Australia鈥檚 Asset Intensive Industries (AII) are a significant anchor for the nation鈥檚 economy. Together, these industries 鈥� including mining, utilities, oil and gas, chemicals and manufacturing 鈥� contribute around a quarter (24 per cent) of Australia鈥檚 GDP. This year, despite the pandemic, the natural resource and energy sectors alone are forecast to drive $256 billion in export revenue.

Despite these impressive figures, many companies in this sector are faced with more complex challenges than ever before. Challenges like how to move up the value chain, maximise profits on commodity pricing, and deliver new products to their customers, as well as how to follow through on sustainability goals to create a new industry advantage.

To achieve these objectives, the industry must rise to the task of bringing together technology, people and processes in new and more effective ways. We believe that by聽 collaborating with our industry leading customers and partner ecosystem across ANZ, 麻豆原创 can build the capabilities asset intensive industries need to fully embrace digital transformation and their future potential.

Introducing the 麻豆原创 Centre of Excellence for Asset Intensive Industries

Launched late last year in Australia, 麻豆原创鈥檚 Global Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Asset Intensive Industries (AII) is already playing a lead role in enabling collaboration between 麻豆原创, its partners and customers. Based on an established global model, it will foster collaboration and harnesses the innovation capabilities of 麻豆原创 and its ecosystem to address the common challenges and opportunities facing asset intensive industries globally.

The opportunities to learn from each other are enormous. After all, 麻豆原创鈥檚 customer base represents 97 per cent of the mining sector and more than half (54 per cent) of the utilities sector alone. Together, the companies we work with in these asset intensive industries generate over $500 billion in revenue annually. In Australia and New Zealand, our customers include some of the most innovative and forward-thinking mining and utilities companies in the world, making it the perfect location for the CoE.

With a dedicated team in Australia of analysts, architects and designers, working with 麻豆原创鈥檚 product and engineering teams, the CoE will bring 麻豆原创鈥檚 global expertise, and learnings from our global customer base, to bear in ANZ. In turn, solutions developed by the centre will be made available for relevant customers worldwide. This will allow customers in Australia and New Zealand 鈥� and across the world 鈥� to more rapidly discover and deploy smart technology to solve key industry problems.

The CoE will also promote the latest industry solutions developed by 麻豆原创鈥檚 extensive partner ecosystem, as best-of-breed, industry specific cloud apps will be endorsed by 麻豆原创 and made available through .

Cloud revolution and new collaboration models

Engagement with our customers through the CoE will take several forms. Co-innovation will see 麻豆原创 and a customer jointly invest to build a solution that a particular customer requires. The CoE will create new opportunities to discover and prioritise those needs. This might involve extending a particular 麻豆原创 solution by introducing capabilities our customers need or sharing elements of a successful solution deployed by one customer with other organisations or industries.

Co-innovation will see 麻豆原创 and a customer jointly invest to build a solution that a particular customer requires. The CoE will create new opportunities to discover and prioritise those needs.

All of this is possible today because of the improved availability and faster development cycles enabled by cloud technologies, which is accelerating the pace of innovation. Traditionally, engineering was locked in long, complicated development cycles that could not rapidly take account of shifting customer needs. Today, the cloud enables a more agile development cycle, accelerating the pace of innovation from years to months. This makes it easier and faster than ever to work collaboratively and have customers directly engaging with our engineering teams.

Targeting challenges at the core of Asset Intensive Industries

The CoE sees us using the latest technologies 鈥� including predictive analytics and automation 鈥� to develop asset efficiencies and extend industry capabilities, while helping our customers to embed sustainability into all areas of their operations.

In particular, the Centre of Excellence aims to tackle four key challenges that Asset Intensive Industries are grappling with on their journey to digital transformation:

• management of contractor workforce and assets;
• embedding sustainability;
• a digital supply chain end-to-end; and
• planning and scheduling activities.

Despite the significant uptake of technology in recent years, many asset intensive organisations have struggled to digitise these businesses processes. Two examples of challenges faced by organisations in the sector, which the CoE could help to address, include:

• Efficient and effective management of assets and a contractor workforce
  For many asset intensive companies, procurement of services is a significant cost component (30-40 per cent of total spend). Unless procurement and contractors are effectively managed to maintain assets, they may suffer costly and unnecessary downtime 鈥� or worse, injuries and fatalities. Bringing together the concept of 鈥榥etworks鈥� that will allow asset owners, service providers, operators and contractors to collaborate around a single Work Order, will ensure everyone is aligned, risks are managed, and work gets executed in the safest and most efficient way.
• Embedding sustainability
  Sustainability increasingly has the potential to impact an operator鈥檚 license to do business and raise capital. The CoE will expand on 麻豆原创鈥檚 initiative to find new ways for the traditionally resource intensive industry to reduce emissions at every stage of the supply chain, from extraction to transport. Not only will this support initiatives like the Paris Climate agreement, it will also deliver business results: consulting group BCG has linked environmental, social and governance standards to a 19 per cent valuation premium and increased EBITDA margins of 3.4 per cent for top performers in the oil and gas sector alone.

The next step

The Asia Pacific market is increasingly one where innovative ideas are born, not just one where they are sold 鈥� and the CoE aims to build on this. Just look at the likes of , which is using a machine vision-enabled app to identify and schedule asset maintenance, saving time and money.

So far, the response to the launch of the CoE has been very exciting. Our customers tell us they see the CoE as an opportunity to put their challenges on the table and talk to industry experts who understand how IT can effectively help.

We are eager to begin this new phase of collaboration to more rapidly and flexibly address the most challenging problems facing ANZ鈥檚 Asset Intensive Industries 鈥� producing capable, scalable and efficient solutions that will also support our global customers along the way.

To learn more or get involved, visit the website or contact us today.

To read more about the Centre of Excellence, check out .

The post New 麻豆原创 Global Centre of Excellence supports Asset Intensive businesses through co-innovation appeared first on 麻豆原创 Australia & New Zealand News Center.

Market-leading yoghurt firm Chobani鈥檚 consumers are so invested in the business, they help co-create exciting new product ranges. Such is the case with the limited Halloween range it releases each year, explains Maria Voronina, the business鈥檚 senior brand manager for innovation and new platforms.

鈥淲e’re constantly talking to our consumers and engaging from multiple channels in a very personal way. That allows us to form relationships with them that make it possible for us to pull them into our new product development process,鈥� she explains.

Consumer involvement in the Halloween range started in 2016, when Chobani launched its first pumpkin pie yoghurt. Last year, it introduced a yoghurt pouch in the shape of a ghost. This year, it launched six new Halloween-themed packaging designs.

鈥淐onsumers knew this was coming because Halloween is an annual event and they get very excited. We ask people what they want and they submit ideas for flavours 鈥� some even design packaging. It鈥檚 an amazing source of inspiration. We鈥檙e currently planning next year based on this feedback, and I can guarantee it will be something special. It will be something different and we鈥檒l be drawing on our consumers鈥� ideas,鈥� says Voronina.

Chobani has enjoyed incredible success thanks to the proximity it enjoys with its consumers 鈥� every person who contacts Chobani with either a compliment or complaint receives a handwritten note.

Commenting on the best way to engage with consumers, Sydney university academic Vince Mitchell says understanding what they want involves thoroughly researching their behaviour and attitudes.

鈥淭his can range from watching how people buy and eat, to getting them to answer survey questions, to listening in on what people say on social media or in focus groups. It’s particularly important to have a range of methods. As [British advertising legend David Ogilvy] once said, ‘People don’t think how they feel, don’t say what they think and don’t do what they say鈥�,鈥� says Mitchell.

It鈥檚 important to Chobani to take a very personal approach to its interactions with its customers.

鈥淢arketing used to be about a one-way dialogue with consumers,鈥� says Voronina. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 completely changed 鈥� now consumers have a voice; they co-create your value. We have transcended mass marketing because we find the time to treat every person as an individual. We have so many personal stories from people who contact us who might be battling cancer or trying to lose weight. We record every interaction and follow up with them later, checking in and maintaining that relationship.鈥�

Mitchell says it鈥檚 important to have formal processes for involving consumers and incentivising them to become involved in product development.

鈥淔rom early-stage market research, ask them about what they like and dislike about current offerings on the market,鈥� he says. 鈥淭est concepts with them and allow them to play with prototypes or even buy them in simulated online or real life stores. Many companies co-create or use customer ideas as the inspiration for their products.鈥�

The Chobani team鈥檚 dedication is also a critical part of its success. Says Voronina: 鈥淓very employee knows the values, what the brand stands for and what it takes to deliver a truly exceptional experience. When everyone is responsible for the brand experience, your business becomes something really different.鈥�

Chobani also brings retailers along with it on its journey. 鈥淲e deal with our business partners in the same way we engage with our consumers. We aim to surprise and delight companies that have worked with us for a long time in the same way we do with our consumers; that鈥檚 very, very important.鈥�

This article first appeared in the

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