Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 23 | Page 12

NEWS Haga Golf drives into the digital age with Orange Business Services H aga Golf in Oslo, Norway, has chosen Orange Business Services to help make its golf course management smarter. The Orange IoT solution will support the transformation of costly labour-intensive greenkeeping duties and ensure optimal course conditions throughout the season. Keeping golf courses in good condition is a major issue for many golf clubs in Northern Europe where weather can be volatile. Haga chose Orange IoT Connect Anywhere to transform its course maintenance. The solution provides scalable end-to-end secure connectivity between sensors installed on the course and a data management platform. Live Objects, the Orange Business Haga Golf course, Norway Services IoT and analytics platform, then turns this raw data into actionable insight. The autonomous sensor monitoring system from Orange will help Haga Golf greenkeepers track and understand the changing weather conditions. “The greenkeeping function is critical to us and we see great benefits in this tailored IoT sensor solution. We have started an innovative collaboration with Orange where our employees can work more efficiently and our members can use the course more often,” said Erik Solberg, General Manager, Haga Golf. “Haga Golf is an excellent example of how an organisation can use smart technology to solve time-consuming duties. We are pleased that Haga Golf has chosen us as its technology partner and we look forward to developing even more innovative solutions together,” said Fabrice de Windt, Senior Vice President, Europe at Orange Business Services. ////////////////// Wirecard powers new Swiss Post China cross-border e-commerce marketplace W irecard, a global innovation leader for digital financial technology, is providing the payment solution for Swiss Post’s ‘Your Gateway to China’ service. Thanks to the service, Swiss retailers can easily offer their products directly to Chinese consumers through major virtual marketplaces. Swiss Post offers Swiss small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) everything they need to open up to new markets, including market entry consulting, logistics and customs clearance, as well as links to local marketplaces. A wide range of quality Swiss products and well-known brands are already available on the virtual marketplaces. Wirecard processes all transactions carried out with leading Chinese payment methods on behalf of Swiss Post. According to Statista, the Chinese e-commerce market is a global leader, with an 12 INTELLIGENTCIO estimated gross merchandise volume of €4.1 trillion in 2019. Cross-border shopping has also played a key role in China’s e-commerce boom: the gross merchandise volume of China’s import e-commerce market reached €14 billion in 2017 and that figure is expected to hit €44.7 billion by 2021. “We are very pleased about our international cooperation with Swiss Post,” commented Marion Laewe, VP Sales Retail at Wirecard. “We want to offer buyers and sellers simple and convenient checkout processes, no matter where they are. This collaboration is another development in cross-border e-commerce that we look forward to introducing in other regions in the near future.” www.intelligentcio.com