 | Issue: | EMEA 2015 |
| Article no.: | 8 | |
| Topic: | Digitisation – Passport to the future | |
| Author: | Chris Dedicoat | |
| Title: | President, EMEAR | |
| Organisation: | Cisco | |
| PDF size: | 427KB |
About author
Chris Dedicoat is responsible for Cisco sales, operations, growth initiatives, and investments in strategic alliances throughout the Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia (EMEAR) region.
With over 18 years of leadership experience at Cisco, customer success is his first priority and the foundation of the culture for his organisation. Under his leadership, customer satisfaction has increased to an all-time high. Prior to his current role, he was Senior Vice President of European Markets, Vice President of Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa and Vice President of UK & Ireland.
Dedicoat sponsors a number of initiatives globally and within EMEAR geared towards helping customers achieve higher levels of innovation and productivity through technology. As well as being a frequent speaker at industry and government events on the innovation potential of technology to transform business and society, he engages with key political leaders across the region, advising them on transformational agendas to turn the major economic and societal challenges into opportunities.
Leadership and talent development is a key priority for Dedicoat as he continues to build an inclusive and diverse organisation that reflects the world at large and where everyone can contribute and reach their full potential. Dedicoat and his team have received numerous awards across the region for Cisco’s leadership as a diverse and great place to work.
Dedicoat was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Central England for his outstanding contribution to the field of engineering. He also holds an Executive MBA from Ashridge Business School and a degree in Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications from the University of Central England.
Article abstract
Becoming a digital business requires rethinking core business processes and implementing an agile IT foundation that embraces new security, cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies – with the network at the centre. And, this isn’t happening in five years’ time – it’s happening now.
Across the EMEAR region, we are already seeing the impact of digitisation for those who choose to disrupt their current thinking. For example, Smart Cities are becoming more commonplace as authorities seek to utilise connections to improve lives for their citizens.
Full Article
Smart heating. Remote healthcare. The e-Passport. What links them? Apart from making our lives easier, they are all great examples of digital disruption where technology, innovation and digitisation have combined to deliver a new approach.
Today, we are all on the cusp of a new era, where the boundaries of what is possible will be pushed even further, with the network as the foundation.
As little as 15 years ago, computers connected just data and people. We have now shifted to connecting people, processes, data and things – the Internet of Everything (IoE). And, by creating connections, we are making already great inventions even more powerful.
By 2019, it’s estimated that connections between one device and another, without any involvement from people, will account for almost half of connected devices. Currently, it’s just over a quarter. The network has never been so vital. In tandem with the growth in connections, the digitisation of companies, cities and countries is also increasing at a rapid rate and the potential is immense.
Huge value will be added to industries, just by adding connections. We believe that more than 99% of physical objects that could form part of the Internet of Everything are still unconnected. By 2020, it’s estimated that 50 billion things will be connected to the Internet. By making these connections, IoE will create economic value (GE believes that the “Industrial Internet” has the potential to add US$10-$15 trillion to global GDP over the next 20 years), representing vast opportunities for those organisations that effectively adapt.
Cisco estimates that the Internet of Everything is poised to generate US$19 trillion in value between now and 2022, for the private and public sectors combined.
The private sector will account for US$14.4 trillion, while US$4.6 trillion of this value will come from the public sector. This is a combination of increased revenue and lower costs, with new value being generated as well as value migrating among industries and companies.
Today, many organisations are taking their first steps towards the IoE and, by 2020, 75% of companies will be a digital business or preparing to become one.
The move to digitisation
Becoming a digital business requires rethinking core business processes and implementing an agile IT foundation that embraces new security, cloud, mobile, social and analytics technologies – with the network at the centre. And, this isn’t happening in five years’ time – it’s happening now.
Across the EMEAR region, we are already seeing the impact of digitisation for those who choose to disrupt their current thinking. For example, Smart Cities are becoming more commonplace as authorities seek to utilise connections to improve lives for their citizens.
The city of Barcelona connected their efforts across the city to achieve US$58 million annual savings using smart water technology, and also achieved US$50 million annual increase in parking-fee revenues due to use of smart parking technology, as well as having created 47,000 jobs over the past seven years.
Industries are also changing – bolstered and improved by the benefits that technology can deliver – banking, manufacturing, retail, insurance, to name just a few.
Another example is the Port of Hamburg, which has reduced network costs by 78% by integrating traffic management for road, rail, and waterways while reducing the standstill times for trucks and cars on the port grounds, lowering carbon dioxide emissions and enabling cargo carriers to work more efficiently.
The Internet of Everything is a tool to help drive growth, to support new business models and, ultimately, to enable organisations to stay competitive, as well fit to the rapid pace of change happening across the world. But, it’s not just organisations, or even cities, that will benefit from such digitisation, countries will too.
Country digitisation and, ultimately, the expansion of the Internet of Everything will be catalysts for economic growth and new economic models, allowing Europe, for example, to boost productivity, to stay competitive and meet the necessary pace of change happening globally. In Europe alone, the Internet of Everything has the potential to create 2.5 million job roles over 10 years to fuel digital transformation. Crucially though, these necessary changes all have to be driven by leaders from across all sectors of business and government.
What’s important?
If we look at the enterprise sector, we know that those businesses which stand out are the ones using technology to drive innovation, generate value and the business outcomes that matter most. While our customers may vary in their sophistication, their industries and their approach, they are all focused on how they can best utilise technology to ‘digitise’ and achieve productivity gains and growth, as well as increase customer satisfaction.
When we talk to customers, we ask them to think three to five years ahead and outline key focus areas. And, no matter what their business, we see a number of synergies.
Customer experience – As consumers, we all want to experience the ultimate in customer service and customers are now, more than ever, deciding how and when to deal with an organisation. The experience that a customer has during the lifetime of their interaction with any business – from awareness, to purchase to advocacy – is all underpinned by technology.
As consumers we all know that, whether you are online shopper or in a traditional retail environment, the service you receive is what sets that company apart. This, in turn, influences future spending and inspires brand loyalty.
In retail, for instance, everything from the stock deliveries, to inventory processing, to card transactions, is all managed by the network. And, as companies seek to differentiate, to provide an experience and a solution that customers are not receiving anywhere else, the technology that drives that experience, and ultimately the brand, is critical.
Organisations must, therefore, evolve the customer experience to align with new business models and utilise new capabilities to enhance the purchase process. They must use analytics to interpret behaviours and, in turn, deliver what the customer demands…sometimes before they even know it! In fact, over 38% of the value to be realised with the IoE will be generated by insights from analytics. Cisco is working with organisations across the spectrum – and not just retailers – to help engage customers and deliver the pinnacle of customer experience.
Productivity – As much as technology underpins the customer experience, it also drives productivity for companies, their employees and economies as a whole.
Recent research has shown that productivity has declined in all the major developed economies, which is deemed by many economists and analysts to pose the biggest threat to a country’s growth prospects. Poor productivity is generally a consequence of low investment – in infrastructure and in technology.
The same applies for enterprises, who are now realising that by digitising their operations, this will not only lead to increased productivity and process efficiencies, but also a reduction of costs. Technology and innovation are, together, fundamental drivers of productivity growth.
Innovation – Related to this is innovation – to which the development of technology is inextricably linked. As a company that spends over $6B a year on R&D, we know how important innovation is. We also know how valuable data is. Using analytics, another product of the Internet of Everything, we can streamline processes which, in turn, improve productivity and growth and deliver new ways to delight customers. Productivity and innovation also go hand in hand. Yes, technology can cut costs on its own but, to drive growth, a business needs to do these things in parallel, and, once again, technology is the key enabler.
Security – This is the number one issue facing our customers and, as the world becomes more digital, many networks today just aren’t up to the complexity being demanded of them or the threats being thrown at them. The effects of cyber-attacks are sobering, in terms of both costs and losses in productivity and reputation.
For example, the number of information security incidents around the world rose 48% to 42.8m last year, the equivalent of 117,339 attacks per day. (Sources: combination of PwC’s The Global State of Information Security Survey 2015 and Cisco Annual Security report)
In the past year virtually every industry has been impacted, with many incurring significant costs as they seek to manage and mitigate the breaches. Small wonder, then, that concern about cyber security has seen the biggest increase of all the potential threats that business leaders worry about, with 61% of CEOs citing concerns compared with 48% a year ago.
It also took, on average, 45 days to recover from such an attack. The costs are huge and increasing (by 34% from 2 years ago). With changing business models, increased threats, together with heightened complexity and fragmentation, there is a need to wrap security around everything we do. By enabling the network to handle this heightened complexity, we will be setting the foundation for the future.
The Value of IoE
All these elements together are vital in the move to digitisation and the Internet of Everything. Countries, cities and companies are all starting to disrupt current thinking. With data showing that it’s likely that only about one third of today’s major corporations will survive as significant businesses for the next quarter of a century, it’s imperative that we all innovate and reinvent. By implementing technology, making connections and digitising, we will have the right building blocks in place to generate economic power and deliver true value – and, as already discussed, it’s happening now.
Take another example – Network Rail in the UK. By implementing connected sensors, signals, stations and electrification systems across their entire rail network, they have achieved 21% lower capital costs whilst increasing their customer capacity by 20%.
Similarly, in Norway, we are using the Internet of Everything to monitor and control lighting levels from any internet-connected location in Oslo. The impact is potentially US$1.3 million in electricity savings annually, which is roughly 20% of the cost to light Oslo streets prior to these new capabilities being added. Also in the Nordic region, we have worked with the Danish Outdoor Lighting Lab (DOLL) in Copenhagen – a massive project to determine how we should light our cities in the future. Using the IoE, the aim is to create intelligent indoor and outdoor lighting solutions, which not only conserve energy but also generate jobs.
All the above illustrates that, by making digitisation a reality, by innovating and discovering what’s possible when technology and business strategies come together, we can fully capture the value of the Internet of Everything, which truly is the passport to the future.
