This latter commitment includes scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To achieve this ambition, we have assiduously planned our journey and initiated change at every level of the business. First steps have been promising and enriching for many of us as we begin to see tangible changes towards more sustainable ways of working, traveling, and even how we lease and operate our office buildings.

Like many organizations undertaking such a major transformation, we have been on a steep but rewarding learning curve. We’ve also committed to helping our clients transform sustainably, helping them save 10 million tons of carbon by 2030. With this in mind, we’ve drawn on our own experience on the path to net zero to define eight principles that will help other organizations accelerate their net zero transformations.

8 guiding principles on the path to net zero

• The cornerstone: set your vision and monitor your trajectory

To set a rigorous strategic framework and avoid focusing on too many unnecessary actions, companies must continuously monitor their emissions on the widest perimeter possible (e.g. both internally and across supply chains and client-side operations), establish targets and measure their progress against agreed-on priorities.

• Rely on a dedicated program to support your journey

Your climate pledge should impact the whole value chain. This implies a programmatic rigor, relying on strong sponsorship and dedicated resources: teams to set up the program and monitor progress, and financial resources both to invest in technologies and processes that reduce emissions and to compensate for the residuals that cannot be eliminated.

• Start changing now

COVID-19 has slowed down the world economy and, in many cases, resulted in positive impacts on the environment. The challenge for all organizations is how to bounce back better and avoid returning to pre-pandemic climate-damaging behaviors. Prepare now. For instance, Capgemini has reinvented its Group Travel Policy, promoting modal shift and encouraging our 270,000+ employees to travel responsibly in tomorrow’s world – read our blog here.

• Ignite change among employees…

Rather than coercing teams to conform, empower all employees by training them and making them realize that their eco-friendly working habits are essential to reach climate objectives. This is how you enable change though bottom-up initiatives in which everyone wants to be involved. For example, Capgemini carried out a detailed global community survey based on current and expected commuting habits, which received responses from over 42,000 employees globally.

• …at every level of the business

Capgemini’s net zero projects often start at the Group level to ensure they remain coherent with climate pledges. However, these building blocks must be adapted per country (e.g. Poland’s renewable energy offers differ completely from India’s) and per entity (based on its positioning, expertise, clients’ expectations…). Properly cascading projects at every level of the business is key for any organization. For example, at Capgemini, we set up Country Sustainability Boards across all geographies with responsibility for meeting local targets.

• Choose and prioritize the right battles

Depending on your business activity and on future regulation (scope 3 broadening?), emission hotspots may vary. Make sure you focus on the right topics. For example, within our own Group, we chose to turn our initial attention on four core areas: energy, supply chain, travel, and carbon offsets. And we opted to deprioritize the carbon footprint of our data centers for the first year of the program, since they represented less than 2% of Capgemini’s 2019 emissions. We will address this scope in 2022.

• Establish adequate governance

Leadership must be convinced that the cause is worth the efforts needed to transform, while relying on CSR experts to support in arbitrating between business opportunity and climate pledges. This is critical considering such decisions may impact the business for years. Capgemini established a new global and cross-functional Net Zero Board with overall accountability for our targets, policy, and strategy – read our blog here.

• Keep the momentum alive

Once the above recommendations have been applied, leadership must continuously provide all supporting teams with impetus and guidance along the way. For example, via a close monitoring system, even over long periods of time, through internal communication actions, such as inspiring conferences animated by your own leaders. Eventually, get ready to make your net zero journey “business as usual” rather than creating extra work for all.

Join us on the path to net zero

Capgemini Invent, the Capgemini Group’s innovation and transformation powerhouse, is taking this climate commitment to a new level with our Path to Net Zero portfolio of services. Our objective is to help clients move beyond simply making their climate pledges, to bringing those pledges to life. We set the vision, trajectory and roadmaps for transformation using science-based targets; help to put in place the necessary governance and organization change; support renewable/green power sourcing (note, the Capgemini Group itself is committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2025); and develop carbon pricing and carbon offset strategies.

Find out more

Find out how Net Zero Strategy from Capgemini Invent can accelerate your transformation into a sustainable business

Authors

“Of course, I am OK to help our clients make more sustainable choices, but that is not what they expect of us, and I don’t feel equipped to have this kind of conversation with them.” Sound familiar? This kind of objection should resonate with anyone who has embarked on the transition to net zero.

One thing is clear, given the magnitude of the transformation needed to meet ambitious sustainability targets, there is no way a company can achieve its environmental commitments without a program to engage and upskill the workforce.

Empowering employees to consider the environmental criteria in their daily activities should be a top priority for every company serious about their climate commitments.

Employees play a crucial role in Transition to Net Zero

At Capgemini Invent, we have learned some key lessons while helping global companies implement what we call a Sustainability Academy. This refers to the cultural shaping, training and upskilling transformation linked to an organization’s net zero strategy, and we have defined the following three steps to bring this to life:

Step 1: Awareness — Develop an environmentally conscious corporate mindset through a common path

The first thing all employees need to understand is why it is both important and urgent for their company to act. What are their employer’s ambitions and roadmap regarding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the impacts of their company’s climate strategy along its value-chain?

We always recommend training on key concepts, vocabulary and regulatory requirements regarding climate change (Paris Agreement, scope 1-2-3; SBTI, European taxonomy…). But that’s not enough. The alignment between the company’s raison d’être/purpose, CSR strategy, net zero ambitions, and business strategy should be crystal clear to federate the workforce around a shared purpose and vision. To do so, we recommend designing a common training path accessible to all employees.

As an example, we designed a three-hour interactive workshop for managers at a leading automotive manufacturer that resulted in a high level of engagement and satisfaction. Typically, we use a card game enabling players to understand the global and intertwined causes and consequences of climate change (The Climate Collage). Another favorite tool is a personalized carbon assessment web app helping users understand the main sources of GHG emissions in their sector / company and how to reduce them.

Step 2: Education — Develop new competencies through a custom path

The second objective of a Sustainability Academy is for all employees to understand what is expected of them and run their day-to-day activities accordingly. The company thus needs to help its people develop or extend the competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) required to reach their net zero ambitions. This step depends on each employee’s individual roles and responsibilities. In helping our clients define detailed competency maps, we have found that, most of the time, competencies are extended and existing roles amended.

For example, client-facing employees in the retail banking industry might have to build their competencies as follows:

• Knowledge: Understand the specificities of a new range of sustainable investments
• Skill: Be able to detect the maturity level of their clients in terms of climate change
• Attitude: Be able to work with a new ecosystem of partners (beyond banking), such as carbon footprint assessment providers, or household and small businesses energy upgrade professionals

On top of that we have also identified new roles in the company, such as lifecycle analysts or circular economy experts.

Once the competency map has been drawn up, a training plan adapted to each profile can be designed using the latest state-of-the-art techniques, including gamification, bite size learning, and micro-doing. In micro-doing initiatives, learners must carry out a set of monitored micro actions in work situations designed to anchor the knowledge they have just acquired. For instance, it might take the form of short challenges among small teams on how to effectively pitch their company’s sustainability ambitions to clients. Some organizations opt for a Green Certification pathway.

Our recommendation for organizations that launch such initiatives is to monitor adoption and engagement through customized, data-driven, user-friendly dashboards. Our belief in a culture of learning has also seen us use a new learning platform in our own business to bring together the best current content/thinking on sustainability and make it really easy and accessible.

Step 3: Anchoring behavioral Change

Lastly, the role of the Sustainability Academy is to trigger and support behavioral change across the company, in coherence with existing systems and tools. It aims to ensure that each employee can say “I am able to be proactive in our climate transition in my day-to-day activity”. Launching a transversal cultural transformation using NUDGES is one option. A nudge is about changing the presentation of choices for people (employees, clients…) so that they are more likely to choose one option over another. For example, reducing the number of car parking slots to nudge employees towards adopting eco-friendly ways of transportation; or, in the case of the retail banking industry, integrating questions in customer advisors’ client conversation scripts that enable them to assess the level of maturity of their corporate clients on climate change, social issues, and sustainable finance.

key success factors and tips on the path to net zero

One point to remember is that climate topics can trigger highly emotional reactions. As such, organizations should approach with care the distinction between professional and personal climate commitments. According to the head of the Learning & Development Campus at a global bank, “Even though we should do our best in terms of persuasion, it is up to the employee to decide what he/she should do at a personal level”.

That doesn’t negate the above three steps, rather it affirms the importance of taking a measured approach to your Sustainability Academy to encourage, rather than enforce, company-wide take-up.

We have further identified the following success factors in building a net zero workforce with a Sustainability Academy:

• Strong sponsorship: The Sustainability Academy must be sponsored and led by the company’s business leaders to ensure enterprise-wide mobilization. We advocate a ”sustainable leadership” model where leaders are trained to lead inclusively and to anticipate the environmental consequences of their decisions. This will enable them to inspire their teams and fully embody the company’s net zero ambitions.
• Set targets & KPIs to accelerate the transition: One of our clients set the ambitious target of “100% client facing employees – 30 000 people – to be trained on environmental issues and be able understand sectorial climate risks by 2023”. To achieve this target, the company totally reshuffled its training roadmap.
• Grasp the complexity of the topic: The climate transition is systemic and affects the organization value-chain as a whole. Organizations and employees should not underestimate the complexity of the topic. A multidisciplinary approach, a growth mindset, and an openness to suggestions for positive change at every level of the company are required.

The path to net zero requires a full enterprise transformation – from redefining business strategies, inventing new business models, adapting processes and adopting new ways of working – in which each employee’s involvement is key. We strongly believe that implementing a Sustainability Academy allows your workforce to be part of this transformation and to contribute to the eventual achievement of your net zero ambition.

Find out more

Find out more about Capgemini Invent’s Sustainability Academy approach to engaging and enthusing employees and how our Net Zero Strategy offer can guide your journey.

Authors

	Elodie Asselin Director People & Organization, Capgemini Invent
	Juliette Baerd Senior Consultant People & Organization, Capgemini Invent

Historically, banks have dealt with regulatory compliance by setting up Waterfall-style sequential, Phase Gate projects. These models are increasingly proving to be less effective at managing the pace and evolving nature of regulatory change requirements.

In the last few years, the pace and complexity of regulatory change for financial institutions has been increasing. There is an estimated 220 Regulatory changes per day.  And regulatory changes are costly. For instance, the implementation cost of just MiFID II is estimated at US$2.5 billion, with ongoing cost of US$750 million.  Banks are spending nearly  60% of their budgets on regulatory change, yet last year they amassed $15 bn in fines. The current approach for regulatory change is simply not working. Banks need to find a new way of managing regulatory compliance that helps them execute change at pace, and in a cost-effective manner.

Becoming more Agile

The Agile approach uses a ‘fail fast’ ethos and an iterative approach to delivering change, using small increments of work to deliver value quickly. However, despite Agile’s potential to better manage the volume and pace of regulatory change many banks have, so far, been hesitant about adopting Agile widely due to a lack of clarity around achieving fixed deadlines, identifying project risks, and proactively implementing controls. Moreover, technical experts in compliance teams are less equipped in Agile practices to transform organizational practices.

It’s important to recognize that Agile is not ‘one size fits all’. The Agile model for a bank will vary with the nature of regulatory change and agile maturity in the organization. A common approach is to use a hybrid approach with a mix of Waterfall program management along with Agile ways of working for delivering the work. However, this approach is most effective when Agile maturity is low.

So, how can banks can adopt agile practices to keep pace with delivering regulatory change and address common concerns around adopting Agile?

My advice on getting organized

A small program team should be set up to engage with the regulator, drive the program roadmap, managing risks and issues, and providing strategic oversight and coordination between the delivery and compliance governance teams. Over governance and too many handoffs, that typically slow down change delivery, should be avoided. Instead, the aim should be to embed the right management knowledge and skills across the teams to provide the appropriate line of defense.

The regulatory change requirements should be translated into business outcomes with the program structure and delivery teams aligned to those outcomes. This creates greater end-to-end accountability and discourages teams to work in silos.

Organizations with low Agile maturity should also induct cross functional delivery teams. Such teams improve communication, reduce handoffs, and identify risks and dependencies early; therefore, speeding up delivery.

As a start the business outcomes should be translated into tangible pieces of work such as features, epics, and user stories that the teams can deliver quickly. These should be managed through a central backlog. This not only enables work to be delivered in small increments but eases prioritization of work and frequent changes. Lastly, delivering in small incremental helps identify and mitigate risks early, versus close to going live.

Frequent iteration planning, use of burn down charts, measures of team velocity and transparent workflows using Kanban boards are some of the practices that provide greater predictability. These can help focus the resources on the critical path and avoid implementation delays. These should be coupled with the daily scrum and team retrospectives that help improve team collaboration and delivery on an on-going basis.

The program team may want to consider developing a mechanism to meet audit requirements and develop reporting metrics needed or some types of regulator delivery.

To better manage complexity of work and team productivity, it is vital to support the teams with integrated Agile tools such as Confluence and Jira that link the hierarchy of work across teams. Additionally, testing and systems controls should be automated for accelerated delivery where possible.

One of the keys to success in Agile delivery is autonomous motivated teams.  Hence, team members should be encouraged to form communities based on common competencies to grow their capabilities and share best practices.

Delivering regulatory change in scaled Agile organizations

Some financial institutions have started to scale their Agile operating models enterprise-wide through the value stream model.

In these organizations the value steam should deliver the regulatory changes that impact their systems and processes using the same Agile practices mentioned above.

In the case of change that impacts several value streams and back-to-front teams, a program team should be inducted to coordinate the delivery of the outcomes across the value streams and bring in specialist resources to deliver the requirements that cannot be met by value streams.

It is time that banks overcome their hesitancy around adopting Agile to deliver regulatory change. As banks embark on this journey, they should tailor their Agile approach based the regulatory requirements and their Agile maturity. But what is most important of all is that organizations strive to fully adopt the ethos of Agile and not just go through the motions of agile practices. This way they will gain the balance, speed, and agility to ride any waves of regulation that come their way.

To find out more about how Capgemini Invent’s approach to helping your bank meet Regulatory Requirements, visit:  https://www.capgemini.com/service/risk-regulations-and-compliance/

Author

Tanya Anand

Tanya Anand is a Senior Consultant with Capgemini Invent focused on helping Financial Services organizations unlock growth and improve performance through business agility and relevant digital capabilities

Micro-frontends are hot and happening, so many companies want to move to micro-frontends now. However, they are doing it wrong! In short, micro-frontends are similar to micro-services: the monolithic code base is split up in smaller pieces, so it can be delivered independently.

Despite the fancy name, as we often see in tech, the use is not optimal – for example, by mixing up multiple frontend frameworks on the same page. But is it desirable to combine multiple tools, languages, or frameworks? It might be technically possible to have multiple frameworks such as Angular, React, or Vue on the same page, but it’s far from advisable to do this. It will affect performance and you will end up making a lot of code just to make it possible.

Single Page Application 2.0

So how will you get the benefits of micro-frontend architecture so your DevOps teams can deliver independently and not get into undesirable situations? And how do you make sure your app does not lose performance or that you don’t have multiple frameworks existing in a single page application (SPA)?

The answer is to change your DevOps team’s responsibilities. Instead of it becoming the owner of a certain topic and having to knock on every door to implement a piece of the puzzle, you should make the team the owner of a complete small app that exists in the larger architecture. What works well is multiple SPAs owned by specific DevOps teams that can decide what happens inside these SPAs – with, of course, the enterprise overseeing the overall view. This way, SPAs 2.0 are created.

You will still have all the benefits of DevOps teams deploying independently. Additionally, the developers have the freedom to choose the right tool for the job. Practically, this also means that the time to deliver improves. So actually, it’s a win-win situation!

How to move into this new direction?

The approach has already been tried at some of our financial services clients, showing the challenges of moving in this direction. The biggest challenge is the fact that not only the application code has to be changed, but also organizational change is needed. In addition, it is also to keep in mind that giving developers more freedom might lead to a reduction of consistency of your app. Luckily, there are several solutions, such as creating style guides, design systems, or static code analysis tooling.

If you are ready to start, it is important to map and break-up your app in small, micro-frontend eligible pieces. Try to find the pieces that can be properly separated from the rest as a single application. The granularity that fits your app can be quite difficult to find as there are many factors that influence your process, including team composition, the products you sell, etc.

Freedom and agility to deliver faster

As we see it, micro-frontends are the best choice for larger-scale applications. However, the way micro-frontend architecture is created needs to change. It should be done by properly splitting up your monolithic codebase and making sure the enterprise oversees all the small apps to keep the consistency in place. With the right mindset, tools, and people, a large organization can still be in control while giving developers the freedom and agility they need to deliver features even faster.

Sven van Straalen – Software engineer and community lead

Vincent Fokke – CTO FS Netherlands and Belgium

For years, enterprises have pursued radical increases in agility, resilience, and efficiency through the cloud model. But all too often, their vision is obscured by the complexity of cloud transformation.

This four-part series gives you fresh insights into how to plan and execute cloud transformation for maximum business value and minimal cost, risk, and disruption.

We’ll start with a closer look at how to identify new opportunities to accelerate innovation, revitalize your internal processes, and take greater advantage of the cloud model.

Then we’ll discuss common mistakes companies make as they set their cloud transformation strategies.

Third, we’ll examine the keys to success in cloud transformation – what needs to be in place to avoid the potholes on the road to the cloud model.

And finally, we’ll summarize our core beliefs about cloud transformation, which we hope will provide some guidance as you prepare your next steps.

Of course you’re already using the cloud. More than 96% of enterprises have moved workloads to the cloud; 92% even have a multi-cloud strategy.[1]But are you extracting full value? Are you looking beyond the obvious CapEx/OpEx swaps? Are you looking beyond low-hanging fruit such as cloud backup and app migration? Here are a few opportunities you may not have taken full advantage of – yet.

#1: Making infrastructure disappear

When you harness the cloud, you don’t need to worry about where things run; they just run. You don’t need to worry about scaling for spikes in demand; you just scale. And when you move to cloud-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), your infrastructure just disappears. The resources you need are right there, but you don’t see them. There is no physical data center; there are no servers, storage systems, or switches to buy, operate, and maintain.

That means you can focus on business instead of infrastructure. You can innovate rather than worry about resource allocation. You can get developers the tools and services they need, when they need them, so they can create better products and services sooner – and deliver immersive experiences for customers and employees. And you can save a ton of money.

#2: Using DRaaS to ward off ransomware threats

Ransomware attacks continue to surge around the world, and companies continue to pay attackers. Unless they have a Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) solution, that is. Cloud-based DRaaS ensures that your business can get back online quickly in the event of a disaster – with all data available and no data compromised, lost, or stolen. That’s because when you have a standby site in the cloud for DR, failover is quick, easy, and complete. There is no villain to pay off, and no need to worry about the next attack.

#3: Diving deeper into big data analytics

Why let big data powerhouses such as Amazon and Facebook have all the fun collecting and analyzing every aspect of consumer trends? The cloud model enables every enterprise – including yours – to collect and understand big data to make decisions on sales, marketing, R&D, and more. Cloud technology isn’t limited to storing and hosting data; it allows you to take advantage of AI-augmented analytics, machine learning, and cognitive computing to drill deeper into data and extract more meaningful and relevant insights. Ask us for examples of how our clients are doing just that.

#4: Building a governance model for DevOps

You’ve probably considered moving DevOps to the cloud, since cloud is the ultimate destination for applications. But DevOps is more than a technology movement. It is a holistic culture and practice that demands a governance model, skills, and ways of working that differ radically from those associated with waterfall development. By building a DevOps governance model in the cloud, IT leaders can facilitate the adoption of a true DevOps culture. And that means you can help the DevOps team embrace rather than fight baseline DevOps best practices. Ask us how to set up cloud-native DevOps governance. We’ll give you all the details and fresh insights.

#5: Boosting performance and security with SD-WAN

By 2024, 60% of enterprises will have implemented cloud-native software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN), compared with about 30% in 2020, according to Gartner.[2] That’s because SD-WAN users don’t always have to connect to the corporate VPN to get the experience they expect from enterprise apps. SD-WAN solutions harness the cloud to emerged to resolve the issue of bogged down networking due to cloud applications, and it integrates with your existing network solution to speed up your connectivity, addressing a major issue that is underrated.

#6: Moving to continuous Testing and Development

The flexibility of the cloud allows for environments to be built up, tested, and torn down quickly. There is no need to wait months for the provisioning of a new environment, because the cloud can be spun up in a matter of minutes. The accessibility of the cloud means that your business is more efficient, and time-to-market for new developments can be slashed.

#7: Accelerating innovation with managed Kubernetes

You know containerization solutions such as Kubernetes can help your enterprise simplify development, testing, and deployment. But do you know how to leverage the cloud to accelerate Kubernetes adoption? By selecting a managed service option from a PaaS or cloud service provider, you can focus

on functional applications without worrying about infrastructure components.

You don’t have to run orchestration on your own – no more dealing with storage, complex clustering, networking of nodes and pods, scaling, load balancing, and scheduling. Managed platforms also provide different application-deployment and orchestration scenarios, including cloud-native development, containerization with orchestration, simplified deployment and management of microservices, and a well-defined DevSecOps pipeline using different tool chains.

#8: Implementing VDI/Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS)

With mobile and remote workforces growing, virtual desktops and Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) have emerged as a way for IT departments to standardize security and content access across devices. With cloud-based VDI and DaaS management, you can get better visibility into the desktop environment, cut the complexity of managing the environment, see trouble coming and ward it off, and help curb the effects of a disaster.

#9: Adopting PaaS-based Digital SIAM for service excellence

Digital SIAM (Service Integration and Management) accelerates the transformation of your customer experience by creating an integrated supplier model. By selecting a cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution for Digital SIAM, you can deliver superior service quality, because you can create a single line of sight and one version of the truth across your entire supply chain – and manage the whole environment centrally.

#10: Using microservices to radically improve developer agility

Microservices decompose an application into groups of smaller services that are cloud-hosted. This makes the application easier to build, scale, integrate, test, upgrade. It also enables parallel development among small autonomous teams, so they can develop and deploy their respective services independently. Bottom line: microservices facilitate continuous integration and constant innovation, so more great ideas can move from the drawing board into production faster.

Next up in our blog series on cloud transformation: common mistakes companies make on their cloud journeys. Stay tuned.

[1] Source: Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud report.

[2] Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure, September 2020.

Rens Huizenga

Expert in Cloud Native, Cloud Services

I support customers to move their application landscape to the cloud. Based on the cloud strategy, the business case and assessment performed, a cloud transformation roadmap is drafted during the detailed assessment phase consisting of:
Apps Migration to Cloud : to create and execute an applications migration project that takes all perspectives into account —business, technical, financial, staffing, end-user, and service provider—so you can maximize the business value and minimize the costs, complexities, and disruptions.
Application Modernization Services: to design the right strategy for rehosting, redeploying, revising, refactoring, rebuilding, and/or replacing applications via the cloud to optimize the cost and efficiency of your entire application portfolio.
Cloud Native build: to rebuild applications from scratch on the cloud platform

An organization is only as strong as its people, and people today are facing an unprecedented challenge: skills that were cutting-edge just a few years ago are no longer yielding the same results. Automation and AI are forever transforming the workplace, requiring a comprehensive realignment of abilities. To compete in the near future, most employees will need to master a set of new skills, and they won’t be the same from person to person. How can organizations achieve a personalized learning experience for each employee? The answer lies in technology, and the unparalleled power of data.

In the previous blog of this series, we explored the new trends which are helping organizations to build a best-in-class learning experience by putting learners’ needs front and center. Here we’ll explore how technologies such as VR, AI and data analysis can be leveraged to bring a personalized learning experience to life.

The personalized learning imperative

We live in an age of big data and little time. There’s more information available than ever, but this makes finding the right learning offer very time-consuming. We end up with a scattered sort of knowledge or even give up making the time for learning, which limits long-term growth. The key to each learning experience today is focus. The solution is to use data to target learning at the level of the individual.

The movement towards personalized learning leverages data analytics and AI in order to:

• identify what the learner needs and which skills he/she should develop
• suggest learnings for specific skills that will become relevant in the future, or that could simply be of personal interest to this employee
• measure the impact of certain learning content and formats to drive continuous improvement

By curating learning material down to the level of each employee, organizations can increase workers’ skills faster and with higher engagement. So where does this process of data analysis and curation take place? Here’s where learning platforms come in.

Learning experience platforms – choose wisely

The key channel to bringing an organization’s learning strategy and content to life is its learning platform, and the choice is wider than ever. On the plus side, that means that ever more options are available. However, not all learning platforms are created equal. To choose a learning platform that will succeed in engaging employees, organizations should seek out a platform that is personalized, easy to use and relevant. Consider the learning sources that employees leverage outside of the workplace: employees who are used to checking YouTube to fix their cars have an expectation for well-tested and constantly updated algorithms. If your learning platform lacks intuitive, AI-driven search features and it takes a full minute to load, you have already lost the game (and the learner) to Google. Learning experience platforms integrate and combine credible learning content like skill insights, Learning Management Systems, courses, videos, articles and projects — and match each employee with growth opportunities that fit their unique skills, roles, and goals.

It is also crucial to examine the range of features that a learning platform has before taking your pick. Does it adapt to a learner’s skill level, for example through quick placement testing? Is there a recommendation section similar to Netflix and Amazon? Seemingly small features can make a big difference to a user’s experience, so it’s crucial to test out platforms in advance, and to test them with both trainers and learners.

Transforming complexity into knowledge through personas

Data and AI drive an organization’s learning platform from start to finish. To transform information into practice, organizations need to put a face to complex compilations of data. This can be done using data-based personas. For example, let’s say an automotive company is planning an upskilling program for their team leaders, but they don’t know where to start. In one real-life case, employee data showed that many team leaders in an automotive company were technically savvy, interested in the implementation of new technologies and only have short time slots to learn. They grouped these characteristics into one “person” and gave him a name (let’s say Steven). They went on to create a simple biography for Steven, and a persona was born.  Steven has high technical skills, a broad knowledge of emerging technologies, good interpersonal skills, and expandable collaboration skills. Why is it easier to build a learning journey based on a persona? Steven is more than a collection of traits; we can talk about him like a person, with a defined set of skills and skill levels. Based on this specific gap can be identified and addressed.

Developing personas on a large scale starts with AI and data management strategy, and then moves to the more human skills of interpretation and creativity to flesh out findings. We recommend companies take the following steps:

• Gather information about learners in terms of general information (e.g. gender, age), skills, knowledge, learning needs and ways of learning. Crucially, this includes information such as how much learning time employees have at their disposal and their preferred learning styles (video, reading, doing)
• Gain insights from collected learning data using machine learning and AI
• Segment learners based on skill and behavioral data
• Create personas for each segment and implement learning journeys for each

A wealth of tools

When it comes to learning technologies, AI and learning platforms barely scratch the surface, and many of the most exciting innovations are just now being developed. Collaborative tools like DEON   or Mural allow employees distributed across the globe to work together on one project in real time. Virtual reality (VR) is enabling chemists to visualize molecules and molecular interactions – aiding in learning and even in the active development of new medicines. It also figures increasingly in training programs, giving learners practice in everything from upcoming technologies to difficult interpersonal situations (without the fear of embarrassment or mistakes that often comes with role-playing activities). On the less exciting but more practical end of the scale, a range of time-management systems help employees make time in their busy schedules to prioritize their learning. All the technology in the world can’t help an employee who doesn’t make the time to use them.

Conclusion

Learners today are trying to drink from a fire hose. They have access to a massive array of innovative learning solutions, but with much to learn and little time, the end result is too often frustration. That’s why today, with all the technological learning tools that organizations have at their disposal, the most important step is to discover and personalize content for each employee, thereby reducing the mass of learning opportunities and making it relevant to the individual. When a learner’s needs and goals are known, the learning tools available today offer an unparalleled learning experience. The fire hose becomes a straw.

Author

Co-Authors

In the first two articles in this series, we looked at business mining and at modeling. Let’s assume, therefore, that we’ve reached a point where we’ve mapped our current business, all our ideas are in place, and we’ve modeled potential improvements to our finance and administration processes. All of which means we’re now ready to run simulations.

Testing the effect

What we’re simulating, of course, is the “to-be” model we’ve defined. In other words, what we expect will be our new, improved approach to a process vs. our “as-is” what we currently do today. Will it work – and will it deliver the benefits we anticipate?

Let’s say it’s an invoice processing routine. We can input the number of invoices we might expect in a given timeframe, and also the metrics that might apply, such as the length of time it typically takes to handle one such invoice. This, in turn, will be conditioned by whether the process is deemed to be constrained (i.e., by factors such as the necessity for working-hours human input) or unconstrained (i.e., automatable) resources.

At Capgemini, we use the BusinessOptix platform, a tool that leverages the Monte Carlo simulation model to simulate the path of transactions while they’re taking place. It simulates and monitors the performance of the proposed improvements – but of course, it also simulates and monitors the status quo. We ensure the metrics for these two process models – for the “as-is” and for the “to-be” – are consistent with one another. This means that, as processes are put through their paces, we can switch between them at will, watch the gauges rise and fall, and see which current bottlenecks disappear, which ones reduce (and by what degree), and which ones might need further attention.

As we’re all often told, information is power, and the findings from these simulations enable us to establish a business case for next steps in the real-world implementation. We can see what will make the biggest and fastest difference. We can also establish likely costs, and calculate potential savings over current methods. We can use all this knowledge to decide what we’ll do first, what should come next, and what, based on information received, is perhaps not worth doing at all.

Simulating in action – a national tax and revenue body

Here’s an example of what simulation can do. This European national tax and revenue organization was running a number of different journal processes across different departments. All of them were manual, there was no proper documentation, the interdepartmental mismatches were numerous, and the metrics were insufficient.

Modeling and simulation in BusinessOptix enabled us to map current processes and pain-points, and also to propose future standardization. Simulation routines showed the potential reduction in preparation and processing time for the journals, and also demonstrated how automation would reduce bottlenecks.

As a result, we were able to propose improvements in both the process and technology areas. Metrics for best practice were established, including areas of potential process standardization and automation. We also suggested new process flows that could be introduced immediately.

Measurable benefits we were able to demonstrate included potential reductions in: journal preparation, from 11 minutes to 5 minutes: and also in journal processing time, from 57 minutes to 45 minutes for non-rule-based processing, and from 57 minutes to as little as 24 minutes for rule-based processing.

In summary, it’s this the simulation stage that gives digital twins their real business value, because it marks a risk-free way for organizations to assess their options.

In the next stage, we’ll consider the scope digital twins provide to continue to make improvements. We’ll also look at how digital twins can help organizations transition to – what we call – the Frictionless Enterprise.

To learn more about how the digital twin can help your organization to drive improved business operations and transition to the Frictionless Enterprise, contact: elle.sanchez-cardenas@capgemini.com  

Elle Sanchez Cardenas creates target operating models for finance and accounting with an automation first focus to improve transaction cycles, reduce manual effort, and increase capacity within teams. She also designs end to end transformations from process and policy enhancements to touchless processing.