit data only occasionally. 

Another driver for 5G security is the 

changing ecosystem. Long-Term 

Evolution (LTE) networks are dominated 

by large monolithic deployments―each 

controlled by a single network operator 

that owns the network infrastructure 

while also providing all network services. 

In contrast, 5G networks may be 

deployed by a number of specialized 

stakeholders providing end-user 5G 

network services. 

We believe “Cloud Native software” 

is a fundamental principle for software 

for the 5G era. There are many 

benefits of cloud native software for 

telcos, including more efficient use of 

cloud resources, operational simplicity 

and horizontal scalability. Proven by 

massive scale companies such as 

Google, Twitter and Netflix over years 

of use, horizontal scaling or adding 

more containerized applications within 

a cluster, enables providers to provision 

the processing capacity they 

need to process data quickly. 

Managing and reducing the complexity, 

while keeping operation costs under 


51 

control, can only be achieved through 

injecting intelligence and automation into 

the transformation process. As 5G 

extends beyond radio technologies, 

deep into the cloud, across mobile and 

transport layers, it will be paramount to 

combine data from RAN and non-RAN 

sources and introduce machine 

learning-enabled automation to create 

algorithms for use cases that operate 

across all these data sources. 

Today, automation is popping up 

almost everywhere in the network, and 

“closed loops” are considered silver 

bullets for killing complexity. A recent 

study by Nokia Bell Labs concluded 

that closed-loop automation can only 

work in combination with a new 

architecture and – even more important 

– an implementation master plan. 

The full benefit of automation can only 

be realized if it’s done in concert. Small 


TECHNOLOGY 

52 

benefits can be – and are being – realized 

with tactical, domain-specific 

automations, but those benefits can 

only be maximized if harmonized and 

orchestrated across all domains. 

As non-telco companies digitalize 

their own product offerings, new 

opportunities will emerge for telcos 

and service providers. With the new 

network characteristics of 5G and 

cloud resources sitting close to 

customers, these companies will be in 

a position to offer capabilities no IT 

cloud service provider can match. 

Software helps communication 

service providers to reinvent themselves 

as digital service providers. A 

key in this transformation is to recognize 

the need for far greater agility with 

frictionless business and operational 

“With the new network characteristics of 

5G and cloud resources sitting close 

to customers, these companies will be in 

a position to offer capabilities no IT 

cloud service provider can match” 

— 

Folke Rosengard, Head of Business Development, Nokia Software 


53 

adaptability. In other words, digital 

service providers need to act in and 

capitalize on windows of digital time. 

To operate in digital time, service 

providers need a holistic and real-time 

view of what’s happening with business 

and operations to determine the next 

best action to take – this applies for all 

areas of operations from marketing to 

product management, customer experience 

management, network and service 

operations, care and monetization. 


PEOPLE 

54 

REINVENTING 

UPSKILLING 

FOR THE FOURTH 

INDUSTRIAL 

REVOLUTION 

With Industry 4.0 underway, Nick Lazaridis, 

President of EMEA for HP Inc., explains 

how ultimately, it’s the people behind the 

screens and machines who enable digital 


WRITTEN BY NICK LAZARIDIS, 

PRESIDENT OF EMEA FOR HP INC 



55

PEOPLE 

56 

Today’s world moves at a 

mind-blowing rate, and it’s only 

going to get faster. Emerging 

technologies like IoT, 5G, artificial 

intelligence and 3D printing have 

heralded the fourth industrial revolution 

and proven their potential to 

change the status quo. But it’s down to 

us as business leaders to transform 

our workforces and equip them to 

make the most of this opportunity. 

There is a need for real innovation and 

change across every market and sector. 

It’s no longer just about gaining a 

competitive advantage, but taking steps 

to build the organization of the future. 

More than any that have come before, 

the fourth Industrial Revolution holds 

the opportunity for businesses 

everywhere to transform their impact 

on employees and, by extension, 

society. 

Looking back, the advent of new 

technologies has often been associated 

with resistance and fear because 

of the impact it might have on workforces 

and ‘business as usual’. The 

reality is that these new technologies 


57 

are not a threat to work, but an 

opportunity to automate the routine, 

repetitive or low value tasks and apply 

valuable human resources to more 

creative and complex challenges. 

Just as the PC changed the way we 

work, as well as the skills needed to get 

the job done, we are entering a new 

chapter of change that will surpass 

those before it in size, scale and scope. 

The fourth Industrial Revolution has 

the potential to create new, technologically-driven 

value en masse - but 

getting there calls for a human-centric 

“The fourth Industrial 

Revolution has the 

potential to create new, 

technologically-driven 

value en masse – but 

getting there calls 

for a human-centric 

approach and 

investment in people” 

— 

Nick Lazaridis, 

President of EMEA for HP Inc 


PEOPLE 

58 

“A truly diverse 

representation of 

backgrounds, 

experiences and 

opinions helps 

challenge the status 

quo and allow new 

ways of thinking” 

— 



approach and investment in people. 

It will look different to every business 

and the extent of reinvention will vary, 

but there are some commonalities as 

to how we can build the skills of our 

organizations for the future. 

MANY HANDS MAKE BRIGHT WORK 

The obvious business case for 

diversity is that it is key to attracting 

the best talent and engaging employees. 

But it goes further than equal 

representation and fair opportunities. 

A truly diverse representation of 

backgrounds, experiences and 

opinions helps challenge the status 

quo and allow new ways of thinking. 

Real diversity of thought is becoming 

essential in the global economy, 

not just to attract the best talent but 

to integrate broader cultural understandings 

and add fresh perspectives 

and processes. When you pair this 

with inclusive workplace culture, 

people feel more comfortable in 

bringing their true selves to work and 

their ideas to the table. 

LEARN AS IF YOU WILL WORK FOREVER 

A real investment in learning and 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘HP DEVICE AS A SERVICE (DAAS) 

PROACTIVE MANAGEMENT’ 

59 

development is crucial to recruiting 

and developing a highly-skilled, 

future-ready workforce. Within the 

technology sector, there’s an urgent 

need to diversify the STEM talent 

pipeline and bring new thinking to the 

fields of science that will shape our 

tomorrow. They are crucial cornerstones 

of the fourth Industrial Revolution 

– and it’s only by ensuring fair 

opportunities and representation that 

we can consider them to be truly 

innovative. 

The opposite is also true, however. 

Across all industries, there is a growing 


PEOPLE 

60 

focus on ‘soft’ and social skills, 

particularly around communication 

and emotional intelligence. These are 

the skills that bolster creative thinking 

and complex problem-solving – the 

concepts that translate into a blueprint 

for services and solutions of the future. 

eLearning platforms and self-paced 

programmes have changed the way we 

can acquire and develop skills at work, 

but in order to engage employees in a 

shared mission those competencies 

must be underpinned by a culture of 

collaboration, knowledge and growth. 

LEADING THE WAY 

So how do you lead an organization 

to transformation? Transform the 

leadership of the organization. Put 

simply, business leaders must embody 

the values of the change they want to 

make. HP itself was reinvented as a 

multi-billion-dollar start-up, and we’re 

seeing our strategy pay off – but 

would be nothing without the strong 

and motivated teams behind the 

business. I’ve always tried to stick to 

my leadership principles to help 

create and foster that culture. 

Managing cycles of innovation and 


61 

regular organizational change are part 

of the job, but more substantial transformation 

and reinvention need vision, role 

models and commitment to successfully 

bring a workforce on the journey. 

Transforming an organization and 

building skills requires everyone to be 

open to change. Leadership teams 

need to lead the charge with wholehearted 

commitment and investment 

in their development, to set the best 

example for their organization. 

If we are to believe that the only 

constant is change, then there will 


PEOPLE 

62 

“This may well be 

a technologydriven 

revolution, 

but ultimately it is 

the people behind 

the screens and 

machines who 

make the change” 

— 




always be a new skills gap to tackle. 

Build a foundation for an organization 

that’s open to change, committed to 

learning and continuously improving, 

and not afraid to fail along the way, 

and you will build the basis for 

tomorrow’s industry. 

This may well be a technology-driven 

revolution, but ultimately it is the people 

behind the screens and machines who 

make the change. As someone who 

has spent their career reinventing in a 

rapidly changing world, I’ve seen how 

it’s possible to transform an organization 

with positive impact for people and 

planet. Technology might change the 

way things are done, but it is squarely 

within our power as the leaders of 

industry to think creatively and solve 

the challenges of tomorrow. 

63 


SUSTAINABILITY 

64 

OPEN DATA ADDRESSING 

WORLD HUNGER — 

SOLVING THE 

AGRICULTURAL CRISIS 

FOR A MORE 

SUSTAINABLE FUTURE 

WRITTEN BY 

ANDRÉ LAPERRIÈRE, 

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GODAN 



65


66 

Today, hunger is bringing suffering 

to over 795mn people across the 

globe. Those affected currently do 

not have access to enough food to live 

sustainably. Although a majority of this 

population are based in the world’s 

most vulnerable regions, this does not 

contain the issue within borders as 

food security issues are also residing 

in some of the most developed nations. 

The UK is reportedly one of the most 

food insecure nations in the European 

Union, and it is by no means an 

economically undeveloped nation. 

The threat of an agricultural crisis is 

very much a reality across the globe. 

Crippling costs, poor weather conditions 

and disease outbreaks have hit 

landscapes, farmers and businesses 

hard over the years and the potential 

impacts can be tenfold. The UK for 

example, has suffered from record 

high temperatures, reported outbreaks 

of foot and mouth disease and is also 

in the midst of an uncertain trading 

future as Brexit looms. In Africa, where 


“OPEN DATA CAN 

PLAY A CRITICAL 

ROLE IN HELPING 

TO ACHIEVE THE 

SUSTAINABLE 

DEVELOPMENT 

GOALS PROPOSED 

BY THE UNITED 

NATIONS” 

— 

André Laperrière, 

Executive Director, GODAN 67 

water conservation issues, malnutrition 

and hunger are still pertinent, climate 

and weather are one of the principal 

causes. The agricultural industry is a 

volatile one, from either ends of the 

globe. We are continuing to experience 

the struggle to meet the growing 

demands of the consumer, to combat 

the fluctuation in supply, the instability 

of markets and the lack of investment 

in the agriculture industry in many 

nations. 

The agricultural crises in countries 

across Africa present a notable 

example of these issues. The continent’s 

farming industries have been 

suffering due to the lack of shared 

information and data, most small-scale 

isolated farmers in rural African 

communities are missing out on new 

and improved methods and best 

practices of farming and agricultural 

processes. This issue, married with the 

water contamination crisis affecting 

sub-Saharan Africa - where only 16% 

of the population have access to clean 



68 

water and have no access to critical 

information relating to water quality or 

weather data -demonstrates how there 

is the significant need for access to 

Open Data to help bring about an end 

to the crisis, save lives and create a 

more sustainable future. 

Open Data has developed alongside 

technological advancements throughout 

the years. However, its potential 

impact on the agricultural space has 

rarely been considered a key solution 

to solving the food crisis. The potential 

for the use of Open Data to combat 

food issues can and should no longer 

be ignored; not only because of the 

relevant historical data and the 

potential to increase production it can 

provide, but its usefulness in monitoring 

water supplies, anticipating 

changes in the weather and also 

sharing crucial information across 

borders so that nations can learn best 

practices from each other and prosper. 

Through the use of satellite data, 

remote sensing and mapping, farmers, 

businesses and consumers in the 

agricultural industry can harness the 

most relevant and useful information to 

improve and adapt practices, make 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘ANDRÉ LAPERRIERE AT SWAT4HCLS CONFERENCE, 

ANTWERP, 3-6 DECEMBER 2018’ 

69 

“THERE IS STILL A LONG WAY TO GO 

BEFORE OPEN DATA ACCESS IS 

GLOBALLY ACCEPTED AND UTILISED” 

— 


Executive Director, GODAN 

better decisions and ensure sustainability. 

Increasing access will trigger 

innovations that will bring both 

agriculture and nutrition to the next, 

higher level of impact, improving 

efficiency, yields, competitiveness and 

ultimately increasing food security 

across the world. 

The Ghana-based organisation, 

Esoko, presents a prime example of 

the benefits of Open-Data access to 

the industry by illustrating how mobile 

phone technology can be integral to 

allowing farmers and their buyers to 

access Open Data to obtain information 

to improve access to markets and 



70 

encourage fairer pricing based on 

shared feedback. By utilising Open Data 

to collect data on a national scale, the 

technology solution TradeNet was born, 

enabling farmers to share and access 

data through SMS with customers and 

other farmers. This data is obtained 

through existing channels such as 

weather data channels and other basic 

technology, to enable a self-sustainable 

business model combining data, 

farmers, customers, markets/ dealers 

and phone companies on an open 

system to benefit the livelihoods of 

hundreds and thousands of families. 

Those using the technology can both 

collect and input data regarding the 

selling price of basic commodities, such 

as the prices of seeds and fertilizers and 

send daily updates to farmers through 

SMS. Thus, the farmers can determine 

their input costs, increasing their selling 

profit by utilizing the information made 

available to them. Now, more than 

350,000 farmers have joined the Esoko 

platform in 10 countries in Africa and it 

continues to expand. 

In the West, countries such as The 


“FOOD SECURITY ISSUES 

ARE ALSO RESIDING 

IN SOME OF THE MOST 

DEVELOPED NATIONS” 

— 



71 

Netherlands are also benefitting from 

the offerings of Open Data as more web 

applications aiming to improve accessibility 

to Open Data are unlocking 

valuable data related to historical 

weather patterns and food consumption 

data, accessible to those involved in 

agriculture and the environment. Similar 

to the organisation in Ghana, these 

applications are also user-generated, 

allowing farmers and those in the 

agricultural sector to input data for all 

participants to see, allowing best 

practices to be shared and adapted. 

In the south, the ‘digital divide’ has 

played a huge role in agricultural crises, 

as large industrialized farms are 

becoming more cost efficient and 

competitive, while the small traditional 

farmers are gradually bringing 

themselves out of the markets. This is 

due to the large industrial farms/ 

wealthy countries and businesses that 

already make efficient use of data to 

improve techniques, products, market 

access, rapidly increasing their 

competitiveness in the world markets. 

Open Data can play a critical role in 



72 

helping to achieve the Sustainable 

Development Goals proposed by the 

United Nations. Open Data can help 

foster economic growth and job 

creation, improve efficiency and 

effectiveness of public services by 

allowing the cross fertilization and 

synergy of different industries, sectors 

and governments leading to new 

practices, new equipment and new 

technologies that in turn, lead to better 

yields and the stimulation of private 

and public economies. This will in turn, 

improve government transparency, 

citizen participation and accountability 

through the sharing of data across 

communities and borders. 

However, there is still a long way to 

go before Open Data access is globally 

accepted and utilised. This drive and 

determination for it to be a success 

needs to be welcomed by respective 

governments and organisations across 

the globe and pushed to the top of the 

agenda. With the correct approach 

and implementation methods in place, 

Open Data can have a high economic 

and social return on investment for 

countries all over the globe and in all 

stages of development. Areas in Africa, 


“NOW, MORE THAN 

350,000 FARMERS 

HAVE JOINED THE 

ESOKO PLATFORM 

IN 10 COUNTRIES 

IN AFRICA” 

— 



73 

Latin America, Asia and Europe have 

already demonstrated how increased 

access to data can help develop 

economies and farming practices, 

taking a significant step forward to 

achieving sustainability and solving the 

hunger crisis. 


April 29-30, 2019 

The Ritz Carlton, Atlan

ta | Atlanta, GA

CITY FOCUS 

76 

City Focus 

CHARL 

Business Chief takes a look at Charlotte, 

North Carolina, and some of the companies 

that are leading its smart city mission 



OTTE 77 


CITY FOCUS | CHARLOTTE 

78 

Officially founded in 1768 and named 

Charlotte Town as a tribute to Queen 

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, 

the wife of King George III, Charlotte is a city of 

both tradition and revolution. Home to 860,000 

people, NBA team the Carolina Hornets as 

well as the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, Charlotte 

is also, according to Mental Floss, the Pimento 

Cheese Capital of the world. The North Carolina 

city may have a rich connection with its 

past (including a local belief that the town 

issued its own declaration of independence 

from British rule a full year before the rest of 

the thirteen colonies) but the government 

and people of Charlotte have eyes firmly 

fixed on the future. 

NORTH END SMART DISTRICT 

Starting in 2010, Charlotte has undergone 

a transformative journey into one of the world’s 

smartest cities. Ranked 20th on the global 

smart city rankings in 2018 by the Eden Strategy 

Institute, Charlotte places ahead of modern 


metropolises like Copenhagen, Washington 

DC and Vancouver with a successful clean 

energy program that achieved a 19% reduction 

in energy consumption. Also, according 

to the report, “the city designated the North 

End Smart District (NESD) as a comprehensive 

first step to piloting smart city initiatives 

on a large scale, engaging and partnering with 

community leaders and residents, companies 

and entrepreneurs, non-profits, and 

City departments.” 

Situated between North Davidson Street 

and Atando Avenue, the North End Smart 

District is made up of eight neighborhoods 

to the north of the city’s uptown. According 

to the City of Charlotte, the District aims to 

be “a community that uses data and technology 

to make decisions that impact mobility, 

safety, energy, public services, education 

and environmental health”. Supported by 

governmental initiatives, Charlotte’s startup 

scene has grown into one of the most vibrant 

entrepreneurial ecosystems in the country. 

As of October 2018, the city is home to three 

unicorns - startup companies with a market 

valuation of over $1bn. Business Chief takes 

a look at three of the Queen City’s greatest 

success stories. 

79 



80 

AVIDXCHANGE 

Founded in 2000, AvidXchange is an 

industry leader in automating invoice 

and payment processes in the real 

estate, financial services, energy, and 

construction sectors, according to 

Bloomberg. The company became 

a unicorn in July 2017, making it the 

second-oldest of the three. 

In January 2019, Extent Research 

named AvidXchange as one of the top 

players in the Global Check Printing 

Software Market. In the same month, 

the company announced plans to 

invest $41mn in Mecklenburg County, 

expanding their Charlotte Headquarters 

to create at least 1,200 new tech 

jobs on the periphery of the North End 

Smart District, according to the North 

Carolina 100. 

“We launched AvidXchange 18 years 

ago in a coffee shop in Charlotte with 

five employees. Since then, we’ve grown 

to 1,200 employees and we’re proud 

to call North Carolina home,” AvidXchange 

CEO Michael Praeger said. 

“I’m thrilled to have the State’s continued 

support as we look to double our 

employee base in the next five years.” 

www.avidxchange.com 


81 

RED VENTURES 

Also founded in 2000, Red Ventures 

was the first Charlotte startup to attain 

unicorn status in 2015. The company 

operates a portfolio of technologies, 

digital assets, and strategic partnerships 

that connect consumers across 

three continents to brands like Bankrate, 

creditcards.com, the Points Guy 

and NextAdvisor. 

In January 2009, Ric Elias, co-founder 

and CEO of Red Ventures, was on board 

the infamous crash landing of US Airways 

Flight 1549 on the Hudson river. On the 

10th anniversary of the crash, Elias talked 

with Forbes magazine about the ways 

in which the event changed both his life 

and the future of Red Ventures. 

“For starters, the plan for Red Ventures 

completely changed after the 

incident,” Elias said. “We went from 

wanting to build a company that we 

could sell to deciding that Red Ventures 

will never be for sale. We turned 

the company into a perch from where 

to live a life. This freed us from outside 



82 

expectations. It gave us the freedom 

and creativity to explore all sorts of 

new ways to build a company.” 

Currently, Red Ventures employs 

3,600 people across 13 offices worldwide. 

Although the official 

headquarters has since been moved 

to South Carolina, Charlotte remains 

the company’s spiritual home and second-largest 

base, with a large hand in 

the local community and Charlotte’s 

smart city mission. In an effort to 

focus on the social component of its 

tech transformation, the Charlotte 

Government runs a number of programs, 

including TechCharlotte: a 

housing and neighborhood services 

initiative that not only creates a new, 

free community technology access 

space, but also partners with Red 

Ventures Road to Hire and others to 

provide training and access to jobs. 

www.redventures.com 

TRESATA INC 

After acquiring a further $50mn in 

funding in October 2018, predictive 

analytics company Tresata became 

Charlotte’s third unicorn, with a total 

valuation of $1bn. Based in the South 

End of the city, the company develops 

software platforms for real-time customer 

intelligence management. Its 

software enables businesses to monetize 

customer data by collecting, 

curating, computing, and converting it 

to customer intelligence across all 

existing and growing data assets, 

according to Bloomberg. 

“Our software is uniquely able to 

automate data analysis to solve for 

complex business problems, allowing 


83 

decision-makers to address industry’s 

and society’s biggest challenges,” 

Tresata co-founder and CEO 

Abhishek Mehta said in a statement. 

According to a report by SiliconAN- 

GLE, the $50mn represented the first 

outside funding accepted by the company. 

Founder and Chief Executive 

Officer Abhishek Mehta explained in 

the report that he always saw revenue 

as the cheapest source of funding. 

“We have had tremendous interest 

from investors ever since we started 

the company and never found the 

right partner,” Mehta said in an interview. 

“This time, with GCP, we found 

that partner. With GCP, we have someone 

on our side who believes strongly 

in our vision — that in data lies the 

power to enrich life. We are excited 

about this investment, as it is a validation 

of the confidence our clients have 

placed in us from the beginning.” 

tresata.com 


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arch.com

TOP 10 

86 


TOP 10 

Smart Cities 

in the USA 

By 2050, over two-thirds of the world’s population 

will live in cities. As urban populations soar and 

technology becomes more ingrained in our 

day-to-day lives, smart cities are becoming an 

increasingly common reality. Business Chief takes 

a look at the top 10 Smart City Governments in 

the US, according to the Eden Strategy Institute’s 

2018 ranking. 

87 



TOP 10 

10 

88 

Atlanta 

GEORGIA 

With a population of 490,000, Atlanta is the most heavily forested 

urban area in the United States, with 47.9% of the city covered by 

trees, according to the National Forest Service. SmartATL, the city’s 

forward-looking mission plan began with the creation of a smart district 

in its North Avenue Smart Corridor. Since then, Atlanta’s public 

and private sectors have been experimenting with IoT sensors for 

data collection, video surveillance to assist with traffic management, 

interactive LED street lights, and autonomous vehicles. According to 

the Eden Strategy Institute (ESI), what sets the Georgia state capitol 

apart from other smart cities is it’s drive to transform at scale. 

www.atlantaga.org 


09 

89 

Los Angeles 

CALIFORNIA 

The second-largest city in the US by population, Los Angeles, California, 

is home to over 4mn people. Coupled with the geological challenges 

of a municipality built on the earthquake-prone San Andreas Fault, 

the landscape of Los Angeles is characterized by its sprawl. According 

to the ESI, the city prizes resilience and sustainability through open 

data in the pursuit of its smart city goals. Los Angeles has an online 

portal for the distribution of large datasets and statistics on traffic, 

pollution, infrastructure, demographics, economic, health, climate, 

and cultural activities. 

www.lacity.org 


TOP 10 

08 

90 

Columbus 

OHIO 

The state capital of Ohio, Columbus is home to approximately 900,000 

people. In 2015, the US Department of Transportation held a Smart 

City Challenge for cities to submit proposals for smart transportation 

systems that improved urban mobility. Named the winner of the challenge 

in 2016, Columbus received $40mn in funding to support the 

revolutionizing of its transportation network. Last year, the city launched 

its proprietary operating system for a citywide campaign of data gathering. 

Columbus Mayor, Andrew Ginther, said in a press release: 

“Fundamental to ‘becoming smart’ as a city is discovering how to use 

data to improve city services and quality of life for residents. 

www.columbus.gov 


07 

91 

Washington 

DC 

Situated on the Potomac river between Maryland and Virginia, the 

District of Columbia is home to the city of Washington, the federal capital 

of the US, and has a population of approximately 700,000. The city’s 

smart city initiatives are overseen by Lab@DC. According to the ESI, 

Lab@DC uses scientific research methods to test and improve municipal 

policies. The organization is composed of a team of social scientists, 

data scientists, operation experts, and policymakers who collectively 

experiment with new policy ideas, evaluate policy outcomes, and distil 

insights. The organization has been responsible for the introduction of 

body cameras to the DC police force, flexible rent programs to combat 

homelessness, and litter reduction initiatives. 

smarter.dc.gov 


TOP 10 

06 

Photo © City of Charlotte on Facebook 

92 

Charlotte 

NORTH CAROLINA 

Founded in 1768, Charlotte, North Carolina, is a city with a rebellious 

and forward-looking spirit, even claiming to have submitted its own 

declaration of independence from British rule a year before the rest 

of the thirteen colonies. Now, the city is embracing its own smart city 

vision, with the creation of the North End Smart District, “a community 

that uses data and technology to make decisions that impact mobility, 

safety, energy, public services, education and environmental health.” 

The city itself is home to three unicorn startups: AvidXchange, Red 

Ventures, and Tresata. 

www.charlottenc.gov 


05 

93 

Seattle 

WASHINGTON 

Home to tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon and Valve, Seattle, 

Washington, has a history of leadership in the digital age. Microsoft 

announced in January its commitment to invest $500mn in affordable 

housing to offset the income inequality caused by the area’s 

saturation with high-pay, high-skill tech jobs. The city also values its 

partnerships with academic institutions like the University of Washington. 

In a GeekWire report, Bill Howe, AD of the eScience Institute 

at the UW said: “We have the right folks at the University of Washington 

studying research issues; we have the right mindset in the city to 

treat this as a priority. Data is in the water here.” 

www.seattle.gov 


TOP 10 

04 

94 

Chicago 

ILLINOIS 

Chicago, Illinois is the third-largest city in the United States, with 

a population of over 2.7 M people. ESI highlights the emphasis placed 

on using technology to engage with societal problems. “Chicago 

launched “Smart Chicago” in partnership with a local foundation and 

fund, to co-create smart city solutions with residents through civic 

participation, functioning alongside the government’s own systematic 

application of smart city solutions.” Chicago, like Los Angeles, is 

utilizing open data practices to engage the community in information 

and knowledge exchange in order to create a more livable city. 

www.citytechcollaborative.org 


03 

95 

San Francisco 

CALIFORNIA 

Home to over 880,000 people, San Francisco, California is also home 

to some of the United States’ most successful tech startups: Uber, 

Lyft, Airbnb, Twitter and Dropbox to name a few. The city was a finalist 

in the 2016 Smart City Challenge, receiving $11mn which has been 

divided between six initiatives to reduce transit problems. According 

to the Bipartisan Policy Center, the SFpark project uses wireless 

sensors to create smarter parking management through demand- 

responsive pricing. Like Los Angeles and Chicago, San Francisco has 

also taken steps to review the way the city handles data. The city 

appointed its first Chief Data Officer, Joy Bonaguro as a result. 

sfgov.org 


TOP 10 

02 

96 

Boston 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Boston, which is home to over 685,000 people, as well 

as some of the most prestigious academic institutions in 

the world, has adopted a citizen-centric approach to its 

smart city policies. “Boston believes that a truly smart 

city should allow its residents to define what exactly “smart” 

means to them,” writes the ESI. This idea is expressed by 

the city’s civic experiments known as the Beta Blocks which 

attempt to build more meaningful relationships between 

communities, companies, researchers, and designers. 

The first event in this program was the “Robot Block Party 

for 4,500 participants to discuss artificial intelligence, 

autonomous vehicles, and robotics.”. 

wwwwww.boston.gov/departments/new-urbanmechanics/beta-blocks 


Photos © City of Boston [Top Left & Right] 

97 


TOP 10 

01 

98 

New York 

NEW YORK 

Over 8.6mn people live in New York City. With a population 

more than double the size of the country’s second 

largest city, NYC faces a unique set of challenges. 

To cope with the complexities of scale, the New York 

government has taken steps to decentralize its leadership, 

splitting its smart city initiatives between the 

Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, the Mayor’s Office of 

Recovery and Resiliency and the Mayor’s Office of the 

Chief Technology Officer. Together these offices implement 

their portfolio of projects with flexibility, involving 

other departments and agencies as required. Collectively 

they are focusing on smart water, waste and electric 

lighting management to reduce environmental impact 

while coping with the city’s ever-growing population. 

www1.nyc.gov 



99

100 


FINTECH 

Agility and customercentricity: 

Progressive 

Leasing’s recipe 

for fintech success 

WRIT TEN BY 

LAURA MULLAN 

PRODUCED BY 

ANDY TURNER 

101 


PROGRESSIVE LEASING 

Harnessing agile methodology 

and a customer-centric 

approach, Progressive Leasing 

provides simple and affordable 

purchase options for creditchallenged 

consumers 

102 

Y 

ou could argue that in no sector is disruption 

more palpable than in finance. For 

a long time, new entrants found it difficult 

to break into the market – but the rise of fintech 

companies has quickly changed that. These 

disruptors have helped to usher in a new era where 

technological prowess and a customer-centric 

approach have loosened the grasp of incumbents 

on the market. It’s also provided greater choice for 

customers, allowing them to select the business 

which best caters to their needs. But what about 

the rising number of consumers who are being 

turned down by primary and secondary financing? 

Where do those with less-than-perfect credit fit 

into the equation? 

Respecting that these customers were underserved 

and appreciating this was an untapped 

market, Progressive Leasing, a wholly-owned 

subsidiary of Aaron’s Inc., has made its mark. For 

over 19 years, the firm has provided simple and 

affordable purchase options for credit-challenged 

consumers and it now stands as the largest and 

longest-tenured virtual lease-to-own provider in the 


FINTECH 

103 



104 

“The culture 

is really one 

of the main 

reasons 

I joined the 

company” 

— 

Ben Hawksworth, 

Chief Technology Officer, 


US. Ben Hawksworth, Chief Technology 

Officer (CTO), says the firm ultimately 

owes its success to two things: its deep 

customer focus and its significant scale. 

“What gives us an edge is our scale 

– we’re the number one in the industry 

and we have been at it the longest,” he 

observes. “With US$2bn in revenue, 

thousands of retail partners and a very 

loyal customer base, this scale has 

proven to be a real competitive advantage 

for us and it’s one we hope to 

leverage as we move forward.” Indeed, 

today Progressive Leasing’s lease-toown 

option has helped millions of 

customers and their families, meaning 

that they can buy the goods they need 

(whether it’s a mattress or a mobile 

phone), even if they have imperfect 

credit or an inability to pay for their 

purchase upfront. Looking 

forward, Hawksworth is wellequipped 

to steer the firm as 

it grows in size. A seasoned 

business and technology leader, 

Hawksworth spent almost two 

decades at the two largest payment 

providers in the US. As such, he has 

first-hand experience of how to scale 

technology. “When you’re dealing with 

thousands of transactions a second, 


FINTECH 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘CUSTOMER STORY’ 

105 

you have to design your systems and 

think about your products and processes 

a little bit differently,” he says. “You 

have to ensure that they’re hardened, 

that they can withstand the forces of 

uptime, reliability and accuracy.” 

Hawksworth and his team have 

worked diligently to ensure that the 

customer remains front and center 

of the firm’s vision. As a digitally-focused 

business, this journey starts 

with software development and, more 

specifically, product development. “We 

have an intense focus on our products 

and solutions and how they meet our 

customers’ needs,” Hawksworth 

explains. “From our Quality Engineers 

to our CEO, everyone is involved in 

the product experience creation. We 

measure usability, practice design-first 

thinking and, at the end of the day, 

we’re really passionate about taking 

the friction out of the process for our 

customers at every step.” To sum this 

up, one of the firm’s core values is to 

‘innovate and simplify’. This simple 

mantra, Hawksworth believes, is one 

which is central to Progressive Leasing’s 

way of thinking. 

To put this vision into motion, the 



106 

business has turned its attention to agile 

methodology, a software development 

practice which helps teams respond 

to the unpredictability of constructing 

software. Hawksworth and his 

colleagues have practiced an agile 

approach at a team level for quite some 

time but the real challenge was how to 

scale this as teams naturally became 

more interdependent on each other and 

as products became more complex in 

a rapidly growing organization. 

This is where Progressive Leasing 

first had the idea for an Agile Portfolio 

Office (APO). Hawksworth describes 

this as a place which “brings a center 

of gravity to our software development 

lifecycle and adds central accountability 

to the process of development”. 

Essentially, this helped to put a structure 

in place which enabled collaboration, 

allowed the firm to scale and to promote 

visibility into the product development 

lifecycle. Progressive Leasing then 

decided to take this one step further 

by exploring a dual track, agile product 

development methodology where 

discovering what to build is just as 

important as the building process. 

“Our analysis showed that we spent too 

much time figuring out the feasibility 

$2bn 

Approximate 

revenue 

1999 

Year founded 

1,600 


of employees 

of a product or a feature during the actual 

execution of the sprint work itself,” 

explains Hawksworth. “Dual-track puts 

accountability on three people – the 

product manager, the UX designer and 

the tech lead – to assess the feasibility, 

effort and scope of an idea. It allows us to 

truly determine whether or not an idea is 

worth building before we start the work.” 


FINTECH 

107 

Successful ideas from the discovery 

track are then followed up through 

a so-called delivery track. This allows 

Progressive Leasing to concentrate its 

energy and efforts on projects which will 

deliver value. “By spending a little more 

time upfront, it makes for a much more 

rewarding experience for our engineers 

and product managers,” he adds. 

Hawksworth has only just scratched 

the surface of Progressive Leasing’s 

journey. The business is also implementing 

an API management platform from 

Google which he says will “give the 

business the ability to innovate on the 

edge” allowing it to innovate more quickly, 

consistently and securely. In line with 

its customer focus, Progressive Leasing 


Tekmark delivers 

innovative, cost-effective, 

and results driven 

solutions. 

Established. Experienced. Entrepreneurial. 

By having a thorough understanding of our clients’ needs, 

combined with our in-house technical expertise, Tekmark is 

adept at assembling teams and delivering services that 

contribute to all facets of your business growth. 

• Application Development & Agile Transformation 

• Business Intelligence & Data Analytics 

• Cybersecurity 

• Managed IT & Network Services 

• Software Quality Management 

• Technology Staffing 

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Proud Technology Staffing & Solutions Partner of Progressive Leasing. 

Congratulations to Ben Hawksworth and the 

team at Progressive Leasing for their 

innovative technology and industry leading 

product innovation! 

To learn more visit: www.tekmark.com

FINTECH 

“We measure 

usability, we 

practice designfirst 

thinking and, 

at the end of the 

day, we’re really 

passionate about 

taking the friction 

out of the process 

for our customers 

at every step” 

— 




is also exploring new ways to reach and 

interact with its customers. This often 

involves tailoring the customer journey 

to the type of device they’re using. “It 

means that we’re increasingly putting 

more and more of the process into our 

customers’ devices whether that’s a 

mobile phone or a tablet,” he says. “That’s 

really where we can take technology 

and deliver a better experience for 

our customers and retail partners.” 

Additionally, Hawksworth highlights 

how the firm is also striving to make its 

workflow more “content driven” using 

a content management platform to 

deliver real-time, uniquely customizable 

workflows for its retail partners. 

As a digitally-driven firm, product 

development isn’t just a technology 

issue at Progressive Leasing: it’s 

company wide. As the company rapidly 

grows, constraints and bottlenecks are 

something that every department faces. 

Hawksworth says: “I have the ability and 

the pleasure to be able to sit down with 

our CEO and talk about how maybe 

a legacy design or a legacy constraint 

creates friction or slows down our 

delivery process. We can easily talk 

about investing in the foundation as 

much as in new features and products,” 

reflects Hawksworth. “We really try 

to balance staying focused on product 

innovation and eliminating legacy 

constraints.” Another challenge with 

software development undoubtedly 

lies in customer transparency. It’s 

a core value for Progressive Leasing 

which the company won’t concede on. 

“That’s really the key quest for us,” 

Hawksworth admits. “We never want to 

109 



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FINTECH 

111 

compromise on customer transparency 

and, simultaneously, we want to deliver 

the best user experience that we possibly 

can. Those two things can naturally be 

at odds with one another and so it’s up 

to us to find that perfect harmony.” 

This is a delicate balancing act that 

is undoubtedly paying off. Progressive 

Leasing has grown nearly 10 times in 

size over the past six years, with its 

success culminating in a bumper Black 

Friday holiday. “We had the single most 

successful day in the company’s history 

which was a testament to the hard work 

that our product, engineering, sales and 

operations teams put into the business,” 

says Hawksworth proudly. “It 

demonstrated that we met our own 

expectations of flawless execution on 

our most successful day.” However, 

such growth brings along its own 

challenges and opportunities – one of 

which involves attracting and retaining 

key talent. Today, the business has 

several hundred people working in its 

technology and product department 

with more being added every day. 

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, a 

region which has been dubbed ‘Silicon 

Slopes’ for its buzzing tech scene, 



112 


FINTECH 

Progressive Leasing has to work hard 

to ensure it not only gets the best talent, 

but that these individuals also work 

well within the firm’s culture. Progressive’s 

innovative recruitment team has 

turned to firms like Tekmark Global 

Solutions to find unique skills and the 

best talent – but for Hawksworth, it’s 

not about skills alone. “In this competitive 

market, we have to move quickly but 

we also feel very strongly about spending 

quality time with candidates to make 

sure they are going to be a good cultural 

fit,” says Hawksworth. “The culture is 

really one of the main reasons I joined 

the company. It’s second to none. It’s 

great to see Progressive Leasing has 

managed to maintain this culture even 

though we’ve grown to be a two-billiondollar 

company and my job is to make 

sure we keep it strong and vibrant. Firms 

like Tekmark understand how important 

culture is for us and they speak the 

Progressive story innately with candidates 

to attract the right talent required 

to sustain our growth.” 

Progressive Leasing owes a lot to its 

team, and it also relies on key partners, 

both externally and internally, to maintain 

113 



114 

its rapid momentum. “Internally, my 

biggest partner is our Chief Product 

Officer and our VP of Product. We 

simply can’t afford to be misaligned. 

If we aren’t running in the exact same 

direction, at the exact same target, 

we will not be able to deliver our vision. 

Meanwhile, externally, we’ve leveraged 

a firm called Silicon Valley Product 

Group (SVPG) to help us to fine-tune 

our process and ensure that we’re all 

on the same page.” With this support, 

Progressive Leasing is set to continue 

on its upward trajectory and whilst no 

one can predict where the finance 

sector will head in the future, one thing 

“We have an 

intense focus 

on our products 

and solutions 

and how they 

meet our customers’ 

needs” 

— 





FINTECH 

115 

is for certain – Progressive Leasing will 

remain laser-focused on the customer 

experience. “We believe that really 

listening to our customers will give us 

the best roadmap to our ongoing 

success,” Hawksworth affirms. 


116 

PAYOMATIC: 

DIGITAL 


TOWARDS MOBILE 

ENABLEMENT 

WRIT TEN BY 

JOHN O’HANLON 

PRODUCED BY 

ANDY TURNER 


TECHNOLOGY 

117 


PAYOMATIC 

For more than 60 years, Payomatic 

Corporation has filled the 

space between the formal banking 

system and the cash economy 

for millions of New Yorkers. Today 

money works differently than 

it used to, catalyzing a new 

digitally enabled customer focus 

118 

T 

he blue and yellow PAYOMATIC banner 

is a familiar sight in and around New York, 

standing above almost 150 stores or 

Money Centers. Nearly half of these are open 24 

hours a day. Since its origins in the 1950s, the 

company has provided an essential alternative to 

the formal banking system, providing the ‘underbanked 

and unbanked’ population with the facility 

to cash checks, pay bills and remit money overseas, 

among other services. The New York metropolitan 

area has always attracted a huge population of 

migrant and immigrant workers, and though these 

are by no means the only group to benefit from 

such services, they typically work irregular hours, 

maybe in multiple employments and get paid in 

cash or by check. Not infrequently they are 

supporting dependents overseas, necessitating 

a reliable and quick way to remit funds. 

For these customers, the bureaucracy of the 

traditional banking route is not easily accessible. 

However, at PAYOMATIC, they can take care of all 


TECHNOLOGY 

119 


PAYOMATIC 

120 

“We endeavored 

to build a 

single source 

of truth for 

the customer” 

— 

Steve Mayotte 

Chief Information Officer, 

PAYOMATIC 

of their business in one place. At the 

same time as cashing a check, they 

are able to pay utility bills, buy money 

orders, and even try their luck with the 

NY Lottery. The ability to walk in off 

the street into a welcoming store environment 

is important to them, and for 

the many shift workers whose labor 

keeps the city humming, the latenight 

availability of so many stores is 

a boon. PAYOMATIC is the largest 

financial services provider and 

Western Union’s biggest reseller in 

the New York area. 

FROM CONSULTANT TO CIO 

Like everyone else PAYOMATIC 

customers are busy people who want 

to take full advantage of the tools 

technology affords them. As a 

retail-type business with a large high 

street presence and the overhead 

costs that go with that, PAYOMATIC 

decided some eight years ago that it 

needed to bring all of its systems up 

to date and take advantage of the 

technology that had infiltrated 

the traditional banks. It partnered 

with Modus Agency, an 


TECHNOLOGY 

award-winning digital innovation 

consultancy, to develop a multiyear 

plan focused on modernizing 

PAYOMATIC’s legacy software 

platforms. Modus’s Steven Mayotte 

and his team worked on this plan and 

developed a roadmap, working closely 

with PAYOMATIC’s CIO and COO. 

In 2013 Mayotte transitioned from 

Modus to become Vice President for 

IT at PAYOMATIC, and in 2015 he was 

appointed CIO. It was a seamless 

progression, he explains. “When I first 

engaged with PAYOMATIC the company 

faced problems that are familiar in the 

retail and financial service space. With 

150 locations, each one had a disparate 

view of the customer and each 

transaction was a function of that store.” 

Each time a customer came in with 

a check to cash, the customer service 

representative (CSR), or teller at the 

counter, had to take a risk on behalf of 

the company, making decisions about 

that customer and the issuer (‘maker’) 

of the check – and underwrite that risk. 

“If someone hit one location with a fraudulent 

check they’d probably move on to 

hit ten or 15 other stores because the 

systems did not talk to one another.” 

Another issue was that the stores 

leverage distribution of around 15 

121 


FinTech. MarTech. HealthTech. 

Whatever your tech, it’s all really HumanTech. 

Driven by innovation, design thinking, and a deep 

understanding of human behavior, we create digital products 

and experiences that businesses—and humans—love. 

The HumanTech Company 

modus-made.com

TECHNOLOGY 

partner products. Each of these, like 

PAYOMATIC’s largest partner for 

remittances and international payments, 

Western Union, has proprietary 

procedures. “There were disparate 

systems that tellers were expected to 

know how to use, then enter back into 

the main transactional systems, mostly 

in real time. Losses from fraud and 

teller error were high. The company 

had not really evolved to make use of 

the more modern technologies 

available. We endeavored to build 

a single source of truth for the customer, 

as well as an online transactional 

system that could integrate with every 

third party in real time through application 

programming interfaces (APIs).” 

DIRECTED TO DIGITAL 

This was an ambitious goal but an 

essential first step in the digital journey, 

he says – to consolidate data from the 

customer, the maker, and all other 

sources, create better analytics to 

understand customer behavior, achieve 

123 


Steven Mayotte 

Steve Mayotte is responsible for building and 

developing technology systems and 

infrastructure for all the PAYOMATIC 

businesses and for leading the company’s 

digital transformation. He is responsible for 

developing and implementing PAYOMATIC’s 

information security strategy and data 

engineering, analytics, and machine learning 

strategy. Mayotte has more than 12 years of 

experience in financial services and hightech 

consulting. Prior to joining 

PAYOMATIC, he served as Service 

Delivery Manager for Modus Agency. 


PAYOMATIC 

124 

transparency into fraud patterns as 

well as underwriting models, and align 

these within the business so that 

accurate information would be available 

to its leadership for better decision 

making. It had been tackled before in 

the financial space, he acknowledges, 

but having looked at existing platforms, 

his team found that none of them 

would fit PAYOMATIC’s unique hybrid 

business model in the space between 

retail and financial services. 

Partnering with Modus Agency for 

software development, a custom-written 

platform known as TL2 was created that 

can not only encompass the inventory 

management and tracking of the product 

(cash) but also recognize all of the 

treasury functions required by the 

Federal Reserve and the banking 

system as well as multiple partner 

systems. The new platform removed the 

burden from 800 CSRs of working with 

multiple platforms when completing 

customer transactions, dramatically 

reduced fraud losses and made it 

much easier to manage the peaks 

and troughs that the stores experience 

on paydays, holidays and at 

different times of day or night. “We 

have seen dramatic cost savings and 

efficiencies at every level,” says Mayotte. 

“This platform 

paved the way for us to automate 

back-office processes and enhance the 

in-store customer experience.” 

Building on the success of new 

transactional platform PAYOMATIC 

turned its focus to data. From data 

silos, the company has achieved data 

democratization. “At first we leveraged 

external partners to help us with data 

warehousing and ETL processes, then 

as our capabilities matured we hired a

TECHNOLOGY 

“Migrating to 

managed cloud 

solutions lets 

our team focus on 

delivering 

business value 

rather than on 

hosting and setup” 

— 

Steve Mayotte 


PAYOMATIC 

125 

dedicated team internally focused on 

data engineering. The team partnered 

with analysts and built a platform 

enabling on-demand data exploration 

and reporting in our on-premise 

infrastructure. As we’ve grown, the size 

of our data continues to expand 

exponentially. To deal with the problem 

we are architecting our next generation 

data platform running on the public 

cloud.” Mayotte is looking at Tableau for 

data visualization and Apache Hadoop 

for large-scale data processing on the 

public cloud. “Migrating to managed 

cloud solutions lets our team focus on 

delivering business value rather than 

on hosting and setup.” 

He’s proud of the way his staff has 

been able to develop their skills and 

learned how to leverage the efficiencies 

presented by the public cloud. For 

example, PAYOMATIC uses AWS 

managed Kubernetes to run their 

microservice workloads. “Previously 

our deployment times weren’t bad but 

they took the better part of a day running 

a mixture of automated scripts, manual 

procedures, and testing: now with our 


PAYOMATIC 

126 

investment in DevOps, continuous 

integration, and continuous delivery we 

can deploy our microservices workloads 

to Production in minutes!” It’s especially 

gratifying to him to have built a focused, 

tight-knit team that has delivered results 

like these when other companies 

might have engaged Big Four consultants 

costing millions of dollars. 

These days, development teams 

have a big tool chest they can raid. For 

example, Terraform, the infrastructureas-a-service 

(IaaS) tool from HashiCorp 

has, Mayotte testifies, played a huge 

“The organization, 

having tackled 

the behind-thescenes 

technology 

was ready to 

start engaging 

with customers 

in a new channel” 

— 

Steve Mayotte 


PAYOMATIC 

part in the DevOps work of his teams, 

enabling them to easily access Amazon 

or other cloud resources. 

Cybersecurity laws are evolving, he 

points out, with New York being the 

first state to publish financial service 

sector information security regulations. 

“Our CISO and his team are responsible 

for security compliance and we use 

IBM QRadar and other cloud-based 

SIEM (security information and event 

management) monitoring software tools 

to detect cybersecurity attacks and 

network breaches.” PAYOMATIC has 


TECHNOLOGY 

5mn + 

Checks cashed 

annually 

1958 

Year founded 

1,000 


of employees 

127 

invested scrupulously in tools and auditing 

from a risk management perspective, 

and is fully compliant with the New 

York State Department of Financial 

Services (NYS DFS) Part 500 cybersecurity 

regulations for financial institutions. 

INPOWER: CARD ON THE RUN 

Two years ago, Payomatic started to 

develop its hottest new offering, 

a prepaid MasterCard that allows 

Payomatic customers to pay bills, 

withdraw money from an ATM, shop 

online, or have paychecks and other 

government checks like tax refunds 

directly deposited, all without a traditional 

bank account. The inPOWER 

card, accredited to the highest PCI 

Level 1 standard, has not been on the 

market long, having been launched in 

November 2018 but, linked to a new 

mobile app it’s already transforming 

customer engagement, he enthuses. 

“The organization, having tackled the 

behind-the-scenes technology was 

ready to start engaging with customers 

in a new channel – mobile.” 

Payomatic partnered with a mobile 


PAYOMATIC 

128 

COMPANY FACTS 

commerce specialist to identify the 

highest value opportunities to transform 

consumer experience and extend the 

familiar store experience into the 

digital world. Assigning a dedicated 

product team, Stuzo researched the 

customer base to produce a product 

strategy and roadmap. The result 

was a mobile app for iOS and Android 

that launched with the inPOWER 

card. “All of the services supporting 

the mobile app run on AWS cloud. 

The app’s initial features focus on 

inPOWER customers with plans for 

new products and features in 2019. 

Early customer adoption has been 

excellent. We are really excited about 

mobile as an alternative distribution 

channel to the stores. It gives us a much 

closer relationship and understanding 

of the customer and their behavior.” 

Connecting the in-store experience 

with the digital experience will be 

his focus over the coming year, he 

continues, adding features like staging 

transactions, which are making it easier 

to complete them in store or even ‘on 

the run’ using mobile technology. 

“Utility payments make up a large 

portion of our bill pay-ment transac- 

“We are really exc 

about mobile as 

an alternative 

distribution chan 

to the stores” 

— 

Steve Mayotte 


PAYOMATIC 


TECHNOLOGY 

ited 

nel 

tion volume. Say a customer has been 

saving up to pay multiple bills at the 

month’s end. When they come to visit 

a store there is a lengthy data entry 

process to complete all their transactions. 

Our vision is that customers 

store their bills in our mobile app and 

choose to process their payments 

in-store or through the mobile app. ” 

Steven Mayotte has a palpable 

relish for his role as CIO of PAY- 

OMATIC, which he says is not really 

about technology so much as about 

customer engagement. “Younger 

customers would probably rather not 

come into a store at all, but they are 

always going to need our financial 

services. My view is that we must 

meet the customer wherever and 

however they want to be met. We need 

to be relevant to all our customers for 

the next 30 years or more and the 

technology is just serving to advance 

that strategy.” 

129 


130 

CAMPUS-WIDE 

TECHNOLOGY 


WRITTEN BY 

HARRY MENEAR 

PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG DANIELS 


TECHNOLOGY 

131 


BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY 

132 

BRIAN BOLT, DEPUTY CIO OF BOISE STATE 

UNIVERSITY, DISCUSSES THE UNIQUE 

CHALLENGES OF EFFECTING 

TECHNOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION IN 

AN ENTERPRISE-SCALE EDUCATIONAL 

INSTITUTION 

F 

or the most part, the days 

when an employee would 

graduate school or college, 

secure a job, work for 30 years and 

collect a commemorative watch have 

gone the way of the stegosaurus, the 

French Monarchy and Betamax. The 

US Bureau of Labor found that, in 2018, 

the median number of years wage and 

salary workers spent in a single job 

was just 4.2. Brian Bolt began working 

at Boise State as a student employee 

in 1997, and then as a full-time employee 

in 1999. After leaving for a couple 

years, Bolt returned and has been with 

the University’s IT organization ever 

since. He earned his MBA from Boise 

State in 2006 and became Deputy 

Chief Information Officer in 2015. His 

long career in higher-ed IT allows for 

an increasingly unique perspective as 

an innovator and solutioner. 

“I came to Boise to pursue a Bachelor’s 

Degree. I built on my fondness for 


TECHNOLOGY 

133 

computers and joined a pilot program 

learning something that doesn’t exist 

anymore called Novell NetWare,” he 

reminisces. “It was basically a file and 

print service. And that’s where I got my 

start that led to a student employment 

job on campus.” Bolt’s career with 

Boise State has long outlived Novell 

NetWare, which released its final update 

in 2009. Over the course of his 

20-year IT career he has been at the 

heart of major changes to the campus’ 


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paloaltonetworks.com

TECHNOLOGY 

135 

IT governance. We sat down with Bolt 

to find out about the challenges of effecting 

technological transformation 

and change management across an 

enterprise-scale higher learning institution, 

and about Boise State’s current 

plans to implement a campus-wide 

Customer Relationship Management 

(CRM) approach to use data analysis 

to improve and maintain Boise’s university-student 

relationships. 

Located in the West of Idaho, Boise 

State University was founded in 1932 

by the Episcopal Church, becoming an 



136 

independent junior college two years 

later. In 2019, wwwwit has over 24,000 

attendees and was reclassified in 

2015 as a Carnegie doctoral research 

university, as well as placing 45th on 

the US News and World Report’s 2019 

list of Most Innovative Universities. This 

year is also on track to have the institution’s 

largest first-year class in the 

university’s history. 

To manage the ever-growing student 

body, Bolt and the rest of the Boise 

State’s IT department are working 

to begin the implementation of their 

campus-wide CRM over the next year, 

with incremental rollouts expected to 

begin in late 2019. “We don’t yet have 

a CRM for students that are in the 

K-12 environment. They’re our future 

pipeline if you’re looking at it from 

a strictly sales point of view. And at the 

other end of the spectrum, we have 

programs at the university that cater to 

the retirement community and ongoing 

education. The lifespan of a customer 

for us could be 60 years long,” explains 

Bolt. “But right now, we only have a 

CRM for the bookends of our lifecycle: 

applicants and alumni. We have nothing 

in between that manages the most 

important part.” Managing IT governance 

strategy at an enterprise-scale 

educational institution presents its own 

unique difficulties, particularly when 

implementing campus-wide technology 

transformation. Bolt reflects on 

the challenges to be faced in order to 

successfully roll out the CRM: “There’s 

managing technology change in a very 

disparate environment, learning how 

to manage change rollouts, and also 

being accepting of the fact that some 


TECHNOLOGY 

137 


Brian Bolt 

Brian began his academic studies at Boise State in 

1996 and started his IT career the following year. 

After learning about the higher-ed environment as 

a departmental Network Administrator, he moved to 

the central IT office as a Systems Engineer. From 

there, he progressed into management roles within 

technical operations until founding the Project 

Management Office in 2011. He currently serves 

as Deputy CIO. 



138 

“THE LIFESPAN OF 

A CUSTOMER FOR US 

COULD BE 60 YEARS 

LONG, BUT RIGHT 

NOW WE ONLY HAVE 

A CRM FOR THE 

BOOKENDS OF THAT 

LIFECYCLE: APPLIC- 

ANTS AND ALUMNI” 

— 

Brian Bolt, 

Deputy Chief Information Office, 

Boise State University 

of the technologies we have may have 

reached the end of their lifecycle.” 

Over the course of his career at Boise, 

Bolt has faced each of these challenges 

and more. 

Though his career at Boise State began 

working with the Novell NetWare 

operating system, by 2007 Bolt could 

see that transformation and transition 

were long overdue. “At one point 

in time, universities were looked to as 

leaders with regard to technology and 

its adoption,” he says, “but I think in the 

90s the corporate world started to get 

ahead.” Technology, Bolt points out, 

became more entrenched and slower 

moving in academia. “So, we held 

onto our Novell infrastructure for a lot 

longer than the corporate world ever 

did. Which is fine. It’s just kind of the 

way that universities work, and there’s 

a reason why universities have been 

around for a long time. They’re typically 

deliberate about their decision-making 

process.” Boise’s relationship with 

Novell came to an end as a result of 

reduced reliability due to vendors not 

being able to invest as much money in 

maintenance updates. “We were probably 

one of the last schools running 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘MILLION DOLLAR SCHOLARS’ 

139 

Novell’s technology,” he says. “It was 

a dying technology that wasn’t being 

maintained as well as it could be.” 

Bolt reflects that the transition that 

followed Boise leaving Novell behind 

was one of the “big breaks” of his 

career. “I received an invitation to the 

Googleplex to learn about Google 

Apps for Education. This was 2007, 

remember,” he notes, “the early days.” 

Bolt attended the Googleplex in 2007 

to learn about the work being done 

to bring Google apps to educational 

institutions. Excited by the possibilities, 

Bolt returned to Boise and pitched 

the idea to management and IT “and 

that was the first domino of removing 

Novell from our environment.” He 

laughs before admitting that “it was 

kind of the Wild West of IT governance 

back then. We kind of inflicted 

change on campus, and the first year 

afterwards was pretty rocky. We had 

some people that were very satisfied 

and some people that were really not. 

We had rocked their world by taking 

away their email client and calendaring 

system they’d been using for ten years.” 

The fallout from the implementation of 

Google Apps taught Bolt valuable les- 



24,000+ 


of students 

200+ 

Programs of study 

140 

1,135 

Full time staff 


TECHNOLOGY 

141 



142 

sons about the benefits of staggered 

rollouts and pilot programs. “I learned 

a lot about what happens after a project 

goes live in a large, disparate organization 

such as a higher-ed institution,” he 

says. “If you’re afforded the opportunity 

to start small and rollout incrementally, 

that’s a good path to take.” 

Bolt has worked with Boise State’s 

current Chief Information Officer, Max 

Davis-Johnson, since he joined the 

university from Arizona State in 2010. 

“Max was a game changer in terms 

of how the university viewed technology 

as more of a strategic partner 

rather than just a cost center,” says 

Bolt. Davis-Johnson was responsible 

for implementing the university’s 

Roadmap series of transformational 

projects across campus. Excitedly, 

Bolt says, “As a result of that, we got 

a data warehouse off the ground, and 

we implemented our first student and 

faculty portal.” Then, he explains, 

the IT department used these large 

projects as a base on which to build 

up its governance structure. 

With either large-scale projects or 

gradual transformation of IT governance 

strategies, Bolt reasserts the 


TECHNOLOGY 

fact that technological transformation 

across universities is about managing 

the expectations and response 

of diverse user groups. “Thankfully 

we’re in 2019 now, and not in 2008,” he 

says, reflecting on the overall level of 

technological literacy. “Our faculty and 

staff have become more adept at using 

technology. I think ten years has made 

a lot of difference.” On the other hand, 

the expectations of students have 

changed, influenced by a generation of 

social media users and online consumers. 

“Some of our applications and 

systems had more of a legacy look and 

feel,” didn’t provoke positive responses 

from the student body. “They want to 

see the stuff that provides convenience 

more than anything else,” explains 

Bolt. “And that takes us into the current 

generation of thinking, which uses data 

to provide that,” which is at the heart of 

Boise’s new CRM. 

“Right now, we have a task force in 

place. We have a charge that’s been 

given to us by three of the University’s 

six Vice Presidents,” says Bolt. The 

task force is exploring a unique approach 

to the process, which took shape during 

the department’s exploration of the 

143 



144 

solutions offered by Amazon Web 

Services. “We decided to go down the 

AWS route,” says Bolt, reflecting that 

it took a year-and-a-half to unite the IT, 

purchasing and legal departments in 

support of “buying a commodity as a 

service, not a capital investment.” He 

laughs, “no kidding. So after eighteen 

months, we had a signed contract with 

AWS, which provided us a suite of tools 

to use for new projects.” Once the 

department had access to AWS, their 

governance strategy took a note from 

the academia playbook: “we work a 

lot with faculty members that seek out 

grant opportunities. Granting agencies, 

such as National Institute of Health, 

will put out a call for proposals along 

the lines of ‘we have a need. Write your 

response, and we may or may not give 

you money to do the research’. We 

decided to do something similar within 

our own organization and call it a ‘call 

for participation’.” The team drafted up 

a call for participation, asking for applications 

and solutions for AWS machine 

learning and data lake storage. “The response 

was interesting,” chuckles Bolt. 

“We have seven participants from our 

technology office, and the person who 

“THERE’S A REASON 

WHY UNIVERSITIES 

HAVE BEEN AROUND 

FOR A LONG TIME. 

THEY’RE TYPICALLY 

DELIBERATE ABOUT 

THEIR DECISION- 

MAKING PROCESS” 

— 

Brian Bolt, 

Deputy Chief Information Office, 

Boise State University 

wanted to be our project manager was 

actually our solutions architect, so he 

really decided to stretch his skills.” He 

reflects that, “one of the reasons why 

this worked is that we had the business 

unit say they wanted to be part of it as 

well. They actually brought the problem 

to us. They wanted to forecast demand 

for the Summer sessions so that they 

would know how many classes to 

schedule and how many adjunct professors 

to hire.” Regardless of the level 

of success the project achieves, Bolt is 

excited to both broaden the horizons 


TECHNOLOGY 

145 

and skillsets of the participants, and 

to use it as a springboard for the next 

initiative: exploring applications for 

Amazon Alexa. “It’s going to be done 

by our Director of Development,” Bolt 

says. “He wants to invest in Alexa skills 

and figure out where those fit in our 

environment, because smart speakers 

are everywhere in our personal lives. 

Trying to figure out where they best 

fit in an educational environment is 

definitely an interest.” 

Of course, finding applications 

for AWS and planning the rollout of 

a campus-wide CRM are just two of 

the many projects on Bolt’s desk. He 

reflects that, “one of the biggest things 

I’ve been involved with the past year 

has been restarting our IT governance 

structure. There’s not necessarily 

a command and control model in 

the university. So, when it comes to a 

finite resource such as IT, we have a 

lot of demands placed on us to deliver 

x, y and z, and without structure as 

to which large projects we should be 

working on and where we’re going, the 

gap in stakeholder support creates a 



146 

fair amount of chaos.” To solve this, 

over the past year Bolt and his committee 

co-chair, Boise’s Dean of Extended 

Studies, have put together a list of 

large development projects. The system 

has added structure, Bolt explains 

that “getting that framework put into 

place has been a good thing. It’s been 

a year-long process to get that set up 

and I think we’ll benefit from that. So 

will the university. Because we’re working 

on their goals. Not necessarily our 

goals. And that’s hugely beneficial to 

all parties.” 

“It’s great that we have a scope for 

what we want to deliver, an area we 

want to deliver to, and a partner in 

a particular school on campus that’s 

willing to work with us,” he says. Bolt’s 

team is currently in the procurement 

phase. Hoping to learn from their 

experiences with AWS, Bolt estimates 

“we’ll shorten that process from 18 

months down to a four-or-five-month 

process. We’ve learned a lot, and I think 

we’ve learned how to partner better 

with areas on campus to expedite 

things like this. So, we’re hoping to have 

a technology and a path chosen by 

early summer. 


TECHNOLOGY 

147 

“This has a chance of being a transformational 

project for us because it 

essentially creates a CRM with a very 

long lifecycle.” The Boise State CRM 

will manage student data, allowing the 

university to “know how to best advise 

its students by pulling information from 

its systems of record. That can really 

help us understand the entire makeup 

of the individual,” says Bolt. Looking 

back on a career of large technological 

changes, incremental progress and 

unique challenges, Bolt looks forward 

to another exciting chapter in the his- 

tory of an institution he knows like the 

back of his hand. “Our challenges and 

successes over the past ten years 

have put us in a spot where we can be 

successful with something as large as 

a campus-wide CRM.” 


INFOR, USA 

148 

The Infor 

OS Platform: 

Leveraging an 

API gateway 

and data to 

unlock human 

potential 

WRIT TEN BY 

HARRY MENEAR 

PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG DANIELS 


TECHNOLOGY 

149 



We sit down with Joseph 

Pascaretta and Massimo 

Capoccia of Infor, USA to 

talk about Infor OS, Infor ION, 

Birst Analytics, Coleman AI 

and Infor Data Lake. 

150 

I 

was actually a customer of Infor before 

I joined the organization,” remembers Joseph 

Pascaretta, Vice President & General 

Manager Infor OS at Infor, USA. “I liked it as an 

organization so much that I joined the company. 

It feels like a large start-up.” Massimo Capoccia, 

Senior Vice President Infor OS, Technology confirms: 

“I have a career where I’ve had the opportunity to 

build a platform from scratch, from the beginning. 

That has been an amazing journey.” 

Between them, Pascaretta and Capoccia have 

over 16 years’ experience at Infor. Headquartered 

in New York and with 168 offices globally, as well as 

over 15,000 employees serving 68,000 customers, 

Infor is a global leader in business cloud software 

products for companies in industry specific markets. 

“We believe that data is really at the center of unleashing 

human potential,” says Pascaretta. “We have 

an Intelligent Cloud Digital Gateway: a way to be 

able to bring all of that data together, but then allow 

organizations to innovate effectively and quickly, 

leveraging real tools and assets all delivered in 

the Cloud.” 


TECHNOLOGY 

151 



“I was actually 

a customer of 

Infor. I liked it 

so much that 

I joined the 

organization” 

— 

Joseph Pascaretta, 

Vice President & General Manager, Infor 

152 

From the Infor OS API gateway and 

integration of third-party applications, 

to its own Coleman Artificial Intelligence 

(AI), to an infinitely scalable Data Lake, 

Infor understands the necessity for 

powerful machine learning systems 

to handle the vast quantities of data 

inherent to Industry 4.0. Infor is applying 

machine learning to Big Data and 

scaling it infinitely using the power 

of cloud computing. Pascaretta notes 

that the integration of data, AI and 

cloud scalability is “the huge value 

proposition of what we’re doing and 

the major differentiator”. He adds: 

“No other enterprise software organization 

is doing what we’re doing. They’re 

doing elements of it in pockets and silos, 

but not all together as one integrated 

platform solution delivered fully in 

the Cloud.” 

“Thinking about data as the critical 

asset is really the foundation of all this,” 

says Pascaretta. Traditionally, companies 

store data in data warehouses 

which filter all incoming data that has 

already been processed for specific 

purposes. “The first mistake that 


TECHNOLOGY 

enterprise organizations make when 

you want to have data storage for 

multiple person consumption is that 

they think that the data warehouse is 

the place to be,” notes Capoccia. “But 

that’s actually what people were doing 

five or 10 years ago.” With the everincreasing 

quantities of data enterprises 

are presented with, the necessary 

approach Infor recognises is to pair 

Big Data with AI applications. “If you 

want to use the same data that has 

been filtered for analytics for an AI 

application, you’re going to miss a lot of 

other types of data,” Massimo explains. 

153 


Joseph Pascaretta 

Joseph is Vice President & General Manager for 

the Infor OS business unit where he is responsible 

for global growth, business development and 

strategic partnerships. During his career, Joseph 

has held a number of business development, 

business strategy, engineering, sales and 

marketing roles in software and technology fields 

and has been recognized as Ernst & Young 

Entrepreneur of the Year for Product Solutions. 

Joseph specializes in building businesses and 

launching innovative new products and solutions. 



154 


Massimo Capoccia 

An experienced and impassioned technology 

executive, Massimo Capoccia specializes 

in technology, software architectures, and 

enterprise software strategy. He has built three 

architectures and platforms from the ground-up 

and understands the life-cycle management of 

a software product. In his current role as Senior 

Vice President Infor OS, Technology, he invests 

his time meeting with customers and prospects, 

discussing strategic value of software, and 

supervising architecture development projects. 


TECHNOLOGY 

“We really believe in 

offering complete solutions, 

both on the platform and 

on the application. So if 

a functionality is not really 

our core, we partner 

with a third party” 

— 

Massimo Capoccia, 

Senior Vice President Infor OS, Technology 

155 

“If you want to do an enterprise search, 

you’re going to miss other types of 

data as well. So, a data warehouse is not 

complete, per se. You need a different 

type of storage that allows you to store 

structured and unstructured data all 

together in a very cheap way.” 

This is where Infor’s Data Lake comes 

into play. “The Data Lake stays on 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) AmazonS3 

technology, which is available all 

the time and is very cheap and scalable,” 

Capoccia explains, adding that the Data 

Lake stores “all the transactions, all the 

market data, all the documents, all the 

IoT readings”. “Everything you think of 

when you think about data – it can go 

there,” he adds. “From the Infor Data 

Lake, we will integrate automatically 

with a data warehouse. We have an 

elastic search as well as an index, so 

you can search the data warehouse 

even built for indexing data like you 

would do with a Google search.” 

Infor ensures the security of its Data 

Lake using its proprietary security 

platform. “We have a huge investment 

in security,” says Massimo. “We provide 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: MASSIMO CAPOCCIA, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT 

INFOR OS, TECHNOLOGY - INTRODUCTION TO INFOR OS 

157 

a single sign-on, user management, 

and permission management platforms.” 

Traditionally, there is a danger of gaps 

in security appearing between a core 

platform and third-party software, 

but Infor prides itself on the degree to 

which its OS integrates with third-party 

applications. “Even if you would build 

an application on top of Infor, maybe an 

AOI platform, it would still respect the 

security,” Capoccia notes. 

Once Infor has gathered a customer’s 

data, its AI and analytics services 

come into play. “Being able to consume 

“You need 

a different type 

of storage that 

allows you 

to store structured 

and unstructured 

data all together 

in a very 

cheap way” 

— 

Massimo Capoccia, 

Senior Vice President Infor OS, Technology 



COMPANY FACTS 

•●19 of the top 20 

aerospace companies 


high tech companies 

● •●18 of the 25 largest 

US healthcare 

delivery networks 

•●18 of the 20 largest 

US cities 

158 


automotive suppliers 


industrial distributors 


global retailers 

•●4 of the top 5 brewers 


global banks 

•●9 of the 10 largest 

global hotel brands 


global luxury brands 


TECHNOLOGY 

and leverage analytics and business 

intelligence across all of an enterprise’s 

back-end systems is definitely key,” 

says Pascaretta. “So we leverage our 

Infor Birst Analytics platform that is 

designed to optimize complex business 

processes. The idea is that it’s 

faster time to value and it’s deployed 

in the cloud. So once you have that 

data together, being able to see into 

the data and leverage analytics and 

business intelligence around it is 

definitely critical.” 

Named after the inspiring physicist 

and mathematician Katherine Coleman 

Johnson, whose trail-blazing 

work helped NASA land on the moon, 

Infor’s Coleman AI platform represents 

a giant leap for artificial intelligence 

at scale. This platform allows users 

to retrieve, analyse and leverage data into 

business decisions such as preventative 

maintenance, inventory optimization 

and inventory predictions. The Infor 

Coleman AI platform also recognizes 

patterns in behavior to help businesses 

automate processes like purchasing. 

“Every time multiple users ask a question, 

we’ll apply machine learning to optimize 

the answers back to the users,” Capoc- 

159 




$3.1bn+ 

Approximate 

revenue 

2002 

Year founded 

160 

15,000+ 


of employees 

“We really believe in offering complete 

solutions, both on the platform and on 

the application. So if a functionality is 

not really our core, we partner with a 

third party,” says Capoccia. 

“HCL Technologies is another one of 

our great strategic partners, not only 

from an implementation side but also 

for next generation digital transformation 

engineering and delivery,” Pascaretta 

adds. He explains that HCL 

provides customer-specific engineercia 

explains. Coleman’s automation 

services also extend to ordering and 

invoicing. To transfer paper invoices to 

a digital format for Coleman, Infor has 

partnered with Ephesoft for its ocular 

character recognition (OCR) needs. 

With such a strong focus on proprietary 

software, Infor draws a sharp 

divide between high investment, high 

focus in-house products and the use of 

trusted third-party partners also 

working on the cutting edge of tech. 


TECHNOLOGY 

161 

ing expertise when a client wants “to 

take their technology to the next level”. 

The two companies first partnered in 

2015, with HCL dedicating hundreds of 

employees to support Infor. 

2019 will be an exciting year for Infor, 

Pascaretta and Capoccia agree. The 

Infor Data Lake will have a global 

compliance platform built on top of its 

existing security systems, and new 

features on Coleman AI are set to 

launch, as well as Infor OS support for 

external users. “Once you have data, 

being able to unleash and innovate - 

that’s a key thing to what we’re 

providing,” Pascaretta concludes. 


162 

WRIT TEN BY 

ANDREW WOODS 

PRODUCED BY 

TOM VENTURO 


TECHNOLOGY 

163 


CHOICE FINANCIAL 

We speak to CIO Tim Heilman at 

Choice Financial regarding its 

recent technological innovations 

that place people front and center 

164 

T 

here is a certain tale that typifies 

Choice Bank, according to its Chief 

Brand and Innovation Officer, Tim 

Heilman. “We had a customer call one of our 

locations, simply needing to run to the bank 

to do a deposit; I believe the account was 

overdrawn,” Heilman explains. “However, this 

customer had run out of gas on his way to the 

bank and so he was simply calling the bank 

to say: ‘You’re not going to believe this but 

I am on my way to see you, and now my car’s 

out of gas.’ I think the typical response from 

a bank would be something like, ‘Oh, we 

apologize, that’s too bad. Just run that check 

in whenever you can.’ However, the employee 

said, ‘Where are you at? I will be right there.’ 

The employee went straight to the customer, 

took receipt of his check, and actually delivered 

some gas to get his car started, so he could 

go about his day. People first, banking second,” 

he summarizes. 

People First is an enduring mantra for the 

North American community bank. Headquartered 

in North Dakota, Choice is a financial 


TECHNOLOGY 

165 



166 

“This isn’t banking first: 

it’s whatever you’re 

shopping for, or 

whatever you’re 

doing, that initiates 

a desire or a need 

for banking” 

— 

Tim Heilman, 

Chief Brand and Innovation Officer, 

Choice Bank 

institution that prides itself on a communal 

responsibility and personal touch. 

Heilman often describes the company 

has having a family feel – and the loyalty 

this engenders has kept him at the 

company for the past 15 years, where 

he has seen the bank grow immensely 

since its founding in 2001. Choice is 

the result of a merger involving four 

local banks: Citizens State Bank Grafton- 

Petersburg (with locations in Grafton 

and Petersburg), First Capital Bank of 

North Dakota (with locations in West 

Fargo and Goodrich), First State Bank 

Langdon and Walhalla State Bank. 


TECHNOLOGY 

167 

Each local bank was known for its 

strong community banking culture and 

it’s clear that Choice Bank has kept this 

up as a sum of those parts. 

PEOPLE FIRST 

Heilman is in charge of the bank’s 

technological solutions and his enthusiasm 

is infectious. “I am in charge of 

the overall brand for the organization. 

Choice is a community bank and forwardthinking 

in the technological sense so 

we blended that together in People First. 

We truly put people before banking. We 



168 

have created an atmosphere of empowering 

employees to do things that go 

above and beyond what a typical 

banking experience would be. That 

is our focus.” 

Heilman has been involved in a lot of 

technological changes at Choice since 

he took on the role. The North Dakota 

native has overseen and directly led 

numerous IT operations, with his role 

evolving to include brand marketing 

and innovation. “My role allows me to 

really focus in on communication,” he 

explains. “Externally, we are building 


TECHNOLOGY 

some great community involvement 

pieces where we take a truly philanthropic 

approach, when it comes to 

giving back to our community. Obviously, 

that’s a responsibility of a community 

bank, but we really like to show in 

big ways how we can make those differences 

to people’s lives in the communities 

we serve. I want to have genuine, 

authentic relationships and be able to 

serve customers with value-add services 

that are not expected or typically delivered 

by a bank. Part of what we’re doing 

internally is the initiative I call ‘being 

philanthropic’. Instead of adding five 

more banking locations in a specific 

community, we might partner with 

a handful of other community leaders 

to help build something that the communities 

can actually use. We’d rather 

do that than have a lavish facility; it just 

isn’t that important to us. We’d rather 

give back to our communities.” 

Choice has recently reinvigorated an 

initiative to get children interested in 

personal finance and savings called 

Adventure Club, which incentivizes kids 

to save. “If you empower your children 

to make their own decisions, they might 

actually impress you with what they 169 


Tim Heilman 

Tim Heilman joined Choice Financial in 2004 where he started 

as a single IT department. Through the years, Tim’s role has 

expanded into executive leadership and currently serves as 

EVP, Chief Brand and Innovation Officer. Tim’s leadership 

has guided Choice to be a leading edge innovator in 

community banking technologies, and an early adopter 

of IP technology and online account opening. He has 

successfully guided Choice through multiple software 

and system conversions and several other organizational 

initiatives. Tim believes in the concept of high tech and 

high touch, and above all else the importance of 

great culture and great service. 



EMPOWERING 

the Financial World 

At FIS, we provide the technology 

and solutions to allow financial 

institutions of all sizes to empower 

their customers, their transactions, 

and their business. 

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW FIS CAN 

EMPOWER YOU, VISIT www.fisglobal.com 

decide to do with their money,” Heilman 

explains. “The solution has an app 

that the child and parents both share 

on their own devices. You can create 

goals, objectives, rewards; it could be 

anything that the parent and children 

agree on. Once those goals and rewards 

are set and achieved, then the money 

slides from the parent account to the 

child, which is instantaneous within the 

app. Apple Pay is tied to it, and it has 

real time notifications of what the child 

is spending their money on. We also 

have a company working out of San 

Francisco that does HSAs (health 

savings accounts) in what has been 

a two-year relationship.” Every one of 

Choice’s fintech partners has to be 

a cultural fit, first, offering a product the 

bank firmly believes in. 

INTERNAL OPERATIONS 

2009 represented a seismic shift at 

Choice when its internal communications 

became audio-visual. “It’s been 

a 10-year transition,” Heilman explains. 

“In fact, before that, in 2006 we switched 

everything to full-on voice-over IP. 

I think the biggest shift for us, and the 

biggest opportunity we have taken 


TECHNOLOGY 

171 

“Again, we’re using 

a lot of Cisco 

equipment but we 

do have other vendors 

in the back that are 

helping us monitor the 

network very closely” 

— 

Tim Heilman, 


Choice Bank 

advantage of, with technology, involves 

the ability to communicate. Geographically, 

we are quite spread out across 

two states, and people that work with 

others on a daily basis now have 

the ability to see who they’re talking 

to at any given time. There’s nothing 

better than a face-to-face, in-person 

discussion.” 

A new employee receives a video 

phone on day one so they can start 

building relationships with other team 

members. “This has made an organization 

with close to 400 employees feel 

like a small, intimate and authentic 



172 

organization,” Heilman explains. “I’ve 

been really proud of how it’s brought 

people closer together.” Choice’s 

vendor of choice is Cisco which takes 

care of all of the network, infrastructure 

and security at the bank. “We’re using 

a lot of Cisco equipment but we do have 

other vendors in the back that are helping 

us monitor the network very closely.” 

Video communication, they like to 

call video collaboration, has allowed 

the bank to build greater bonds after 

a number of acquisitions. Choice is 

committed to keeping people in jobs 

during acquisitions, a time when 

typically 30% of staff can be laid off 

right out of the gate. “Our goal, commensurate 

with our culture, is to not lay 

anybody off, and we’ve now done three 

acquisitions,” says Heilman. “Plus, the 

cultural shift (following an acquisition) 

can take three to five years to sync up 

when you bring two organizations together 

and video collaborations really 

help to reduce that timeframe.” 

Choice views its fintech vendors, 

such as Cisco, with the same value as 

its customers and they work together 

through those situations that need to 

be fixed, or tricky installations that 

require collaboration. “Collaboration 


TECHNOLOGY 

173 

gets results,” says Heilman. “So, I think 

maintaining the relationships and constantly 

seeing if there’s some reciprocating 

value that we can give back and 

forth always goes a long way.” 

FINTECH 

Regarding the fintech side of Choice’s 

operations Heilman is proud to be building 

Banking-as-a-Service. “For about 

two years now, we’ve gotten into what 

we like to call Banking as a Service. If 

you have a really good idea that can improve 

banking, or you have a way to 



174 

“PeopleFirst is 

what makes our 

organization come 

together. We have 

true purpose in 

defining why we do 

what we do, and not 

just what we do” 

— 

Tim Heilman, 


Choice Bank 


TECHNOLOGY 

reinvent banking and the experience 

that surrounds it, then we’d love to talk to 

you. We started that process a couple of 

years back.” 

Heilman enthuses about frictionless banking, 

which he sees as shaping the very future of 

fintech. “This isn’t banking first: it’s whatever 

you’re shopping for, or whatever you’re doing, 

that initiates a desire or a need for banking. 

It’s where we kind of come along for the ride,” 

he explains. “That’s currently being built into 

an existing system that’s already successful 

to provide a service that way. It’s another 

area that I see banking, as an industry, expanding 

into. As far as growth strategies, and 

what’s over the horizon, that’s typically what 

I’m seeing. We’re also going to work with 

a company in Sydney, Australia, which is getting 

a product developed that incorporates AI into 

mobile banking. It’s almost a personal finance 

coach and that’s where I see things going.” 

And It’s this rich combination of technology, 

fintech and people that will see Choice Bank 

continuing to grow across the everchanging 

financial landscape. 

175 


176 

Protecting 

companies on 

their digital 


journeys 

WRITTEN BY 

SOPHIE CHAPMAN 

PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG DANIELS 


TECHNOLOGY 

177 


DIMENSION DATA 

As a supplier to Fortune 

100 firms, Dimension 

Data continues 

to expand its digital 

offerings to a variety 

of industries 

178 

G 

lobal system integrator – Dimension Data’s 

operations span across 47 markets on 

five continents. The company employs 

more than 28,000 people and serves over 8,000 

clients, and as a member of Japan’s Nippon 

Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Group, services 

70% of Fortune 100 and 60% of Fortune 500 

businesses. Dimension Data was established in the 

South African capital city, Johannesburg, in 1983. 

The company listed on the Johannesburg Stock 

Exchange four years later, with international 

expansion beginning in 1993 into the firm’s first 

international market, Botswana. In the following 

years the business reached the Asia Pacific region, 

followed by the northern hemisphere. At the turn 

of the century, Dimension Data listed on the 

London Stock Exchange, raising raised US$1.25bn. 

As the company continued to grow it won over 

100 client, vendor, and industry awards in 2015, 

and over 50 in the first half of the following year. 


TECHNOLOGY 

179 



180 

‘We are one of their 

largest global partners 

with a shared heritage 

spanning more than 

25 years – and we have 

Gold Partner status in 

every region in which 

we jointly operate’ 

— 

Dimension Data 

The company currently operates in 

29 cities across 15 states in the US, 

and partners with the some of the 

largest global companies based in the 

country, such as Cisco. “Cisco is the 

worldwide leader in networking for the 

Internet since 1984, and today, more 

than 85% of all Internet traffic travels 

across Cisco’s systems,” Dimension 

Data states. “We are one of their 

largest global partners with a shared 

heritage spanning more than 25 years 

– and we have Gold Partner status 

in every region in which we jointly 

operate.” Dimension Data has also 

established Gold Partner status with 

Microsoft in 21 countries and Titanium 

Partner status with Dell EMC. US firms 

such as NetApp, McAfee, and Oracle 

have also partnered with the IT services 

provider. In 2015, the company also 

partnered with the Amaury Sports 

Organisation (ASO), agreeing to 

a five-year deal to be the technology 

partner of for cycling events. As part of 

the agreement, the company provides 

telemetrics for the sports. 

The firm aims to use technology to 

accelerate the business of its clients, 

targeting four key areas within its 

services: digital infrastructure, hybrid, 

cloud, workspaces of tomorrow, and 

cybersecurity. Dimension Data noticed 

the growth of IT-as-a-service across 

these four sectors, allowing the 

business to cover a range of offerings 

from cloud advisory services to 

on-premise cloud solutions. Due to its 

work with both public and private cloud 

computing, the company’s operations 

are defined as hybrid cloud services. 

The company has a holistic approach 

towards its clients – from consulting 

engagement to the management of IT 

operations. Dimension Data also offers 

what it dubs “omnichannel customer 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘WHO’S DIMENSION DATA?’ 

181 

experience”, covering mobile, digital, 

physical, Internet of Things (IoT), 

automation, bots, virtual agents, video 

and artificial intelligence (AI). “It’s 

this frictionless switching between 

channels that defines the omnichannel 

experience… Our Omnichannel CX 

works with you to get measurable 

results in terms of winning new customers, 

retaining existing customers, 

improving productivity, and reducing 

cost to serve.” 

As well as its wide range of offerings, 

the company’s technology solutions 

have been designed for a variety of 

industries – education, financial 

services, healthcare, manufacturing, 

media and communications, pharmaceutical, 

retail and sport, stating: “We 

offer broad technology expertise in 

a range of verticals. Combined with 

our strategic partnerships and robust 

services portfolio, we can help you 

achieve your digital transformation 

objectives … Whether you’re an 

educational institution, a manufacturer, 

or a healthcare provider, we can 

ensure your IT platforms and services 


TECHNOLOGY 

‘The company’s technology solutions have 

been designed for a variety of industries – 

education, financial services, healthcare, 

manufacturing, media and communications, 

pharmaceutical, retail and sport’ 

Team Dimension Data sponsors a professional cycling team partnered with Qhubeka, a charity 

programme in South Africa that aims to fund 5000 bicycles each year to help children attend 

schools and adults to attend work. The team boasts Mark Cavendish in its ranks, a former 

World Champion and winner of an incredible 30 stages of the Tour de France. 

183 



184 

‘Security is enabling 

digitization. If you 

look at fintech or 

technology businesses, 

they are leading 

this charge’ 

— 

Dimension data 

are fit for purpose and future proof.” 

For Dimension Data, cybersecurity is 

becoming an increasingly profitable 

business. “Cyber-attacks abound in 

the digital age. Digital transformation 

and hybrid IT are pushing security 

perimeters off premises, into the cloud, 

and into the workplace. As a result, 

enforcing cybersecurity policies is 

more complex than ever,” states the 


TECHNOLOGY 

1983 

Year founded 

28,000+ 


of employees 

HQ 

Johannesburg, 

South Africa 

company. The firm’s moto of “risk less, 

achieve more” allows customers to 

continue to embrace ongoing developments 

and ensure their operations are 

secure. The company offers a range of 

solutions, including formulated policies, 

predictive protection, and assessments 

and responses. “Security is 

and always will be big business. Big 

dollar figures are quoted in terms of 

what cybersecurity is doing to the world. 

Security is enabling digitisation. If you 

look at fintech or technology businesses, 

they are leading this charge. Many 

of these businesses are asset light, 

whilst ensuring secure transactions, 

so we think that security expands 

beyond the physical perimeter into 

the cloud environment.” 

Dimension Data promises to enable 

clients to keep up-to-date with new 

technologies, tackling cybersecurity, 

data and the cloud, and infrastructure. 

“We deliver wherever you are, at every 

stage of your technology journey,” the 

company promises. “We invest heavily 

in innovation to bring together the 

world’s best technologies, from consulting, 

technical and support services to 

a fully managed service, to our global 

client base.” 

185 


INNOVATION 

186 

HELPS DRIVE 

SUPPLY CHAIN 

PRODUCTIVITY 

WRIT TEN BY 

JOHN O’HANLON 

PRODUCED BY 

DENITRA PRICE 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

187 


HYSTER 

188 

HYSTER COMPANY 

IS POSITIONING ITSELF 

TO MEET SEISMIC 

CHANGES IN THE 

WAREHOUSING AND 

MATERIAL HANDLING 

INDUSTRY. WE SPEAK 

TO GIJO GEORGE, 

BUSINESS UNIT 

DIRECTOR FOR FOOD 

AND BEVERAGE 

A 

ppointing Gijo George as 

its first ever Business Unit 

Director for Food and Beverage 

was part of a wider Hyster Company 

strategy to focus on a cultivating 

a deeper understanding of the unique 

challenges of key industry segments 

and help influence marketing initiatives 

and product development. 

George is a seasoned supply chain 

veteran, bringing to his newly-created 

role not only 20 years of procurement 

leadership, but also a deep knowledge 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

189 

from a customer perspective – as 

a Hyster national account customer 

for 11 years. “I was a very active 

customer, too,” he asserts. “Pursuing 

innovative solutions for the business. 

Hyster approached me to join their 

marketing group because I had that 

customer perspective on the food 

and beverage side.” 

THE CUSTOMER’S PERSPECTIVE 

As a major cold storage and warehousing 

company with more than 170 global 

locations, the world’s largest cold chain 

solutions provider faced some very 

specialized material handling issues. 

Warehouses that operate at -20 

degrees put material handling equipment 

under extreme stress: steel 

becomes brittle, batteries lose power, 

fluids become viscous. 

“It was my job as a procurement 

professional to cultivate a strong 

supplier relationship. Hyster became 

one of the preferred suppliers at that 

time. Cold storage warehouses are 


HYSTER 

190 

among the most challenging warehouse 

environments, mainly due to 

condensation and the need for driver 

comfort,” he says, “and Hyster has 

become a serious competitor in the 

sub-zero space.” 

A good example is the new Class III 

End Rider – designed with a variety of 

industry-exclusive and best-in-class 

ergonomic enhancements and productivity-enhancing 

Smart features to help 

operations boost labor efficiency and 

increase throughput in order picking, 

unloading and other warehouse tasks. 

It was awarded “2018 Product of the 

Year” by Material Handling Product News. 

Hyster Company continues to apply 

its expertise and customer feedback 

from a broad global install base to 

develop innovative solutions that build 

on its reputation for strong, durable 

equipment while integrating intelligent 

software capabilities to help operations 

meet increasingly demanding 

productivity goals. 

TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP 

As in any industry requiring capital 

investment in specialized equipment, 

there is a temptation, especially among 

smaller food and beverage operators, 

to make purchase decisions based 

“Hyster has 

become 

a serious 

competitor 

in the subzero 

space” 

— 

Gijo George, 

Business Unit Director for Food 

and Beverage, Hyster 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘HYSTER: TOUGH AND RESOURCEFUL’ 

191 

solely on price. Gijo George is a passionate 

evangelist for the concept of total 

cost of ownership (TCO) that reveals 

the broader decisions facing a CPO. 

“It’s our strategy to work very closely 

with our customers to help them manage 

their balance sheet.” For example, the 

emphasis on operator comfort addressed 

by the end rider can positively 

impact broader labor issues prevalent 

in many warehousing operations. 

Recruiting and retaining skilled labor is 

increasingly a challenge. With record 

low unemployment, labor has become 

a scarce and valuable resource. Some 

statistics show productivity falling by as 

much as 14% since 2013 and turnover 

rates around 30% have been recorded 

in ambient warehouses (60% in cold 

stores). Average onboarding costs for a 

skilled operator stand at around $10,000. 

“Hyster is addressing the issue on 

two fronts: focusing on robust telematics 

solutions to measure performance 

and productivity while engineering 

ergonomic solutions to help improve 

operator comfort and reduce potential 

fatigue. We have some of the most 

comfortable platforms in the industry, 

designed to help minimize fatigue 


HYSTER 

192 

and absorb shock and vibration in a 

multitude of operating environments.” 

CLEVER COMFORT 

Warehouses are not normally well-lit at 

the picking point. The new Hyster End 

Rider series of lift trucks have industryexclusive 

LED platform lights to provide 

operator awareness in low light or 

congested areas and the LED fork 

lights offer in-trailer illumination, 

helping raise pedestrian awareness, 

can reduce product damage and help 

increase the bottom line. 

The lift trucks also incorporate an 

‘Intelligent’ suite of solutions providing 

improved productivity, load stability 

and ergonomics. An optional extended 

operator platform provides more usable 

foot space than the leading competitors, 

allowing operators to adjust stance 

to provide postural relief. The Ultra 

Cushion reduces shock and vibration 

to improve operator comfort and 

provide steady footing. 

George involves the financial leadership 

to explain the real cost benefits of 

such equipment. Acquisition costs are 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

balanced against operational costs, 

end-of-life costs and labor costs. “I aim 

to give the total picture; a better appreciation 

of the decision they are about to 

make - and for our current customers 

we point out that trucks become more 

expensive with every year that passes. 

They can consider minimal technology 

investments such as telemetry that 

can be added onto older trucks. This 

gives visibility into the way the truck is 

operating and the ability to measure 

and manage those costs. Our dedicated 

fleet management organization works 

as consultants and advisors to our 

193 


Gijo George 

Gijo brings over twenty years of experience in Procurement, 

Supply Chain, Sales, and IT Applications. He currently 

leads the Global Procurement function, responsible for 

both Direct and Indirect supporting 170+ facilities. He has 

extensive experience in Capital Expenditure Projects such 

as construction, automation, assets and systems upgrades 

and renovation as well as Goods and Services Procurement 

for categories like Energy, Consumables, Contingent 

Labor, etc. Prior to Americold, Gijo worked for Rock-Tenn, 

The Home Depot, The Hackett Group, GeP, and consulted 

for several Fortune 500 companies. 


HYSTER 

STEEL 

THAT 

SUPPORTS 

THE 

WORLD 

From our beginning in 1907, through our incorporation as 

Steel of West Virginia, Inc. in 1982, to the present as a 

wholly-owned subsidiary of Steel Dynamics, Inc., we have 

had a long tradition of product innovation and process 

improvement. As an ISO 9001:2015 certified manufacturer, 

we continue to expand and improve our manufacturing 

capabilities and production efficiencies. For our customers, 

this means we will always be the low-cost, high-quality 

producer. 

Our structural steel sections are produced from electric furnace steel, continuously 

cast and hot rolled on highly specialized mills. We produce special shapes 

as well as standard beams, channels and MC channels. We also produce flat 

bars at the newly acquired SWVA-Kentucky rolling mill. These products are 

used by a wide range of OEM customers, including industrial truck and truck 

trailer manufacturers, rail, off highway equipment, guardrail, solar energy, and 

shipbuilding companies. We also have fabricating and processing capabilities, 

both at SWVA, Inc. and at our subsidiaries Marshall Steel, Inc. and Steel Ventures, 

Inc. SWVA, Inc. has been a long time supplier of forklift mast sections 

and hanger bars to Hyster-Yale. It has been a true partnership as our team 

designs our manufacturing systems to take care of this valued customer’s 

needs. We look forward to continuing our partnership well into the future! 

MARCH 2019 

CALL US TODAY 

1 (800) 624-3492 

www.swvainc.com

SUPPLY CHAIN 

accounts in order to streamline and 

manage those costs.” 

Hyster sale teams are also equipped 

to support smaller customers that are 

not ready to invest in large-scale fleet 

enhancement. They may not realize 

that they can adopt the latest and most 

appropriate electric, lithium-ion, hydrogen 

fuel cell or gas-powered units 

without heavy capital investment. “We 

have designed pay-per-use models 

that make it economically feasible for 

a ten-truck customer to take advantage 

of a hydrogen fuel cell solution 

that would yield 20% to 30% power 

gain and 10% to 15% productivity gains 

just from not having to refuel so much 

and the resultant downtime.” 

Gijo George spends a lot of his time 

traveling the North American market to 

learn at first hand what his customers 

in different industries really want. Its 

stakeholders, he has found, share the 

Hyster vision of an ecologically and 

economically sustainable end-to-end 

supply chain. “We deploy a number of 

strategies to collect customer feedback 

and identify their pain points. 

At the same time, as an organization 

with manufacturing facilities globally, 

“We have some 

of the most 

comfortable 

platforms in 

the industry, 

designed to 

help minimize 

fatigue and 

absorb shock 

and vibration 

in a multitude 

of operating 

environments” 

— 

Gijo George, 

Business Unit Director for Food 

and Beverage, Hyster 

195 


HYSTER 

we leverage the expertise and experience 

of our best suppliers and solicit 

opportunities to work with them to add 

value to the product.” 

196 

CUBES TO LAKES 

Fluctuations in the U.S. and global 

steel economies are another factor 

that affects the thinking of equipment 

manufacturers. George maintains close 

contact with his financial, procurement 

and IT counterparts to focus on solutions 

that make best economic sense while 

optimizing lead times. “We utilize a lot 

of just-in-time data management and 

data mining tools, moving us from ‘data 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

cubes’ to data lakes which can swallow 

the input costs, global price indices, 

tariffs, tax information and the like, to 

enable the best solutions and the best 

decision making across the business.” 

By focusing on the food and beverage 

customers, Gijo George sits at the heart 

of the business. After all, this fast 

evolving, population-driven sector will 

never decline, and Hyster is positioned 

as a key player in its development. 

A characteristic of operations in this 

space is that they have purchased 

piecemeal in the past, ending up with 

a stable of equipment from different 

suppliers. “Over time our customers 

acquired different brands of equipment. 

Another aspect of my job is to help them 

understand how our brand is differentiated 

in the market and educate them on 

the TCO (total cost of ownership) that 

they would be returning to the business.” 

197 


Delivering 

sustainability 

through a 

198 

supply chain 


WRIT TEN BY 

DALE BENTON 

PRODUCED BY 

ARRON RAMPLING 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

199 


EMMERSON PACKAGING 

SERGE CORRIVEAU, VICE PRESIDENT 

OF SUPPLY CHAIN AT EMMERSON 

PACKAGING, EXPLORES HOW 

THE COMPANY’S SUPPLY CHAIN 

TRANSFORMATION DELIVERS ON 

ITS SUSTAINABILITY GOALS 

200 

A 

cross the modern business landscape, 

the perception of procurement and 

supply chain management is undergoing 

a dramatic transformation. Traditionally viewed as 

a business support function and merely a cost 

center, businesses all over the world are currently 

investing into their supply chains as a recognition 

that it is now viewed as a true business enabler. For 

Emmerson Packaging, one of the leading flexible 

packaging solutions providers in North America, 

the supply chain has been built into the company’s 

core operations since it was founded back in 1956. 

For Serge Corriveau, Vice President of Supply 

Chain, the supply chain management function of 

Emmerson Packaging is the ‘WD40’ of the business. 

“We’re like a machine and as long as we’re well oiled, 

everything works and the business can continue to 

be successful,” he says. “My motto is be brilliant, be 

brief and be gone. If we’re not moving, innovating 

and changing in a particular part of the business 

then we look at that as a missed opportunity.” 

Corriveau joined the business in 2013, initially 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

201 



202 

“WE’RE LIKE A MACHINE 

AND AS LONG AS 

WE’RE WELL OILED, 

EVERYTHING WORKS 

AND THE BUSINESS 

CAN CONTINUE TO BE 

SUCCESSFUL” 

— 

Serge Corrivea, 

Vice President of Supply Chain, 

Emmerson Packaging 

working as a business analyst before 

being given the role of change management 

lead for a new SAP system 

implementation. The implementation 

of SAP provided the opportunity for 

Emmerson Packaging to transform 

its supply chain vertical. “Once the 

model was presented, our CEO asked 

me if I would like to lead the charge 

in implementing the changes,” he says. 

“I accepted the challenge and the rest 

is history.” 

The new supply chain vertical consists 

of five departments within Emmerson 

Packaging including warehousing, logistics, 

purchasing, production planning 

and customer service. The customer 

service department was added to the 

supply chain vertical in early 2018. 

“Customer satisfaction is dependent on 

the supply chain, so this recent addition 

made perfect sense,” Corriveau says. 

“Customer service is a fundamental 

part of any successful business and 

its very important in the supply chain 

because it’s the source of customer 

information, it provides the customer 

with real-time information on product 

availability and distribution operations,” 

he says. “These departments 

are particularly important in ensuring 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘EMMERSON PACKAGING ON MARITIME MADE’ 

203 

a seamless supply chain and by overseeing 

all five departments it ensures we 

can support the overall strategy of the 

business.” Corriveau had previously 

worked with automotive giants Hyundai 

and Kia and was familiar with working 

in a large-scale company with “tons of 

resources and a very strict structure”. 

But as Emmerson Packaging set about 

building a supply chain vertical, Corriveau 

realized that enhanced inventory planning 

and control was required. “The first 

step before anything could be achieved 

was to look at data, create and track 

KPIs and make changes along the way in 

order to reach a state of control,” he says. 

“Once we reache that level of control, 

you can step back and trust the team to 

deliver. If something was to go sideways 

then we’d react properly because we 

are in control and being proactive. Clear 

communication internally and externally 

is so important”. 

With data monitoring and KPIs 

established, Emmerson Packaging 

created an element of control over 

inventory management and established 

the same level of control over 

logistics and purchasing. “Control 

means making everything resource 


That’s why we’ve 

joined Project STOP. 

NOVA Chemicals is a Strategic 

Partner in Project STOP, a global 

initiative that brings corporations and 

governments together to keep plastic 

from reaching the world’s rivers and 

oceans through the development 

of waste collection services and 

a recycling supply chain. 

The immediate focus of that effort 

is the countries of Southeast Asia, 

where fast-growing economies 

mean the demand for products 

packaged in plastic are outpacing 

governments’ abilities to meet the 

challenge of waste management. 

At NOVA Chemicals we’re 

passionate about sustainability. 

That’s why, along with investing 

in Project STOP, we’re engaged in 

R&D work focused on developing 

packaging solutions that support 

a circular economy. 

We’re proud to play a key role 

in Project STOP and its crucial 

efforts to build a better future. 

novachemicals.com 

Copyright NOVA Chemicals Corp. 2019, all rights reserved.

Imagine a 

future without 

marine plastic 

pollution. 

It starts with making more plastics recyclable. 

There is growing awareness and concern 

about marine plastic pollution—and there’s 

an increasing determination to put an end to it. 

One part of the solution is Project STOP, a joint initiative 

started in 2017 by SYSTEMIQ and Borealis to help stop 

the flow of plastics and other materials into the world’s 

rivers and oceans. 

Another part of the solution is to further develop 

infrastructure to collect and recycle plastic packaging, 

especially in the world’s fast-developing nations. 

Of course, that also requires making plastic goods, 

particularly plastic packaging, more recyclable to 

support a circular economy that puts more recycled 

plastics into new products—and less into places 

where they don’t belong. 

Initiatives like Project STOP will test and develop new 

solutions with the potential to seriously slow—and 

eventually eliminate—the flow of plastics into the world’s 

oceans. Together with work to develop more recycling 

and recovery technologies and more recyclable products, 

we can realize the promise of a circular economy. 

Below are some emerging trends that are yielding 

promising results. 

More applications for recycled plastic material. 

The plastics industry is investing in research and 

development centered around technology for creating 

“clean” recycled polyethylene and incorporating it into 

finished products with performance comparable to 

100% virgin plastic. 

Simpler is better for the environment. 

Many food packages are made with a mix of materials, 

making them difficult to recycle. Companies are now 

working with their suppliers to eliminate foil, nylon and 

other materials and move to single-material, recyclable 

flexible film structures. 

The bottom line: Recyclable plastic 

packaging has value as recyclate, 

adding an incentive to implement new 

waste collection and recycling systems 

that can go a long way toward keeping 

plastics out of the world’s oceans. 

The more flexible, the smaller the footprint. 

Replacing traditional materials like cans, glass and 

cardboard with flexible plastic packaging significantly 

reduces packaging volume, reducing the carbon 

footprint during production and shipping. 

One-piece closures for easier recyclability. 

Another important trend is the shift from two-piece, 

mixed-material closures to one-piece, recyclable 

closures in beverage and other containers. 

What about 

food waste? 

Advances in package integrity— 

improved barrier, toughness and seal 

—in polyethylene-based flexible film 

structures help improve package integrity 

and extend shelf life. That means less food 

is spoiled, which reduces landfill waste 

and even more importantly, helps to 

address world hunger. It’s a win-win.


206 

based,” Corriveau says. “Data is key 

there as it cannot be disputed. We 

break each department down into 

pieces and work through it one piece 

at a time and it’s been a successful 

strategy for the company”. 

The advantages of data analytics 

are plain to see, allowing the business 

to make smarter decisions and 

predictions, but building a supply chain 

vertical in this organization highlighted 

to Corriveau that the data “just wasn’t 

there yet”. This forced the organization 

to re-examine the perception of what 

the supply chain actually is, as Corriveau 

felt there was often a misplaced belief 

that it was “just warehousing and 

logistics”. “Supply chain for Emmerson 

Packaging is so much more than that: 

there’s production planning, manufacturing, 

procurement, warehousing and 

the list goes on,” he says. “Production 

planning scheduling is the very heart of 

our organization. We have worked hard 

to nail down our data and forecasting 

and are incredibly proud of where we 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

207 

are. With new insight we were able to 

make changes across the business, 

for example moving the releases of 

warehouses from customer service 

to warehousing and logistics – this 

streamlined the flow with our customers 

as the information to deliver on this 

promise resides in the supply chain”. 

Emmerson Packaging’s customer 

base continues to evolve. The modernday 

customer demands transparency 

in products and across supply chains. 

Emmerson Packaging prides itself on 

its commitment to sustainability as a 

business and delivers on this not only 

through its internal commitment but its 

products – specifically recyclable and 

biodegradable options. Corriveau was 

proud to go into detail around Emmerson 

Packaging’s SmartPack. Manufactured 

through a process that significantly 

reduces environmental impact 

without compromising on quality or 

lead times, SmartPack proved how 

crucial it is to have control over the entire 

supply chain. In order to achieve this 



innovative and truly ground-breaking 

process, Emmerson Packaging sought 

out a strategic partner, which it found 

in Nova Chemicals. “I cannot stress 

enough the importance of having trusted 

partners in everything you want to 

achieve through the supply chain,” says 

Corriveau. “We’ve been doing business 

with Nova Chemicals for many years 

and they have been instrumental in our 

success because of their commitment 

to innovation and our partnership.” 

“We’ve had discussions with suppliers 

in the past that wanted to cut corners. 

We’re not willing to short change 

the process and we ensure all of our 

strategic partners are of the same 

belief. Nova Chemicals agree with this 

sentiment, having worked with us on 

this SmartPack project and they 

were keen to move fast.” Moving fast 

proves key for Emmerson Packaging 

as Corriveau notes that consumer 

demands are changing and in order to 

be ahead of the curve they need to be 

proactive. “The new era of customers 

place a greater emphasis on the 

environmental impact of the products 

We’re more than 

a transportation 

provider. We’re 

a business partner 

WHAT WE DO 

We create, proactively communicate, and flawlessly 

execute, innovative solutions that intertwine the needs 

of our clients and comingle them with our 

conveyances so that value is realized together. 

OUR WHY, HOW & WHAT ARE 

SIMPLY DEFINED AS: 

Why: Adding Gray Matter to What Matters. 

How: Developing Long-Lasting Tiered Relationships. 

What: Create and Flawlessly Execute Innovative Solutions 

Flawless Execution is a disciplined cycle of stating our objective; planning the 

solution; proactive communication internally and externally; followed by 

continuous improvement through learned results 

WHY ONE FOR FREIGHT? 

FIND US ON 

Visit our Site 

Get in Touch 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

209 

they buy, and are going to greater 

lengths than ever before to ensure 

“they are not part of the problem, but 

part of the solution”. 

The demands of the customer extend 

into certifications, with Emmerson 

having proudly achieved Safe Quality 

Foods (SQF) certification, among 

others. While for many businesses the 

customer drives these decisions, 

Emmerson Packaging is proactive and 

has higher expectations of its supplier 

network and warehousing. “It’s about 

trying to stay ahead of the customer 

demand,” says Corriveau. “We approach 

everything with the notion that sooner 

or later, the customer is going to ask us 

to elevate our game and go beyond 

SQF certification – so we can’t be 

chasing.” Emmerson achieves this 

through a three-pillar approach: safety, 

quality and productivity. “You can’t be 

productive if you don’t produce quality 

product.” he says. “And you can’t 

produce quality products if you don’t 

do it in a safe environment.” 

To this end, Emmerson Packaging 

invests heavily in safety programs 



210 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

and internal reward systems designed to 

encourage employees to go above and 

beyond to be safe, produce quality products 

and be productive. Corriveau believes 

being safe 

is the most important out of the three. “Once 

you have employees who are working safe, 

quality products and productivity follow,” 

he says. “We want our employees to come 

to work in a safe environment and at the end 

of the day go home safely to their families. 

We work hard to instill this quality into our 

employees so they are safe inside and 

outside of work.” Corriveau believes the 

results speak for themselves as the company 

has been recognized as one of Canada’s 

Best Managed Companies for nine consecutive 

years by Deloitte. For him, this recognition 

echoes Emmerson Packaging’s CEO’s 

sentiment that “our customers push us to be 

better” because the company looks to 

always be ahead of the curve, and therefore 

needs a workforce that is ready to go above 

and beyond. 

Emmerson Packaging has three major 

markets: frozen food, pet food and towel and 

tissue otherwise referred to as “overwrap”. 

Having two plants, one in the town of Amherst, 

Nova Scotia and one in the small city of 

Belleville, Ontario means that Emmerson 

Packaging’s supply chain needs to be best in 

211 



212 

class. “In some cases, there is 

a large geographical distance from 

these customers, so how do we compete? 

By being better, fluid, and by 

providing a seamless journey,” says 

Corriveau. “We work hard with trusted 

partners such as ONE For Freight, 

a solutions first transportation company 

that helps us achieve our goals. We 

can compete with anyone on lead 

time and service.” 

As Emmerson Packaging continues 

its journey of supply chain transformation 

it does so with a key competitive 

advantage that no other current 

packaging producer has. Together with 

“WE’RE NOT WILLING 

TO CUT CORNERS 

AND WE ENSURE ALL 

OF OUR STRATEGIC 

PARTNERS ARE OF 

THE SAME BELIEF” 

— 

Serge Corrivea, 

Vice President of Supply Chain, 

Emmerson Packaging 

trusted partners like Nova Chemicals, 

the company not only produces its own 

packaging but proactively works on 

innovative and new concepts in its own 

Research & Development department 

and in-house laboratory. Emmerson 

Packaging is also proud to be vertically 

integrated and converts its own products. 

Ultimately, the success of Emmerson 

boils down to its commitment to 

sustainability and its customers. “If our 


SUPPLY CHAIN 

1956 

Year founded 

450+ 


of employees 

213 

customers are successful, then and 

only then do we get to be successful,” 

says Corriveau. “From the very first 

days of the company we’ve been 

extremely proud of how we operate 

and how we continue to strive to 

reduce our impact on the environment. 

Moving forward, it’s about looking at 

what more can we do for our customers, 

our employees and our communities. 

By focusing on sustainability, 

Emmerson Packaging believes they 

can deliver a quality product to their 

customers that not only meets the 

demands of the market but is also 

environmentally responsible”. 


214 

A DIGITAL 


WITH KEY PARTNERS 

AT THE CORE 


TECHNOLOGY 

215 

WRIT TEN BY 

DALE BENTON 

PRODUCED BY 

JAMES BERRY 


TRAFFIX 

CARLOS TRIVINO, 

DIRECTOR OF IT, EXPLORES HOW 

PARTNERS AND PEOPLE 

PROVE KEY AMIDST TRAFFIX’S 

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION 

216 

or more than 40 years, Traffix has 

F 

provided comprehensive third-party 

logistics and transportation solutions to 

customers across North America and established 

itself as a true market leader. Key to the company’s 

continued success had been a strong vision that 

places its customers, carriers and internal teams 

at the forefront of everything it does. The company 

describes itself as ‘the transportation people’ and 

this in particular continues to be a true competitive 

advantage at a time where technology has completely 

redefined the industry over the last decade. 

Carlos Trivino joined Traffix back in 2014 as 

Director of IT for the company, bringing with him an 

extensive history of experience in transportation, 

logistics and technology implementation. He joined 

the company with a simple mission of looking at 

how Traffix could increasingly utilize technology to 

better serve its customer base and he admits that 

joining Traffix was almost a no-brainer. “I had done 

some consulting with Traffix and after a while I just 

felt that it was a great company,” he says. “It’s a 

privately held company and has some key partners 


TECHNOLOGY 

217 

Carlos Trivino 


With 28 years’ experience in various disciplines in the 

transportation industry, Carlos’ career has encompassed 

a number of roles from dock floor right through to management. 

With a passion for systems and technology, he 

took on the role of System Operator and his career path 

changed. As Information Technology Manager, Trivino 

was tasked with supporting the growth, design and 

development of new functionality within an in-house 

FMS (Freight Management System). 


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and relevant. Gibraltar Solutions offers a wide selection of products and services to assist 

companies in their digital transformation journey. 

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Gibraltar Solutions is a leading Canadian technology provider 

with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. We help 

customers streamline and manage their IT processes to improve 

productivity, performance and profitability.

TECHNOLOGY 

“IT’S A PRIVATELY 

HELD COMPANY 

AND HAS SOME 

KEY PARTNERS 

WITHIN THE 

COMPANY 

THAT KNOW THE 

BUSINESS VERY 

WELL AND HAVE 

BEEN EXTREMELY 

SUCCESSFUL” 

— 

Carlos Trivino, 

Director of IT, Traffix 

within the company that know the business 

very well and have been extremely 

successful. Over time, as Traffix has 

grown and evolved, my role now looks at 

the technology partnerships, ensuring 

that software and hardware partners 

are vetted and align to what we want 

to achieve as a company.” 

In 2018, Traffix experienced significant 

growth as its existing user base 

of 60-70 users skyrocketed to close to 

300 users at any given time. This placed 

extreme pressure on the company as its 

existing technology architecture was 

only capable of handling the original 

number of users. This prompted the 

company to invest and embark on a 

digital transformation which would see 

Traffix respond to this growth spurt and 

be ready to experience further growth 

in the future. “We had to make a quick 

decision as to what type of technology 

we wanted and needed and what we 

were going to leverage to achieve 

our goal, which is to be one of the 

top logistics companies in Canada,” 

says Trivino. 

Key to this growth plan, and to 

Trivino’s own remit, was striking strategic 

partnerships with technology vendors 

which could accelerate Traffix’s growth 

–this is where the company turned to 

Gibraltar Solutions and Trimble Transportation 

and Logistics (TMW). As a leading 

Canadian technology provider, Gibraltar 

Solutions recommended Nutanix 

hyperconverged cloud infrastructure. 

Nutanix will allow Traffix to leverage 

cloud-based technology to effectively 

monitor and manage a 24/7 operation 

across its entire footprint. It also allows 

Trivino and his IT team to “focus more on 

219 


TRAFFIX 

Trimble Transportation 

Trimble Transportation provides solutions to create a fully integrated supply chain. 

With an intelligent ecosystem of products and services, Trimble Transportation 

enables customers to embrace the rapid technological evolution of the industry 

and connect all aspects of transportation and logistics—trucks, drivers, back 

office, freight and assets. Through the combined legacy of PeopleNet, TMW 

Systems and 10-4 Systems, Trimble Transportation delivers an open, scalable 

platform to help customers make more informed decisions and maximize 

performance, visibility and safety. 

► Analytics 

► Driver Apps and Efficiency 

► Navigation, Routing and Final Mile 

► Regulatory Compliance 

► Transportation Management 

Systems 

► Vehicle Health and Maintenence 

► Video and Safety Solutions 

Get moving and find out more at: trimble.com 

transforms 

TECHNOLOGY THAT 

TRANSFORMING THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS

TECHNOLOGY 

221 

the user experience and performance, 

rather than worrying about the technology 

and troubleshooting X or Y”, notes 

Trivino. “We focus on the things that 

really matter and that allows us to drive 

true value across the organization.” 

Traffix also leverages Citrix’s digital 

workspace to deliver applications, which 

allows the company to have greater 

access to and understanding of data 

flow. Trivino recognizes this as a key 

trend across the industry. He notes that 

companies and users were satisfied 

with “minimal” information, but in recent 

years customers are demanding more 

information and visibility and accurate 

data within their systems. “They want 

to be able to do more analytics on their 

side so that they can realize greater 

cost savings and performance,” he says. 

“The information would historically be 

accessed by a server or a PC but now 

it’s about remote desktops and hyper 

converged technology, which is where 

Citrix comes into play. The technology 

through Citrix makes the data flow faster 

and more efficient than ever before, not 

only for end users to be able to access 

but for us to be able to produce that 

information.” In addition to Citrix Work- 


TRAFFIX 

222 

“WE FOCUS ON 

THE THINGS THAT 

REALLY MATTER 

AND THAT 

ALLOWS US 

TO DRIVE 

TRUE VALUE 

ACROSS THE 

ORGANIZATION” 

— 



space, Traffix, with Gibraltar’s assistance, 

also deployed Citrix SD-WAN, a next 

generation WAN edge platform that 

provides high performance and consistent 

application delivery to its branch 

offices. Within the branch, Citrix SD-WAN 

also consolidated expensive routing and 

security hardware, simplifying network 

management and reducing costs. 

In order to monitor and understand this 

information flow it requires a comprehensive 

and proven multi-modal dispatch, 

operations and accounting system that 

truly enables efficiency and scalability. 

This is where TMW, through its Truck- 

Mate solution, has been instrumental. 

“Trimble Transportation is pleased to 

be a critical part of the technology and 

application backbone helping to fuel 

Traffix’s explosive growth,” says Harald 

Fritz, Vice President, TruckMate. 

“Traffix’s collaboration and partnership 

drive continuous improvement within 

the TruckMate TMS including Command 

Center, CRM, Agent Mobile Solution 

and several complimentary, 3rd party 

software solutions. Embedded business 

intelligence (BI) capabilities and KPIs 

provide critical data into the entire 

decision continuum, from Sales through 

execution to billing and the company’s 

accounting and financials. Traffix is one 

of the most innovative brokerage and 

logistics providers always challenging 

themselves and us to capitalize on 

new opportunities.” 

When it comes to scalability, the 

Nutanix platform holds the key to Traffix’s 

technology transformation, as it enables 

the company to stack and grow without 

“ripping everything out and buying a new 

Storage Area Network (SAN)”. Through 

Nutanix, Citrix, Gibraltar Solutions and 

of course TMW, Traffix can invest and 


TECHNOLOGY 

223 

put more resources into its infrastructure 

as the business continues its rapid 

growth with a significantly lower up-front 

cost. For Trivino, it represents the value 

both he and the company place in the 

relationships Traffix looks to strike on 

its continuous growth journey. “We look 

to partner with people that want to 

grow together with us. If we succeed, 

the partner succeeds and so over time 

they become strategy partners with us.” 

With vast amounts of data and greater 

access to that data, the conversation 

inevitably turns towards security. Traffix 

is investing heavily in cloud solutions and 

automated technology, but how does 

it ensure that this data is being stored 

securely and that customers can trust 

the company with sensitive information? 

Traffix has a wide number of monitoring 

systems that look closely at system 

behavior. Should the system behavior 

seem out of turn or erratic, then it creates 

an email response to the personal and 

alerts them to it. Citrix also plays a key 

role in the security of data, securing 

laptops and servers when out of use 

to mitigate the risk of data leaks. Trivino 


TRAFFIX 

224 


TECHNOLOGY 

“WE ALWAYS LIKE 

TO LEVERAGE 

THE PEOPLE 

THAT HAVE 

BEEN WITH THE 

BUSINESS 

A LONG TIME. 

SOME HAVE 

BEEN HERE 

MANY YEARS, 

OTHERS ARE 

NEW. EACH AND 

EVERY PERSON 

BRINGS A LOT 

OF VALUE TO 

THE COMPANY” 

— 



225 


TRAFFIX 

226 

1979 

Year founded 

300 


of employees 

notes that restructuring the technology 

architecture of the company provided him 

with an opportunity to look a little closer at 

how Traffix could better monitor the 

security of its data and effectively build in 

a new level of threat protection. 

As the company continues to explore the 

possibilities of technology, the very core 

of the business remains the same. Part of 

the very reason Trivino joined the company 

was the way it invests in its people, and 

while Traffix introduces more new technology, 

such as automation, to its operations, 


TECHNOLOGY 

these people will always remain key. 

“We always like to leverage the people 

that have been with the business a long 

time. Some have been here many years; 

others are new. Each and every person 

brings a lot of value to the company,” he 

says. “In the artificial intelligence (AI) 

space, we are looking at the repetitive 

nature of capturing information and 

removing the person from that and 

moving them into a role that will bring 

a different but more important value 

to the business.” 

“We can strategically place them somewhere 

where we can use their years of 

experience in another area, and they 

can focus more on the company itself.” 

Trivino points to an example where the 

business would place an employee 

in a Team Lead role and support new 

people coming in, helping them get to 

grips with the technology and overall 

Traffix operations. “They are teaching 

the new employees and helping them 

understand that this is how we operate, 

this is how we do things, and basically 

227 


TRAFFIX 

228 

“EACH PARTNER 

HAS DIFFERENT 

TYPES OF 

SOFTWARE 

THAT WE CAN 

LEVERAGE FROM 

AND SO WE WILL 

LOOK MORE AT 

GETTING THAT 

DATA INTO OUR 

SYSTEM, AND 

VICE VERSA, 

TO BE ABLE TO 

GIVE OUR END 

CUSTOMER THE 

INFORMATION 

THAT THEY NEED 

A LOT QUICKER” 

— 




TECHNOLOGY 

overseeing that department and letting 

go of that repetitive task that is very 

mundane,” he adds. 

Traffix’s digital transformation journey 

shows no signs of slowing down. In 

line with the company’s growth ambitions, 

Traffix will continue to invest and 

adopt innovative technologies in order 

to continue to achieve rapid growth 

and process information. 2018 proved 

a pivotal year for achieving this as the 

company focused on investing in its 

network infrastructure, laying down 

the foundation for the company’s digital 

future. “What we’re focusing on now is 

the user facing and customer facing 

technology, so more software development 

and more integration between key 

partners,” says Trivino. “Each partner 

has different types of software that 

we can leverage from and so we will 

look more at getting that data into our 

system, and vice versa, to be able to 

give our end customer the information 

that they need a lot quicker.” 

229 


FROM E-MAIL ROLLOUTS 

TO BIOMETRIC SCANNERS: 

TECHNOLOGY 


230 

AT THE CALGARY 

DROP-IN CENTRE 

We talk to Helen Knight, Director of IT, 

and Paul Twigg of Sierra Systems/NTT DATA 

Services, exploring their technological 

transformation of the Calgary Drop-In Centre 

to better the lives of its staff, volunteers 

and the city’s homeless community 

WRIT TEN BY 

HARRY MENEAR 

PRODUCED BY 

ARRON RAMPLING 


TECHNOLOGY 

231 


CALGARY DROP-IN CENTRE 

232 

H 

elen Wetherley Knight, Director of 

Information Technology (IT) at the 

Calgary Drop-In Centre (The DI), has 

always been excited by computers. “My parents 

met through computer dating,” she mentions, “so 

I’m the product of that technology from the early 

70’s. I started programming when I was nine and 

I was very interested in technology, however, in 

high school, I learned that ‘tech was for boys’, so 

I backed away for a few years. Now, I am a pretty 

loud advocate for keeping women engaged in 

technology.” Knight has worked in IT for over 20 

years, spending 12 of those years at Suncor 

Energy while also running her own consulting 

business, Helen Knight Consulting Inc. During that 

time, she was also a regular volunteer at the Calgary 

Drop-In Centre in the city’s downtown. 

Serving over 10,000 people a year, the DI 

provides essential care, health services, employment 

training and housing support to those in 

need. In 2018, the DI provided Calgary’s homeless 

population with over 100,000 pieces of 

clothing, served over 400,000 meals in its dining 

hall, and provided 420,000 individual nights of 

shelter. When, in 2016, the DI began searching for 

a new IT Director, Knight’s volunteering record put 

her at the top of the list. “There was a focus on 

having someone with non-profit experience. I 

was lucky to be considered because I had been a 

volunteer.” She explains: “That speaks to one of 


TECHNOLOGY 

233 



234 

the opportunities at non-profits: there’s 

so much emphasis placed on non-profit 

expertise, and there are so few people 

that have technical backgrounds with 

non-profit experience, that the 

technical needs of non-profits have 

gone underserved for years.” 

With the support of the DI Board, 

Knight is effecting a four-year complete 

technology transformation at the 

Calgary Drop-In. She was keen to 

discuss how her team is approaching 

organizational change management 

across one of Calgary’s largest non- 

profits, her current and future plans to 

use cutting-edge biometric technology 

to increase efficiency and security, as 

well as putting confidential personal 

data back into the hands of Calgary’s 

homeless population. In addition, Paul 

Twigg, VP of Technology at Sierra 

Systems, an NTT DATA Services 

company, serves as the centre’s 

strategic partner and plays a large 

role in helping Knight implement her 

ambitious technology transformation. 

“I’m lucky that I walked in with years 

of experience and a Master’s Degree in 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘FUELLED BY KINDNESS’ 

235 



236 

IT strategy, because there was a lot of 

low hanging fruit,” explains Knight, 

acknowledging that in the non-profit 

sector, technology is difficult to invest 

in without donor support. When she 

arrived at the DI only 70 of 270 staff 

had email addresses, so the first task 

was to roll out Office365 across the 

organization. She notes, “I made a mistake 

by just sending out videos on how 

to use the new tools – it took me about 

four months to realize that I would be 

more successful supporting this user 

group in a room with a human being 

they liked and trusted.” 

Knight admits: “I had a lot to learn 

about appropriately engaging this 

compassionate, service-focused 

audience with technology.” However, the 

first steps of her technology transformation 

quickly yielded fruit. By 

calculating the opportunity cost of 

wasted time due to the DI using 

multiple free and donated tools and 

databases, Knight was able to prove a 

return on investment of US$1.5mn per 

year, and return 20 hours per week 

per person that could be spent manag- 


TECHNOLOGY 

“IT’S A LABOR OF 

LOVE, BECAUSE 

I BELIEVE THESE 

TOOLS WILL 

EFFECTIVELY 

IMPROVE EVERY 

ASPECT OF THE 

STAFF’S LIVES” 

— 

Helen Knight 

CIO/Director of Technology 

Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre 

ing relationships. “We went from our 

volunteer and donor department using 

five different calendars, answering 

the phone full-time and carrying the 

burden of disparate systems, to 

having a push system where the 

donors and volunteers engage 

directly by registering on a website, 

being onboarded by a system, 

and signing up for the shifts that they 

wanted, so the staff were able to 

focus on relationship building,” she 

recounts. “There was significant 

change management and it was a 

really careful process, but it’s a labor 

237 


Helen Wetherley Knight, MBA 

Fighting poverty with technology, Helen is the 

Director of IT for the Calgary Drop-In Centre, the 

most effective Homeless Shelter in Canada. 

Leading an IT Transformation that will deliver 

annual savings of $1.5 Million USD, Helen is 

driving meaningful change for vulnerable 

Calgarians. Helen is also a passionate advocate 

for increasing gender diversity in IT, serves on 

two non-profit boards and was a Canadian 

CIO of the year finalist for 2018. 


Rooted in Community 

We are proud to support The Calgary Drop-In Centre 

with innovative technology solutions that help make 

a positive emotional impact in the community, 

and in people’s lives. 

sierrasystems.com 

of love,” Knight insists, “because I 

believe that all of these tools will 

effectively improve the staff’s lives.” 

Knight stresses that the essence of 

her technological transformation at the 

Drop-In is the empowerment of its staff 

and volunteers. “I’m not here to replace 

anybody,” she insists. “I’m here to take 

away busy work and pain. I think technologists 

get into a lot of trouble when 

they feel so confident that they reach 

past their level of expertise and start 

making policy decisions, or feel that 

just because they can prove something 

with data, that it’s the right and humane 

thing to do,” she reflects. “I fully accept 

that my skill-set ends at the technology, 

and that the front-line workers are the 

experts in client care” 

Twigg, who has been working alongside 

Knight and her team to bring 

Sierra Systems’ expertise to bear on 

the challenges of technological transformation 

at the Drop-In, agrees. “It’s 

not about cool tech. It’s about giving 

a person experiencing homelessness 

a bed, a sandwich, a laundry service 

and everything else that comes with it,” 

he emphasizes. “All non-profits require 

technology. They just haven’t been

SECTOR 

“IT’S NOT ABOUT COOL 

TECH. IT’S ABOUT GIVING 

A HOMELESS PERSON 

A BED, A SANDWICH, 

A LAUNDRY SERVICE 

AND EVERYTHING ELSE 

THAT COMES WITH IT” 

— 

Paul Twigg 

VP of Technology 

Sierra Systems/NTT DATA Services 

able to invest in it because the charity 

funding model makes it difficult to put 

money into technology even though it 

will save money down the line.”: Sierra 

Systems, an NTT DATA Services company, 

specializes in IT consulting in order 

to provide its clients with innovative, 

forward-thinking solutions. 

The process of choosing a strategic 

partner was fairly unconventional. “We 

spent six months figuring out what the 

exact problems were that we wanted 

to solve instead of running to a bunch 

239 


Paul Twigg 

Paul Twigg is the National VP of Technology for Sierra 

Systems an NTT DATA Services Company. He is an 

award winning IT business leader with executive and 

hands-on experience in delivering leading edge cloud, 

data and innovation services. He is a recognized 

speaker and thought leader in the technology field 

driving innovation and digital transformation ideas. 

Paul is security cleared (Canadian Secret Level) and has 

vast experience creating technology strategy to develop 

creative and innovative data centric services tailored 

towards increasing efficiencies and reducing costs 

within an organization. He is a motivational leader who 

enjoys building successful and productive teams. 



240 

of vendors and doing multiple demonstrations,” 

Knight explains. “It’s the 

opposite of how teams engage 

vendors normally.” This approach 

helped Knight choose a company that 

would offer a complete service. “We 

were really looking at solving the entire 

problem,” she says. “The finance, the 

HR, the IT, the client relationship, the 

client service; the entire problem, 

instead of discrete solutions.” This is 

where Sierra Systems, a company 

already involved in donating and 

volunteering at the DI, came into play. 

After identifying Microsoft Dynamics 

as a customer relationship management 

system that could cater to the 

Drop-In’s needs, Knight considered 

two companies. “One brought me 

standard pricing, and Sierra, with 

evidence of being donors and volunteers, 

brought me their proposal at half 

price,” says Knight. “I knew they were 

in it with us. Sierra had the imagination 

that we needed.” 

Since then, the relationship has 

evolved from client-vendor to much 

more. In addition to back office initiatives 

to improve efficiency and foster digital 

engagement within the DI’s staff, Twigg 


TECHNOLOGY 

1.2mn 

Meals served 

in total 

100,000+ 

Items of clothing 

distributed 

241 

420,000+ 

Individual nights of 

shelter provided 



242 

and his team have worked with Knight 

to bring one of their more cutting-edge 

initiatives towards maturity. For 10 years, 

the Calgary Drop-In has used fingerprint 

scanners in order to identify and 

admit its clients. “It took anywhere 

from about seven to 30 seconds to let 

an individual in,” says Twigg. “Considering 

that, since 2 February, it’s been 

about -30ºF every day here in Calgary, 

when you’ve got several hundred 

people coming and going every day, 

upgrading the intake systems will make 

entering the facility much more efficient.” 

To solve this problem, Knight is turning 

to more modern forms of biometric 

technology with higher accuracy rates, 

reducing admission times to around 

three seconds. 

In addition, the nature of the DI’s 

work requires it to keep client records. 

“One billion people in the world don’t 

have ID, including people who need 

emergency services, are victims of 

crime, have been evicted, are human 

trafficking victims - maybe they’re 

using drugs or have mental health 

issues. Regardless of the client’s 

history, we need to know who they are 

so we can ensure we are meeting their 

“GLOBALLY, ONE 

BILLION PEOPLE ARE 

WITHOUT ID, 

INCLUDING PEOPLE 

WHO NEED EMERGENCY 

SERVICES” 

— 

Helen Knight, CIO/Director of Technology 

Calgary Drop-in & Rehab Centre 

unique needs.” At the heart of the new 

biometric identification system the DI is 

trialing is the desire to not only improve 

the quality of patient care, but also to 

“put the client in charge of their data”. 

“There are 43 conflicting legislations 

and ethical agreements governing 

client data,” Knight explains. “I’m 

a co-chair of a collaborative work group 

trying to improve communication 

between homeless-serving agencies 

in the City of Calgary, and when we 

tried to create a decision guide to 

navigate them, there was no way to 

figure it out; they all conflict and there’s 

no way to prioritize the disparate 


TECHNOLOGY 

agreements.” By putting the decision 

to share personal data back into the 

hands of Calgary’s homeless population, 

Twigg and Knight believe that 

agencies serving vulnerable people 

across the city can improve communication 

and build a shared database to 

better serve their community. 

Ensuring the potential for privacy 

and control remains in the hands of the 

client, however, is a top priority for the 

venture. “There’s a lot of personal 

identifiable information that can’t be 

shared between agencies,” says Twigg, 

whose team has been collaborating 

with Knight and the working group on 

a solution. “We are designing an architecture 

that implements blockchain to 

allow a client’s health information to 

remain encrypted and afford the client 

the ability to share that information as 

they move between agencies, or 

decide what can and can’t be shared.” 

In addition, the biometric data recorded 

by the DI’s new systems, Knight 

explains, is anonymous by design. 

Another place where Knight wants to 

deploy biometrics down the line is in 

the way clients at the shelter supply 

personal information, as well as book 

medical and other appointments. “I’m 

more comfortable being vulnerable to 

243 



244 

“THE CLIENT 

OWNS THE KEY, 

AND THE DATA 

IS ANONYMOUS 

WITHOUT THEM 

BEING THERE” 

— 

Helen Knight 

CIO/Director of Technology 

Calgary Drop-in and Rehab Centre 

a system than a person,” she admits. 

“On 3 January, we put a client selfserve 

kiosk in the dining hall of the 

Calgary Drop-In Centre. The feedback 

from the clients has been very positive. 

Wedesigned this kiosk with our wood 

shop, where our clients learn woodworking 

skills, added a touchscreen 

monitor, and a donated PC. We built it 

so that you could use a wheelchair or 

a chair, so we didn’t have to move the 

screens around to account for height 

differences. All it does right now is two 

things: it plays a video on data sharing, 

why we want your data, and that it is 

safe and secure; and it presents a form 

where you can tell us what your barriers 

are to finding housing.” 

The form asks questions used to 

identify the client’s barriers to housing: 

“For example, are you comfortable 

talking to a landlord?” says Knight. 

“Some people can be afraid of authority 

and may not be comfortable speaking 

to a landlord. If we identify that is a 

barrier, we’ll go with them.” Knight 

notes that a client’s mistrust for human 

authority may result in a reluctance to 

reveal the information that would result 

in them receiving help – but the kiosk 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘ROOTED IN COMMUNITY, SUPPORTED IN THE 

CLOUD - CALGARY DROP-IN CENTER AND SIERRA SYSTEMS’ 

245 

has built in anonymity and lacks a human 

element. “Through a touchscreen computer, 

we’re reaching a vulnerable 

clientele and are serving them in a new 

way,” she says. Knight has now ordered 

two more kiosks based on this success. 

“We are fulfilling an unmet need for some 

clients and finding new ways to build 

relationships,” she adds. 

Knight and Sierra Systems’ plan to 

use biometric identification in the DI 

also extends to the kiosks. “Once we 

finish a comprehensive privacy impact 

assessment,” Knight says, “we can put 

biometrics in the kiosks, so clients can 

choose to opt in and receive personalized 

services: book things like laundry 

and medical appointments, find out 

when they’re meeting a landlord - they 

would have a portal to their lives.” 

Clients would also be able to opt out of 

the biometric customization. “We put in 

this fabric flap,” she says, “so clients 

know for a fact that they’re not being 

recorded, and still have access to 

helpful information, opening hours, 

times and maps.” 

Knight’s plans for the DI are exten- 



INFORMATION 

246 

The Calgary Drop-In Centre 

(the DI) is more than an 

emergency shelter. They 

provide essential care as well 

as health services, 

employment training, and 

housing supports to people 

who need help. Their 

programs and services 

connect people to permanent 

housing that meets their 

individual needs. To donate to 

support this project please visit 

calgarydropin.ca/tech 

sive and ambitious, but she and Twigg 

are eager, excited and optimistic. 

Knight is working with the University of 

Calgary and the University of Taiwan to 

test biometrics with the potential to 

detect sepsis and necrotic wounds, as 

well as planning on using the proposed 

transformation of the DI’s HR system, in 

conjunction with weather and environmental 

data, to predict workload. 

“Helen’s a fantastic advocate, not just 

for the Calgary Drop-In Centre, but for 

the homeless community across 


TECHNOLOGY 

247 

Canada,” says Twigg. “It would be our 

dream if Helen was at the Calgary DI 

for the next 10 years, because we 

believe we could solve amazing 

problems together. She understands 

how to solve big problems, and we 

believe we can match those ideas with 

the technology and the thought leaders 

that we have at Sierra Systems and 

NTT DATA Services.” Knight makes it 

clear that the technology transformation 

she’s bringing to the DI isn’t about 

giving the DI ‘competitive advantage’ 

over other agencies in Canada. “Nonprofit, 

especially the homeless-serving 

sector, is ripe for disruption, transformation 

and return-on-investment,” she 

says. “I see nothing but opportunity.” 


248 

TM 

INSURANCE LIMITED

TECHNOLOGY 

Rewriting 

the rule 

book for 

249 

Canada’s 

insurance 

brokers 

WRIT TEN BY 

LAURA MULLAN 

PRODUCED BY 

GLEN WHITE

PBL INSURANCE LIMITED 

Delivering one-to-one insurance 

services with cutting-edge 

technologies, PBL Insurance 

is reshaping the way Canadian 

insurance brokers do business 

250 

D 

igitization is shaking up industries 

across the globe and it seems the 

insurance sector is no exception. 

For PBL Insurance, which has provided risk 

and insurance services to Canadians for 

almost a century, there was no doubt that 

digitization would be a central pillar of 

its strategic plan. The firm’s Director 

of Technology, Joey Faraone, says that 

by undertaking a root-and-branch 

digital transformation and overhauling 

its legacy systems, PBL Insurance is 

“re-writing the way insurance companies 

do business in Canada”. 

“I would say that technology is playing 

a very big role in driving PBL’s transformation,” 

he explains. “We went from 

having some very old technology 

pieces running our network to understanding 

that now is the time to invest 

and prepare the company for the next 

20 years of the technology curve.” 

Previously, Faraone says that PBL 

Insurance didn’t have a focused internal 


TECHNOLOGY 

251 


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TECHNOLOGY 

technology direction and so the Canadian 

firm decided to bring its digital strategy 

in-house. “The company wanted to get 

a better grasp on today’s technology 

and look at where technology will take 

the insurance industry in the future,” 

he says. “I was brought in to lead the 

development and management 

of new technologies and ensure 

that they align with the company’s 

business strategy.” 

Becoming a digital broker is no 

easy feat, but this transformation 

was firmly at the top of PBL’s 

agenda. Starting from the ground 

up, the Ontario-based company set 

up brand new back-end infrastructure, 

including new fiber circuits, routers and 

253 

Joey Faraone is a dedicated, dynamic and enthusiastic certified 

IT professional who specializes in project managing innovative data 

solutions to improve system stability, functionality and efficiency. 

Faraone is quick to familiarize himself with the latest technologies 

and industry developments while demonstrating a logical and 

analytical approach to solving complex problems and issues. 

Faraone is the Director of Technology at PBL Insurance where 

he possesses excellent interpersonal and communication skills 

and the ability to develop and maintain positive internal 

and external relationships. 




254 

switches. “We’re wiping the slate clean 

and redesigning everything. We’re rolling 

out new technologies to help us minimize 

the equipment footprint but not sacrifice 

the service to our clients,” says Faraone. 

One of the company’s most cogent 

uses of technological innovation has 

been how it has selected a new cuttingedge 

broker management system. By 

adopting TechCanary, a solution based 

on Salesforce’s platform, PBL Insurance 

is breaking away from the confines 

of traditional insurance technology 

software. In using a cloud-based, 

analytics-driven system, Faraone says 

it’s reducing administrative burdens 

while simultaneously enhancing the 

visibility of its operations. 

“We are the first Canadian company 

to move to the TechCanary platform,” 

notes Faraone. “You could say there’s 

a lot of eyes on us to see how the 

solution is being rolled out in the 

Canadian market.” With such a wide 

range of clientele and data, Faraone 

believes that the platform will help 


TECHNOLOGY 

“We have a one-on-one 

direct relationship with 

our clients. Our brokers, 

our account executives 

and our staff treat our 

clients and customers 

as one of their own” 

— 

Joey Faraone, 

Director of Technology 

255 

the company meet its customers’ needs 

and see what else it can do for them as 

an organization. “It means that we don’t 

have a one-way path for our clients, we 

can have a four-lane highway,” he notes. 

Shifting away from costly, hardwaredefined 

private networking solutions, 

PBL Insurance has also implanted 

a new software-defined wide-area 

network (SD-WAN). This gives PBL 

the ability to leverage efficiencies and 

create a more reliable network. It also 

gives the broker the option to use 

data optimization and analytics while 

leveraging a breakthrough in routing 

efficiencies, enhancing performance 

and reliability with the flexibility and 

affordability of a cloud service. 

“With our new network being rolled 

out, we’ve also put a lot of new contracts 

in place and we’ve implemented 

a new managed service provider (MSP),” 

Faraone says. “This is helping us roll 

out our network and enhance our user 

experience internally. The experience 

that our internal staff has been used to 



256 

versus where they are today has been 

a complete 180-degree turnaround.” 

Cloud technology has been a major 

trend in the insurance industry. Aside 

from its ability to lower costs and boost 

productivity through mobile working, 

it also offers a business continuity plan 

and security. Not one to stay in the 

shadows, PBL Insurance is embracing 

cloud technology through its new 

broker management system and 

colocation site. 

“We are moving towards the cloud 

more and more every day,” Faraone 

says. “There’s no downtime and there’s 

no lag, so efficiency is huge with this 

roll out. It’s ensuring that slow technology 

isn’t being used as a scapegoat. 

Our new broker management system 

also uses cloud technology which 

means our Account Executives can 

log into our system from anywhere 

and do business right on the spot. 

“We also have a very good system 

where we back up everything on our 

network nightly and then we move it 

to a colocation site which has its own 

back-up there. Then we move it to the 

cloud,” he continues. “It may sound like 

there’s a back-up of a back-up, but it’s 

very important to make sure that we 

know where all of our data is and that 

it’s accessible to us at a drop of a hat. 

“It’s promoting efficiency and productivity, 

but it will also change the customer 

experience,” he continues. “By using 

cloud technologies like TechCanary, 

our customer will be able to get faster 

quotes and faster service while we tie 

everything together.” 

With cutting-edge technologies being 

rolled out every day, technology partnerships 

have become critical to any digital 

transformation. Faraone believes that 

the company’s alliance with technology 

innovators like MicroAge is helping to 


TECHNOLOGY 

257 

“We are the first Canadian 

company to move to 

a TechCanary platform. 

You could say there’s 

a lot of eyes on us to see 

how TechCanary is 

being rolled out in the 

Canadian market” 

— 

Joey Faraone, 




258 

drive new ways of thinking. “MicroAge 

is a global company which provides 

insights with network engineers,” 

Faraone explains. “We collaborate to 

work on developing and understanding 

the latest technologies to see how 

we can implement them here at PBL 

Insurance. We have continuous improvement 

sessions on how we can cut a little 

here, add a little there. This ensures that 

we run in a very lean but efficient way.” 

Behind any successful transformation 

is the right team and a culture that 

fosters innovation. With this in mind, 

PBL Insurance strives to engage staff 

by asking for opinions on the direction 

they’d like to see the company go. 

“When we decided to change broker 

management systems there were a lot 

of discussions, not just at the top but 

among all users about who is going 

be impacted by it. It’s changing the 

complete way our staff do work 

on a day-to-day basis,” comments 

Faraone. “The system was received 

very well. I think the fact that we 

are evolving our technology and 

our way of doing business is 

helping to attract top talent to 

the company because they 

want to be part of this journey.” 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘TECHCANARY OVERVIEW’ 

259 

With over 200 employees and 10 

offices spread throughout the province, 

PBL prides itself on being uniquely 

Ontario based. Driving efficiency and 

productivity with its new digital tools, 

Faraone says that this transformation 

is not just reducing costs and administrative 

burden, it’s also freeing up more 

time so that it can give its clients the 

personable and responsive service 

they expect. 

“We have a one-on-one direct 

relationship with our clients,” notes 

Faraone. “I think that’s where we differ 

from other brokers. With 10 strategic 



260 

“We’re wiping the slate 

clean and redesigning 

everything. We’re rolling 

out new technologies 

to enable us to minimize 

the equipment 

but not sacrifice the 

service to our clients” 

— 

Joey Faraone, 



TECHNOLOGY 

office locations throughout the province, we 

have the ability to service our clients locally, 

and we take pride in servicing communities 

big and small in Ontario. Our brokers, our 

Account Executives and our staff treat our 

clients and customers as if they are one of 

their own.” 

Technology and customer service go hand 

in hand at PBL Insurance, and as the industry 

shifts under the influence of the technological 

revolution it seems the company is ready for 

any dynamic changes that may come its way. 

“In five or 10 years, I expect PBL Insurance 

will be the top broker in Ontario, building 

partnerships yearly with other brokerages 

in the industry,” predicts Faraone. “I believe 

we will be a leader in innovation and that we 

will be an example to other brokerages on 

how they can leverage the latest technology 

to their advantage. It’s not always about 

spending the most money and getting 

the latest and greatest, it’s about 

understanding and fine-tuning technology 

to your company’s needs.” 

261 


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