Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 22 | Page 60

PROFILE WE RELY ON A NETWORK OF EXPERTS ACROSS OUR REGIONS AND FUNCTIONS TO ASSESS THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY AND BUSINESS VIABILITY OF OUR IT SOLUTIONS. What are the defining factors critical to customer success with regards to IT solutions? At every customer engagement meeting we attend; innovation is always top of the agenda. Customers can tap into our IT expertise for innovation which can give them the edge in their industry. We have made great strides in various technological trends in recent years such as automation and Big Data, and have developed warehouse management solutions in the cloud too – sometimes enabling warehouse management systems to be set-up in just hours instead of weeks. We are also engaging with customers to drive down our environmental impact and help us differentiate DHL from our competitors. 2018 saw the inclusion of green solutions in around 11% of DHL Supply Chain customer wins (representing €471 60 INTELLIGENTCIO million worth of annualised revenue), an exciting first step towards our 2025 goal where we aim to have more than half of our sales incorporate contractual green solutions. I’m confident that 2019 will see another leap forward for us. Let’s not forget about Information Security either, as we need to provide secure IT solutions that support our customers; and Data Protection to both DHL Supply Chain and customer information. We constantly assess and mitigate a wide range of threats to reduce risk and maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of our business. How can your solutions contribute to increase performance along the supply chain? You’ll understand that operational performance data and individual warehouse metrics are not something we share publicly, but obviously, we closely monitor the improvements that new technologies bring to a specific warehouse or operational location. Any improvements we make need to pay off in terms of improved working conditions for our employees as well as reducing operational effort and cost for the customer. Yet again, automation processes – both physically and IT driven – mean that improved working conditions and reduced operating costs go hand in hand. How should enterprises adapt their supply chains to remain competitive? Digital Transformation is coming in many forms. We have already standardised our underlying systems (e.g. warehouse management, transport management) and started developing them in the cloud to shorten time to market. At the same time, we have been moving towards digital enabling tools and processes (e.g. robotics and automation) and managing its interfaces (APIs) with our systems in real time – www.intelligentcio.com