They achieve this by providing strategy, tools, and tactics. These services are provided to the customer in a digital way. The customer can use web portals, a variety of different services, and can get valuable insights into their data. 

To bring their services to the next level, and to address the requirements that their customers have now and in the future, they decided to take advantage of using the cloud. By leveraging cloud-native services, they are able to provide their customers with a set of secure services and give real-time insights into data. To support their customers in the most effective way, they decided to host their services on Microsoft Azure. 

The challenge

The challenge this client is facing is similar to the challenges a lot of organizations face right now. There is an urgent need for digital transformation to keep addressing customer needs, stay competitive, and  innovate and use state-of-the-art technologies. But most of the services that are offered to their customers still run on an on-premises infrastructure that is not ready to support this. 

This was also the challenge for our client. They were providing services that were still running in an on-premises environment, which was not able to provide innovative technologies and scale accordingly to address future needs.

This client reached out to us to help them implement cloud-native services to renew their IT landscape, offer their customers  a set of services that are specifically designed for performance, security, and redundancy and provide real-time insights in data coming from various sources. This data is partially stored in Azure, but also in on-premises databases. 

Our approach

Together with the client, we decided to take advantage of all the cloud-native services that Azure has to offer, from a microservices and data analytics and insights perspective. The project was divided into two smaller projects, starting with building a full cloud-native microservices environment using only serverless technology. This will be followed by a new project for storing customer data using Azure Data Lake, implementing real-time insights using Azure Event Hub, and using various services to provide interactive, immersive dashboards and reports, such as Azure Data Share and other tooling.We decided that our cloud-native development offering was most applicable to this project. 

With our offering, we are providing tour clients with:

• Domain-driven design (DDD): When implementing a microservices architecture, DDD is a design approach you can benefit from. Where to draw the boundaries is the key task when designing and defining a microservice. DDD patterns help you understand the complexity in the domain.
• Cloud-native design patterns: To build highly reliable, scalable, secure applications and services, every developer needs to make use of common cloud-native design patterns. We focus fully on implementing Microsoft best practices and patterns.
• Dev/test optimization: We bring our own development and test environments to the project. For this, we use container technologies, which have all the commonly used tooling and software pre-deployed. Next, we use automated performance and acceptance tests, fully integrated in Azure DevOps.
• Everything-as-code: We offer out-of-the-box landing zones, which include security and compliance policies and monitoring rules. These monitoring rules are based on our experiences and best practices that we have developed over the years managing cloud environments for our global customers. We are implementing zero-touch deployments using Azure DevOps and CI/CD pipelines for automatically building and releasing applications and services.

How we implemented it

The first step was to deploy the landing zone, which included an API Management gateway, a VNet, log analytics, application insights, security policies, and default monitoring and logging rules in the Azure subscription. We deployed it automatically using CI/CD pipelines so that it can easily be deployed across different environments. Next, we started building the first APIs, using serverless services, such as Azure Functions, Azure Storage, Azure Service Bus, an Azure Key Vault, and more. We implemented cloud-native design patterns to build them. To get access to the data that still resides in the SAP on-premises environment, an Express Route connection was set up. For authentication, we used Azure Active Directory, Auth 2.0, Open ID Connect and the out-of-the-box libraries that are provided by Microsoft, such as MSAL.

By using landing zones, cloud-native patterns and Microsoft best practices, and securing it using Azure Policies and Azure Active Directory in our solution, we now have a solid foundation for rapidly building and deploying additional services.

Next steps

At this stage, we have successfully implemented a set of secure microservices for the client, which are automatically deployed across environments, securely connecting to an on-premises SAP environment, and exposed via a single gateway. Next, we will be implementing the second project, where we will form an additional DevOps team that will implement the solution for storing customer data, and provide real-time insights.

Summary

This blog provides an overview of a cloud-native project that we are currently implementing for one of our customers. At Capgemini, we have a lot of experience, use cases, and best practices in implementing cloud-native practices and designing and building cloud-native applications and systems for our enterprise customers. If you want more information about our experiences with this, you can contact me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Sjoukje Zaal

Expert in Cloud Services, Microsoft Azure

Sjoukje Zaal is a CTO Microsoft, Microsoft Regional Director and Microsoft Azure MVP with over 20 years of experience providing architecture, development, consultancy, and design expertise. She works at Capgemini, a global leader in consulting, technology services and digital transformation. She mainly focusses on Cloud, Security, Productivity, and IoT.
She loves to share her knowledge and is active in the Microsoft community as a co-founder of the user groups Tech Daily Chronicle, Global XR Community and the Mixed Reality User Group. She is also a board member of Azure Thursdays and Global Azure. Sjoukje is an international speaker and involved in organizing many events. She wrote several books and writes blogs. Sjoukje is also part of the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board.

Development expectations have fundamentally changed and IT teams need to enable significantly faster time-to-release, align more closely to product and business teams, improve security, and enable the shift to new ways of working.

However, there are many barriers to achieving agility that organizations face. In our work with clients, we’ve uncovered a number of inefficiencies that are typical of organizations that don’t have a solid DevSecOps strategy in place, from unnecessary time spent on manual tasks to software vulnerabilities. In fact, we’ve found that 40 percent of time is spent completing tasks that can be automated, 85 percent of testing is done manually, and 35 percent of time is spent on rework

DevSecOps, when done well, can help organizations overcome these hurdles at pace and with the desired level of security. It can reduce effort, accelerate release velocity, reduce costs, and improve security and compliance. In fact, some of our clients have realizes 80 percent gains in efficiency, 30 percent faster release times, and 100 percent process compliance.

Key ingredients for a successful implementation

An effective DevSecOps strategy includes the following components.

• People transformation: Though DevSecOps is often thought of primarily as a technology or process change, people are at the heart of its success. Moving from the traditional way of working to the DevSecOps mindset requires a cultural shift. In fact, these initiatives most often fail because of people-related issues. To overcome this, leaders need to clearly define new DevSecOps roles and responsibilities, restructure teams accordingly, and choose team members who have what it takes to kickstart the new way of working to motivate and inspire others.
• “Everything as code” automation: Manual tasks should be completely eliminated, and automation should be the name of the game. “Pipeline as code” ensures continuous integration, “infrastructure as code” enables continuous deployment, and “containerization as code” enables dockerization. In short, when everything is delivered as code, you can begin to work in a truly agile manner.
• “Continuous everything” processes: In DevSecOps, every single step should be automated, including unit tests, integration tests, deployment, and performance and security tests, and replayability should all be continuous.
• “Shift left” and fail-fast focus: To ensure quality while lowering costs with DevSecOps, teams need to become proactive rather than reactive when it comes to code quality. This means that quality compliance should “shift left,” or occur much earlier in the development lifecycle. By testing as soon as possible and enabling test-driven development, you can detect issues quickly to prevent costly quality problems later.
• Proper tooling: There are a lot of DevSecOps tools out there, with new ones being released every day. It’s important to choose the right tools.

Getting started

Successfully implementing a DevSecOps strategy with the components laid out above requires careful planning and consideration, which is why we recommend a three-part assessment and roadmap phase to ensure a successful DevSecOps transformation journey:

1. Begin by defining your current maturity, whether you’re at the very beginning of your DevSecOps journey or are more advanced
2. Then, build a roadmap with a diagnostic approach
3. Finally, categorize and sequence applications for implementations based on complexity.

Capgemini’s DevSecOps Acceleration Platform helps organizations achieve DevSecOps success and maturity. Combining and streamlining all DevSecOps tasks in one simple and intuitive user interface with a highly configurable deployment workflow and automated recommendations to make application improvements at every stage of the lifecycle significantly accelerates time to market. For more information about how to jumpstart your DevSecOps journey, please reach out or visit our webpage.

Manish Parulekar

Expert in Digital Transformation and Innovation

18+ years of professional experience with focus on development of innovative digital solutions/service offerings for enterprises leveraging emerging technologies such as Cloud, IoT, Blockchain, Machine Learning, Microservices and DevOps.
Skilled in defining digital transformation roadmaps and innovation leveraging Design Thinking techniques.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the largest global health crisis of our time. It has led to a dramatic loss of human life and affected millions of people worldwide. But the pandemic is much more than a health crisis; the economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is truly devastating. It has impacted almost every industry sector – be it retail, automotive, or utilities.

In this article, we focus on the impact of the pandemic on the operations of electric utilities. We know from experience that even during economic slowdown, utilities in general generate stable revenues. But in the first quarter of 2020 when the pandemic broke out, industrial activities were decreased, non-essential commercial activities almost stopped, and all means of transport were put on hold. This significantly impacted different sections of the utilities business. The effect on utilities can be considered from three angles: decrease in demand, worker safety, and the need for digital transformation.

• Decrease in power demand

Demand represents the amount of electrical power that has to be delivered at any given time to meet customer needs. Decreased industrial and commercial activity is a major contributor to the fall in demand. Railways and airports are major consumers and lockdowns have had a significant impact on demand. The decline in demand has resulted in a decrease in overall revenue for utilities.

Utility companies have suffered a mixed impact due to tariff structures as well. Electricity suppliers purchase electricity from the wholesale market or through long- or medium-term bilateral agreements with generating plants. Purchasing rates remain the same for all categories of customers, but in general, in many countries the tariffs for domestic consumption are higher than those for commercial or industrial use. During lockdown, domestic consumption increased, and commercial and industrial consumption decreased, meaning that utilities had additional revenue from domestic use. But in other countries, where the average domestic tariff is lower than commercial and industrial tariffs, suppliers lost additional revenue due to the prevailing tariff structure.

Lower energy demand, combined with a worsening financial situation for many utilities has prevented many suppliers from purchasing energy from wind and solar plants as it involves prompt payment to renewable energy generators. As a result, the renewable power sector has been impacted by COVID as well.

• Worker safety and operational constraints

Due to restrictions on the movement of people, many areas were completely cut off. As a result, the meter-to-cash process has faced huge challenges in taking manual meter readings and generating consumption-based bills. Similarly, maintenance activities have also been severely impacted. In many cases, preventive maintenance activities have been indefinitely deferred to avoid the movement of field workers who inspect and maintain equipment. Capacity building and network expansion have also suffered, with delays causing cost overruns for utilities, as have the cash collection and revenue generation processes.

• Digital transformation opportunities

During the pandemic, industries and service sectors started understanding the need for digital transformation and many utilities sped up their transformation journeys. Some of the digital measures that would have been useful for utilities during the pandemic are:

• Operational activities on utilities networks could have been executed remotely using advanced distribution management systems (ADMSs).
• Revenue collection could have been strengthened by using more online options.
• The widespread implementation of AMI could have enabled utilities to remotely read meters to generate bills based on actual consumption.
• The provision of a TOU tariff for residential customers in presence of AMI could have reduced the impact of the existing tariff structure.
• Automated inspections could have reduced the impact on preventive maintenance schedules.
• Multichannel customer relations could have enabled utilities to maintain close ties with their customers.

In summary, utility service providers need to think deeply about the required contingency plans for any operational disruptions and create alternative sourcing options in addition to ensuring the safety and well-being of their employees. In doing so, the bridging of the digital world with the physical world will play a key role. Technologists from the digital world need to work with utilities SMEs to understand the real issues in the age-old utility business processes and transform them to build successful, competitive, and future-proof utilities.

For more details on this please reach out to Mukul Sarkar, Senior Manager, E&U Industry Hub.

Mukul Sarkar

Expert in Power Transmission and Distribution, Utilities

As a utility domain SME, I am mainly responsible for proposing cost effective solution to clients, building innovative assets and accelerators and developing the strategy for digital transformation of utilities.

With more choices, more access to information, and less incentive to be loyal -today’s customers are firmly in control of their relationship with companies. But the scope of customer experience is changing as well. To win hearts and wallets, companies must not only deliver amazing marketing, sales, ecommerce, and service interactions, but also prove that they have the customers’ best interests in mind. 85% of business buyers believe the experience a company provides is as important as its products.

Today’s B2B customers want to be understood and respected as B2C consumers. Customers seek connected processes – such as seamless handoffs or contextualized engagement based on earlier interactions. 70% of customers agree that connected processes are very important to winning their business.

Customers expect companies to provide new products/services more frequently than ever before. For most customers, innovation impacts purchasing habits. 66% of business buyers expect sales reps to develop solutions rather than pitch products.

Today’s customers expect more than knowledgeable salespeople and a quick and easy checkout. Increasingly drawn to ecommerce sites, they value product comparison tools as well as mobile apps. On top of it all, they want to move seamlessly between various digital and offline channels. 91% of customers say they’re more likely to make another purchase after a great service experience.

New Reality in Manufacturing!

Technology has enhanced customer expectations with “customer experience” driving the sales and after-sales transformations. Similarly, manufacturing is also drifting towards this paradigm. Advanced commerce solutions, CPQ solutions and advancements in order management with omnichannel capabilities are the key enables driving this transformation.

Manufacturers are investing more and more in improving Customer Experience.

The way forward for CX in manufacturing sectors

Today, customers demand personal engagement-a new reality for businesses. A unique problem of each customer is addressed by optimizing the service processes and offering a custom-made solution, which can bring in significant value to the customer. By means of 1:1 approach, a solution is crafted to match the needs of customers. The ability to personalize their experience or solution inevitably heightens customer satisfaction.  Service excellence is continually improved by fueling innovation and creativity to solutions and utilizing information from field service to initiate cross and upsell opportunities The crafted solution can be sold to customers directly to reduce dependency on face-to-face sales and provide opportunities to serve more customers. Additionally, customer self-service is becoming the preferred method for customer service since it empowers customers with faster solutions in real time.

What Capgemini NA Manufacturing can offer to our Customers?
Commerce Transformation

The expectations of buyers and customers are addressed with an omnichannel approach; We create a new sales channels and capture new customers with a personalized design-led approach. Solutions are offered through advanced Digital Commerce, specifically in the B2B, B2C and D2C space. We implement CPQ solutions to boost sales across the organization, solution selling, new offerings and transform back office CPQ capabilities into digital facing for enabling customers to configure and price on their own. The order management process enables managing of an order in a single view from multiple channels across multiple systems and out to multiple cost optimized fulfillment capabilities.

Field Service Transformation

With technologies like AI/Bots, self-service, contactless and 360 view of the customer, we can transform customer service to a profit center and essentially manage Customer-Centric Service as a service model.

Conclusion

There is a shift happening in technology, which has led to a need for a shift in customer experience of sales and after-sales services as well… The research and practice of transformation by Capgemini NA Manufacturing can assist you in deploying potential solutions to drive efficiencies significantly.

Vamshi Rachakonda

Expert in Digital Transformation, Global Delivery, Innovation

Accomplished and creative executive possessing multifaceted experience and a proven ability to revitalize organizations, initiate innovative ideas, and capture untapped opportunities for growth.
Results-oriented, decisive leader with over 15+ years of industry experience; adept at forging trusted relationships with key clients, partners and vendors.
Led the charge for multiple Global Digital transformation initiatives throughout his career.

Many experts see 2021 as the year of insider threats. As we are aware, most people are experiencing more life stressors and stronger emotions than in normal times. This creates an increased risk for insider threat activities. This has been spotlighted by Forrester. They predict insider incidents will cause 33% of data breaches in 2021, up from 25% in 2020.

Why the increase?

• Strong emotions may distract an employee, causing them to become negligent or inadvertent insiders. As their controlled environment changed in the past year, employees working remotely may be more likely to click on links in phishing emails, circumvent security practices, or inadvertently damage organizational assets or data.
• People may be more likely to take intellectual property with them when they move to another organization.
• Increased life stressors and emotions can result in an employee lashing-out to sabotage the organization or engage in workplace violence.

Are these insider risks managed effectively by traditional security operations?

Most organizations have technical controls in place to identify data-driven potential insider risks, such as data loss prevention (DLP) software. While it is unlikely you will be able to stop all insider behavior, organizations can do better. The news media reports insider risk incidents every day, and many more don’t make the news. Companies handle the incidents internally to avoid the complications external exposure brings. One insider case involved an automobile manufacturer whose employee modified the vehicle’s manufacturing operating system and stole information.[1] The employee installed and modified the software within six months of hiring. The company discovered the modification and confronted the employee. Had the company identified and aggregated the following insider indicators sooner, they might have prevented the sabotage and damage.

• Contextual indicators
  • The organization recently hired the insider.
  • He had access to extremely sensitive information.
• Human behavioral indicators
  • The insider complained of not being in a sufficiently senior role in the organization.
  • He demonstrated poor job performance.
  • He was disruptive and combative with colleagues, resulting in his assignment to a new role.
  • He expressed anger at his role reassignment.
• Technical control indicators
  • The insider exceeded his authorized access to change the manufacturing operating system.
  • He installed software on three separate computer systems to export the confidential data, even after he left the company.

Note that the technical indicators occurred at the end of this series of events. The human behavioral indicators started occurring “within a few months “of automaker hiring the insider. A holistic insider risk program, aggregating and analyzing not only the technical indicators, but also the contextual and human behavioral indicators, might have allowed the company to identify the insider earlier, increase monitoring efforts, and intervene before he could exfiltrate sensitive information and damage the organization.

What technical-centric insider programs miss that a holistic insider risk program provides?

In addition to traditional technical control indicators, organizations also need to consider contextual indicators, such as who has access to critical assets and their role in the organization. Mature, effective insider risk programs take the necessary next step to prevent insider damage. They include “human behaviors” such as life stressors, ethics policy violations, performance issues, and disciplinary actions in their indicator aggregation and risk analysis, thereby positioning the organization to intervene and prevent considerable damage. Correlating, aggregating, and analyzing indicators from each category allows the organization to anticipate and manage potentially negative issues and attain a more comprehensive risk picture.

What is the solution and benefits of a holistic insider risk program?

Starting and maturing an organization-wide insider risk program may be a daunting task for some organizations. It is a journey, not a sprint to the finish line. Key, high-level steps for developing a holistic program include:

• An organization-wide assessment

This can identify existing components, processes, and data necessary for developing a comprehensive insider risk picture and develop a strategic vision roadmap to achieve your program maturity goals.

• Buy-in from many stakeholders

You will need to gain buy-in from many stakeholders throughout the organization to aggregate the necessary indicators. Cybersecurity contributes indicators from computer networks and systems. Physical security provides indicators from badging systems and other physical security controls. Ethics can include violation information from their systems. Human Resources maintains employee background, performance, disciplinary, and other beneficial information. Finance can provide wage garnishment and other financial information pertinent to insider risk. And legal is essential to help navigate privacy and other legal pitfalls. Organizations are already collecting almost all the data that the insider risk program uses. The more effort you expend to obtain stakeholder buy-in and cooperation, the more robust your insider risk program will be, and the better you will be able to address your overall organizational risk environment.

• Documentation

Creating and evolving foundational documentation and appropriate policies, processes, and procedures are essential for your program operations.

• Training

Training program personnel and providing role-based training and awareness to employees will help tremendously in mitigating insider risk.

• Centralize data collection

Once your program is operational, consider deploying a platform to collect, integrate, and analyze insider risk indicators.

• Metrics and reporting

Identify metrics and reports to optimize your program and demonstrate program business value and return on investment.

• Incorporate trusted third parties

Expand your program to trusted partner organizations, contractors, and supply chains.

• Optimize

Finally, realize your need to continuously reevaluate the program to determine its effectiveness and ensure it evolves.

Getting to the left of boom!

As seen above, human behavioral, contextual, and technical indicators as part of a holistic insider risk program allow organizations to better identify the insider before they travel too far down the wrong path. Timely intervention can help the employee avoid a dire situation, allow organizations to retain a highly trained, valuable employee, and avoid costly damage to both the organization and its reputation.

Please contact us with questions about this article or to help you build an effective insider risk program.

Follow me on LinkedIn or write to me.

To find out more about how we can help you, visit our cybersecurity services page.

Dan Leyman

Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP). Senior Security Manager of Insider Risk Services consulting. Over 25 years of complex investigations, operations, and personnel management experience with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). A proven Program and Project Manager, experienced in coordinating, influencing and developing consensus among multiple, diverse agencies and entities with a Juris Doctorate degree.

It’s sometimes said that if the human brain were simple enough to fathom, we would be too stupid to understand it. Much the same can be said of the supply chains of major enterprises: if they weren’t complex, if they didn’t accommodate layer upon layer of variables, nothing much would ever work.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t be streamlined and made smarter. The goal is what we at Capgemini call the autonomous supply chain – an integrated, frictionless, and customer-centric supply chain function that delivers cognitive, touchless operations and transparent data-driven decision-making.

In this short series of articles, we’re going to look at the characteristics and benefits of this approach, at the current climate for its adoption, at critical success factors, and at the support an external services provider can give.

But first, we’re going to consider the supply chain challenges organizations typically face, and the extent to which they have been complicated by current pressures.

Typical challenges…

It’s the relationship between things that makes supply chains so complex. It’s not just the flow through raw materials, to sub-assemblies, to finished goods – it’s the recognition that these physical elements are influenced by finance, by marketing, by human resources (HR), and by many other factors. The links between these different elements may not be transparent, and indeed, in some cases, the links may not have been made at all. What’s more, some of the processes may still be conducted manually. In a recent report conducted for Capgemini by NelsonHall, 66% of the supply chain leaders surveyed said their levels of manual processing were high.

There are a number of consequences to this. For a start, things don’t flow as they should, and information is siloed and has to be shared by email. This is cumbersome and slow, which impacts overall responsiveness and resilience. The lack of centralization and consolidation leads to high costs, poor productivity, difficulties with governance, and an inability to scale across the organization.

A further challenge is that in a very competitive industry, with new, digital technologies, it can be hard to find or develop the right talent, and also to sustain it.

At the same time, customer expectations have continued to rise. People are growing accustomed to variety of choice and also to speed of delivery, and the best practice of trail-blazing providers is raising the bar high for everyone else.

 … and current pressures

Even at the best of times, all these factors would represent a significant set of challenges for enterprise-level supply chains. But as we all know, these have not been the best of times. International trade has been subjected to disruptions including import restrictions, increased tariffs, and Brexit – and on top of all this, we have had the global and seismic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, supply chains have been stress-tested beyond levels anyone could reasonably have expected, and many of those inadequate and often manual processes we just observed have been stretched and found wanting.

It’s no wonder, therefore, that we are seeing a greater and more urgent determination to bring digital transformation to the supply chain, to standardize processes wherever possible, and to integrate them from end to end, as part of what we at Capgemini call the Frictionless Enterprise.

Indeed, in the survey conducted as part of the NelsonHall report, almost two-thirds of respondents said they sought a greater ability to adjust to global trade volatility (64%), and a similar proportion (62%) said they needed greater flexibility and scalability to adjust to constraints on their capacity.

Looking ahead

In the next article in this series, we’ll take a look at how the autonomous supply chain can address these needs. We’ll outline its principal characteristics, and summarize the benefits it can bring.

To learn more about the autonomous supply chain and its role within the Frictionless Enterprise, read NelsonHall’s full report “Moving to an Autonomous Supply Chain: An Essential Guide for Manufacturing & CPG Firms.”

Read the “Fast Forward: Rethinking supply chain resilience for a post-COVID-19 world” report by the Capgemini Research Institute (CRI) to understand how you can future-proof your supply chain for a post-COVID world.

Finally, to learn about how Capgemini’s Digital Supply Chain practice  can help your organization build a resilient, agile, and frictionless supply chain, contact: joerg.junghanns@capgemini.com

Read other blogs in this series:

• The autonomous supply chain – characteristics and benefits
• The autonomous supply chain – the road ahead

Jörg Junghanns  leverages innovation and a strategic and service mindset to help clients transform their supply chain operations into a growth enabler.