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London, 12^th November, Dr. Christian Schiebl, formerly Chief Operating Officer of SmartStream and CEO of the Corona reconciliations business, has joined leading global fintech Gresham Technologies plc (Gresham) as Group Business Development Director.

Christian brings strong technical knowledge and extensive experience in the development, sales, implementation, and support of complex software solutions for the finance sector. He is expected to play a key role in the next stage of the company’s growth.

Following the acquisition of Management Data by SmartStream, Schiebl transformed the flagship reconciliation solution Corona into the industry’s first packaged offering for cash and securities reconciliations. He formed the Corona business unit, growing the client base to include 1500 institutions across both banking and investment management in over 100 countries across the globe. During his almost-20 years at SmartStream, he held a variety of roles including Managing Director, Sales and Service, EMEA & APAC, Managing Director, as well as sitting on the Executive Board of SmartStream Group for more than 14 years.

Since leaving SmartStream in 2018, he has focused on the application of artificial intelligence and machine-learning to post-trade operations working with financial institutions across Europe.

Ian Manocha, CEO Gresham Technologies, commented:

“As a pioneer in the post-trade reconciliations software market Christian brings a deep knowledge of the space and shares our vision and passion to fundamentally change the industry with modern AI-enabled technologies. We’re delighted to welcome Christian to our team.”

Dr Christian Schiebl added:

“In the last few years, I’ve watched Gresham evolve from a disruptive new market entrant into a leading player in the industry. Technology, market economics and regulation are re-shaping how firms address data quality, reconciliation and control, with Gresham offering the solution that many need. I’m excited to join the team and help capture the significant opportunity that lies ahead.”

This announcement follows the appointment of two senior sales hires across APAC and Europe, and the news that notable fintech leaders Jenny Knott FCCA and Dr Ruth Wandhöfer joined Gresham’s board as Non-Executive Directors.

The Better Business Bureau is an independent nonprofit organization that has its self-identified mission to improve market trust by focusing on improving market accountability, reporting to the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and being the central repository for all consumer reports, consumer complaints and consumer debt collections. In addition, the Better Business Bureau is responsible for the enforcement and resolution of any complaints, including the provision of a written warning, corrective action or monetary penalty.

Since its creation in 1912, the Better Business Bureau has provided a vital source of information about consumer concerns. In doing so, the Better Business Bureau has played a role in improving standards of conduct for businesses in all areas, from employment practices, to commercial banking and lending practices and from health care to entertainment, and from real estate to technology. However, the Better Business Bureau also has been criticized by many consumers and businesses, particularly due to the number of complaints filed against it each year. As a result, the Better Business Bureau strives to be more proactive and transparent in its activities.

Since 2020, the Better Business Bureau has created a Center of Excellence, which seeks to improve the services and products that they offer. The Center of Excellence seeks to strengthen the Better Business Bureau’s internal systems, as well as improve the overall effectiveness of its consumer protection activities. The Center of Excellence also seeks to provide the Better Business Bureau with new ways to better serve the public by helping them recognize and respond to consumer concerns and complaints. In addition, the Center of Excellence seeks to improve the quality of the Better Business Bureau’s consumer protection activities by training a new Consumer Protection Office and by increasing the number of employees that work directly with consumers. Finally, the Center of Excellence seeks to improve the consumer protection activities that the Better Business Bureau undertakes by making the Better Business Bureau’s services more accessible to the public and reducing the time necessary to resolve consumer concerns.

Because the Better Business Bureau is charged with the responsibility of implementing the Center of Excellence, it is important to ensure that consumer protection activities are being conducted in an effective manner. Consumer protection is a top priority for the Better Business Bureau, and the Bureau’s Office of Consumer Assistance is dedicated to providing reliable information about consumer complaints, and to educating individuals about their rights under the Fair and Accurate Transactions Act. {FATA). The Office of Consumer Assistance provides confidential assistance to anyone who may have a complaint regarding a business and is responsible for ensuring that all complaints received by the Better Business Bureau are resolved in an appropriate manner. The Office of Consumer Assistance also provides training to business owners, law enforcement personnel and other consumers on how to better handle consumer complaints and how to protect themselves when engaging in such actions.

Consumers can file a complaint by filling out a Consumer Complaint Form or by writing to the Better Business Bureau directly. Complaints can be filed at any point during the year, and a complaint should be submitted before the complaint form reaches the point of filing. The Better Business Bureau staff responds to complaints promptly and thoroughly and provides written notification in the event that a complaint cannot be resolved satisfactorily through one of the methods listed above.

Many people have good experiences with the Better Business Bureau and filing consumer complaint forms; however, not all complaints are resolved quickly or appropriately. Some complaints are not resolved, or if they are resolved, the response is less than satisfactory, and/or is made in a manner that does not meet the expectations of the consumer. If a consumer feels that he or she was treated unfairly by a business that the Better Business Bureau has investigated, then a consumer complaint form should be filed. In some instances, a consumer complaint form may be submitted with a personal complaint and a complaint may be submitted as a formal complaint to the Better Business Bureau.

While it is possible for a consumer complaint to be resolved within one business cycle, this often happens rarely. In order to protect the consumer and provide prompt and thorough resolution of consumer complaints, many businesses utilize an extended business cycle, including six months to a year. The extended business cycle allows the Better Business Bureau to perform extensive, ongoing analysis of business practices to determine which businesses may need to make changes or adjustments. If a business is determined to be doing business in an unfair manner, it will most likely be forced to make changes or adjustments to its existing business practices. After a business has made the necessary changes or adjustments, the process of resolving consumer complaints begins again.

Because the Better Business Bureau is the lead agency of the federal government in the area of consumer protection, the Bureau’s consumer protection division is charged with monitoring the activities of each business entity that is regulated by the FTC rules. The Bureau works closely with local state and local regulators to help ensure compliance with federal laws and regulations. Once the business is determined to be operating in an unfair manner, the State or Local Consumer Protection division of the Better Business Bureau takes over, and begins a comprehensive investigation into the business. The Bureau’s Division of Advertising Practices continues the review process by obtaining additional facts about the business in question and by working closely with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to determine whether or not the business practices violated the laws and regulations set forth by the FTC.

In financial accounting, an individual asset is any property owned by an entity or a business. It is anything that can be owned or managed to create economic value and which is held or used by an entity in order to create value for the entity. This can be either tangible or intangible. One example of an asset is inventory, which is an item which cannot be physically held by the person holding it but can still be stored and tracked in order to create data.

Other examples of an asset are receivables which are those items which are received from a customer for services performed and are a liability to that business as well as a liability to the entity holding the receivables. Examples of assets include cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable and capitalized interest on loans and accounts payable. Each of these categories of assets has its own classification and may have many different methods for determining its value.

There are many different ways in which an entity may dispose of its assets. Most entities will purchase them from other businesses or other individuals who hold them as assets. Other organizations may decide to dispose of their assets by transferring them to another corporation or by liquidating their assets. A corporation can use its assets to acquire more capital to grow in size, as well as to gain other types of financial leverage and control over other financial assets. In a company’s case, the assets may be sold at a discount because the price is lower than the cost of production.

The assets may be sold by the individual investors to a third party who may purchase the assets for a price that is less than its actual cost. The assets may be transferred by lease to another person, to an organization, to a state, or to another jurisdiction. These can be classified as liquidation sales, conversion transactions, foreclosure sales and re-allocation transactions.

Asset transfer taxes are collected in different manners depending on the jurisdiction where the transfer takes place. Some jurisdictions require that the seller pays tax on the transferred asset while others require that only the transferor must pay tax. A few jurisdictions also require the transferor to pay taxes on the sale of the asset itself. For the most part, jurisdictions require that the transferor to pay tax on the difference between the sale price of the asset and the fair market value of the asset. In some jurisdictions, the transferor must also pay tax on any tax that the government had not taxed the seller on the amount of the transferor’s profit in the past.

The different rules on the transfer of asset ownership are important for those businesses that are not able to invest large sums of money in acquiring assets and for themselves. These businesses can make use of asset leasing to manage their day-to-day operations. Asset leasing involves purchasing assets from an organization and then assigning the ownership rights to one or more people to manage the asset.

Asset leasing can create flexibility for a business. The assets of the business can be used to cover a variety of expenses and can provide funds to pay for salaries and for other expenses associated with running the business. Asset leasing can provide for the protection of a company in the event of the owner’s death. Asset leases can also be used to buy raw materials, equipment or supplies that will be used to run the business. Asset leasing can be used as capital for a business to purchase equipment, property, machinery, real estate, and other investments that will be used to run the business.

Asset leasing can also be used to finance a new business. This can be used to finance the acquisition of machinery, inventory, offices or office space and to expand the business and to provide for a company’s marketing needs. This can also be used to finance the growth and expansion of existing businesses and to support an existing business. When used to finance a new business, it can provide funds to purchase a building or to rent a building. It can also provide funds for advertising and marketing efforts, which can provide a way for the new business to gain a name and a loyal customer base.

Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, today announced that Acronis Cyber Protect, its cloud offering through service providers, is now available for all, as a beta version, to easily deploy on-premises. The game-changing flagship solution integrates data protection, cybersecurity, and endpoint management – to help people navigate the crucial need for a safe remote work environment. With this release, IT teams get to really try the technology and deploy the solution’s unique capabilities across all their environments to safeguard all data, applications, and systems.

“The COVID-19 pandemic requires more businesses than ever to adopt remote work policies,” said Acronis Executive Officer Serguei “SB” Beloussov. “While remote work offers a lot of benefits, it can put valuable company data at risk of cyberattacks. With the expanded access to a beta version we want to help more organisations and individuals protect their data, devices, and infrastructure.”

A recent survey by Gartner revealed that 74% of organisations intend to permanently shift some employees to remote work. The ability to add comprehensive and proven endpoint security – without increasing complexity or IT staffing requirements – has become a critical business need but also a competitive advantage.

Embedded remote work application protection

• Vulnerabilities from web applications are automatically blocked
• Online meetings via Zoom, WebEx, MS Teams or other, are protected to prevent session ID theft

Enabled proactive cybersecurity

• AI-based behavioural and heuristic anti-malware stop ransomware and cryptojacking attacks in real-time
• Acronis Cyber Protect is VB100 certified. Its unique capabilities and integrations recently earned the 2020 New Product Innovation Award for Data Protection from Frost & Sullivan

Embraced by the industry

In an IDC report published by Phil Goodwin and Robyn Westervelt, Acronis Cyber Protect was named: “one of the most comprehensive attempts to provide data protection and cyber security to date”, and added that “Acronis shows potential to disrupt traditional IT security vendors by delivering integrated components for backup/recovery and malware detection, and protection.”

As UK mid-market companies face huge pressure to adapt or transform their operations in the current situation, new research suggests they will need to significantly improve operational visibility, planning and decision-making, to do so successfully.

The survey of 250 UK mid-market organisations by Sapio Research on behalf of FHL Cloud Solutions found that only one in seven (13%) mid-market businesses had followed best practice by carrying out detailed reviews of core processes before adopting new ERP and business systems, and fewer than half (48%) had made any serious efforts in this regard.

The research also found that many mid-market businesses (56%) still struggle to identify and improve core processes at each stage of digital transformation projects.

These findings suggest that the current process of change is bringing to light deficiencies in organisations’ core processes and systems − moving them to consider strategies such as automation and adopting cloud-based technologies in the future.

In addition, the data indicates that senior management teams could be making do with incomplete information for decision-making − without ever getting the insights they need from their ERP, planning, management and reporting systems.

The survey also revealed that some companies’ usual approaches to planning may leave them slow to adapt to uncertain conditions. More than two thirds (67%) of respondents are tied into strategic planning cycles of three years or more, suggesting they are likely to be challenged by the current demands of short-term re-planning and decision making.

Darren Birt, operations director at FHL Cloud Solutions, says: “Many UK mid-market businesses are trying to adapt their organisation or find new markets but they often don’t have the necessary business visibility due to outdated systems and lack the necessary data due to inefficient corporate planning and reporting tools. They therefore struggle to draw up definitive change management plans for times like these.”

The research also showed clear differences in emphasis among owners and senior management on whether technology-based transformations had made their business nimbler, with 77% of directors saying so, but only 48% of managers agreeing. This indicates there may be a gap between plans to adapt their operations and successful execution in some organisations.

In addition, only 43% of organisations had leadership teams that were actively driving transformation of the business, indicating a potential lack of readiness at the top to successfully recast the business in extreme conditions.

The survey data also suggest that many mid-market businesses are not getting advice from a wider spectrum of third-party experts to help them align transformation plans with fast-changing business priorities. While 65% of those questioned rely on some form of partnership to help manage the business transformation, only 32% bring in business consultants to develop their early plans. In addition, only 23% engaged with technology partners when planning.

Darren Birt at FHL Cloud Solutions, further commented: “Our research also indicates that many mid-market companies place too much reliance on software platforms being the complete answer to their operational challenges in isolation − without considering the degree of preparation, planning and effort required to successfully implement them and the degree of change that these products bring about.”

“The results nevertheless show that a solid core of UK mid-market organisations is taking the detailed planning and process improvement steps needed to deploy smarter, cloud-based ERP, business and finance systems effectively. These flexible systems will help give mid-market companies faster and deeper business insights and allow them to develop the clearer plans they need to adapt to challenging trading conditions or implement longer-term recovery plans.”

By Jonathan Whiteside, Principal Technology Consultant at Dept Agency

Face-to-face meetings between buyers and suppliers have always been central to building an ongoing relationship in the B2B world. Both parties benefit from the personal touch and the ease of airing out any queries and sorting potential issues. With the coronavirus pandemic cancelling every booked face-to-face for the foreseeable future, buyers are now looking for a digital solution to the challenge.

At the same time, disruption to factory production has broken links in the global supply chain, creating the added challenge of buyers potentially needing to source new suppliers who are able to deliver. If lockdown measures have limited production or forced the temporary closure of a factory, these potential buyers need to be able to quickly find the solution that your business is offering.

Supply chain disruption, combined with the difficulty of running in-person meetings, means the manufacturing sector must consider alternative options. McKinsey’s recent ‘Global B2B decision-maker response to COVID-19 crisis’ survey covered what B2B decision-makers are looking for when researching suppliers, tracking the importance of different digital features in this new marketplace. The survey looked at the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, China, India, South Korea, Brazil and the US, and found that across the board, there’s an increase in demand for digital self-serve options that empower buyers to find their solution.

Onsite Search is a Priority

Across all surveyed countries, when asked “what ways of interacting with a supplier would be most beneficial to you when researching/considering suppliers going forward?”, the most popular choice was onsite search. Can a buyer visit the company website, search for the product they are looking for, easily find more information, and process their order?

It’s important to consider this in terms of the purchase journey. Onsite search often comes early on; a quick guarantee that this company can supply the product they need. After the first point of contact, whether it’s a call, email, piece of direct mail or a self-initiated Google search or referral, the company website becomes the most important reference point, always answering questions that a potential customer may have.

For this reason, every manufacturer and supplier needs to ensure there is a search option onsite and that existing product and information pages are up-to-date with relevant information. Your CMS or commerce platform may provide a simple search feature to add to the site, but optimising the content for search requires a little more work.

From a UX perspective, a visible and well-defined search bar will make it quick and easy for anyone to find products and information. This will result in fewer clicks and less time spent on the homepage. A faceted search will enhance the general search, enabling users to narrow down their search to a category, price, product options and custom fields. All of this will improve the customer experience and help customers find what they’re looking for, quickly and easily.

Having a well optimised on-site search also has the added benefit of providing further insight into what buyers are looking for and what the roadblocks to purchase are. This information is gold dust; it either shows demand, or it shows opportunity. For example, a product selling at a fairly low rate could actually be getting high search volume, indicating a potential opportunity for the business to push this product to the fore.

These search stats and insights can also inform your business of developing trends in terms of customer demand or common difficulties. While there is nothing better than speaking one-to-one with a client about the challenges they are facing in the coming weeks, months and years, having clients visit your site and type their challenges into the search bar is a close second. Use this to tool your sales team with information on what common challenges are driving discussion in the industry. It’s also useful in optimising the messaging of onsite copy and any marketing campaigns your business is running. Reviewing search logs can also guide your business on what is currently missing from your site.

The preference for onsite search shows two important points. The buying and research process is digital-first and driven by self-serve opportunities. This shows a drift towards on demand information, giving buyers the ability to research at their own pace. This is backed up by the second preference — live chat. Rather than scheduled phone calls or back and forth emails, buyers are opting for the on demand option, enabling them to engage with potential suppliers when it suits their schedule.

Improving the Customer Experience with Live Chat & Chatbots

A strong live chat system combines automated and staffed solutions. Like a customer service line, live chat conversations typically begin with a light automated opening that directs the visitor to the appropriate colleague for this conversation. Parts of this can be decided in the background, such as knowing which page the visitor is on and using this information to inform which representative joins the live chat.

The added bonus for companies implementing a live chat or chatbot feature on site comes through an extra customer services option; through a flow of automated responses, a chatbot can help current customers find a quick solution, taking the strain off of call lines.

When looking at the surveyed countries in Europe, there is a soft preference for sales rep led interactions, showing the importance of a personal touch, even in an increasingly digital market. Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK all name face-to-face meetings in their top three ways of interacting with suppliers; a major challenge during the lockdown period.

The clear lockdown replacement is video calling. What is often ignored is the idea of availability. It’s generally understood that if a buyer wants to call a supplier, they can pick up the phone and dial a number listed on the site. The culture does not yet exist around video calling, meaning companies need to make it clear that their sales reps are ready for video calls should a buyer want to talk face-to-face.

Update your site design with information about video calling as an option, and speak about it in your outreach and marketing. Proactive options include video consultancy sessions, organised on a one-to-one basis or a gated livestream, available to viewers that sign up. This broadcasts the point that your business offers video conferencing to current and potential clients that are still interested in face-to-face discussions. With sales reps working from home, keeping the CRM system up to date with information from these video calls is a top priority.

Looking across to the APAC region, Brazil and the US, digital self-serve options fill the priority touchpoints for buyers, from apps to websites to social media. Knowing that these regions prioritise digital and self-serve is useful for suppliers and manufacturers in Europe that sell internationally.

Increasing Agility with Headless

If you operate internationally, the already complex task of managing localisation is currently heightened, given the varying level of Covid-19 restraints in your operating markets. To speed up the delivery of localised messaging, content and microsites, you can consider moving to a headless technical architecture for your content management.

A regular CMS connects a single front end (the sales channel that a customer interacts with), to a single back end (the operational side that processes payment and data and keeps the channel running). In this setup, changes to the front end must be reflected in the back end. This creates a fair amount of work if a company is running multiple websites, an app, or mobile-specific sites, as any updates must be repeated across each sales channel. A headless CMS connects each front end into a single back end. This means edits can be made to the front end without requiring a constant update to the back end. Launching new sites or creating an app for these new markets is a much more agile process with a headless architecture. For more of a deep dive into the benefits of headless and when to consider it, check out our recent webinar, ‘Moving with speed and agility with headless systems.’

“It’s important to remember that this shift has been accelerated by the Covid-19 crisis, rather than being caused by it, said Jonathan Whiteside, Principal Technology Consultant at Dept Agency. “The drift towards digital and self-serve options in the B2B space is part of an industry-wide move to online and on-demand that’s been building momentum over the past couple of years. Reorienting your operations to be more digital ensures relevance during the pandemic, but also provides a platform for the company to stay at the forefront of how buyer and supplier relationships function.”

Each adjustment the business makes now should factor in the multi-year strategy for the business, an initial change that leads to a much wider digital transformation. Now is the perfect time to review your digital roadmap and accelerate the digitalisation plans that will make the biggest impact as we enter a period of recovery.

• Companies using Payhawk can easily administrate budgets, spending limits and other expenses for every card through a single interface
• The card, issued by Wirecard, will be available in both virtual and physical form in 13 European countries
• Payhawk will benefit from Wirecard’s bespoke corporate expense card solution including end-to-end card licenses and technology

Aschheim (Munich). Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, is collaborating with Bulgarian Fintech Payhawk to launch a new Visa corporate card to provide companies with an easy solution to manage corporate expenses. Payhawk will benefit from Wirecard’s tailor-made corporate expense card solution including end-to-end card infrastructure as well as Wirecard’s expertise in the payment industry.

Founded in 2018, Payhawk offers an all-in-one corporate expense and spend management service for small and medium sized companies, including the new corporate card, which is issued by Wirecard. Payments, invoices, expenses, and card issues are automated and digitised. The Fintech provides a mobile app and web interface to give their corporate clients a comprehensive dashboard for complete control and transparency over employees’ spending, travel expenses or other transactions.

In 2019 Payhawk won the Start-Up Challenge at the Paris Fintech Forum, where they received a package of benefits, including implementation support and consulting services from Wirecard and Visa. This latest collaboration is a sign of Wirecard’s continued support for this young and promising start-up, who also recently secured a seed financing of EUR 3 million in March, led by the renowned VC Earlybird. “Wirecard began as a start-up 20 years ago. Even as a DAX company, we still have that start-up culture in our DNA, and are always looking to foster other young and exciting companies. Payhawk is one such start-up, innovative with a solid business plan and we are delighted to be supporting such a promising Fintech on their path to success,” said Leonard Coen, Head of Sales and Project Management, Financial Institutions, at Wirecard.

The cooperation between Wirecard, Visa and Payhawk will enable the Bulgarian start-up to address new target groups in Europe with a particular focus on small and medium-sized enterprises who currently lack digital solutions for expense management and need to address the complexities of managing company cards. “The constant feedback we got from finance leaders in SMEs is how much time they waste reconciling card statements, tracking expenses, handling paper, manually entering data and trying to enforce spend policies and budgets on cards. Together with Wirecard and Visa, we are happy to provide an efficient and compliant solution to manage company spend end-to-end and enforce spend policies and budgets directly on cards,” added Hristo Borisov, Co-founder and CEO of Payhawk.

Wirecard’s solution and end-to-end card infrastructure also includes e-money license, issuing license, fraud and risk management, issuing processing, and card management platform. Each card, which will be available in both virtual and physical form, can be individually controlled by assigning monthly budgets, spend limits or being part of a more complex request and approval workflow. Managers can monitor budgets in real time and have full transparency over all company cards in use, all the time. From May 2020, Payhawk Visa Business Cards are available in 13 European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Bulgaria. Payhawk’s integrated payment account can be combined with any existing bank giving an efficient and flexible platform for finance teams to manage company spend.

Initiative will provide free digital coaching for employees from various aid organisations affected by the pandemic

CoachHub has launched CoachHub4Good, a pro bono initiative to support employees from aid organisations, which have been particularly affected by the coronavirus crisis.

The global talent development platform has created the initiative to allow aid and charitable organisations, no matter where in the world, immediate access to the network of top tier coaches on the CoachHub digital platform, completely free of charge. Organisations that have already signed up include the United Nations International Organization for Migration and Kindernothilfe.

The coaching will provide practical and mental wellbeing support for these employees, who are having to work under extremely stressful conditions and may be struggling to maintain their wellbeing and performance. While driven by the coronavirus pandemic, CoachHub4Good is committed to continuing to support those who fight for humanity day after day, long after the current crisis is over.

Yannis Niebelschuetz, CEO of CoachHub, said: “We are extremely proud of the support our coaches are able to provide during these difficult times. Coaching is extremely important, not just for protecting mental wellbeing, but also for boosting productivity and resilience. Together we are stronger than any crisis, whether that’s now or in the future, so it is through our expertise in digital coaching that we want to say thank you.”

Anke Strauss, Head of Talent Management for the United Nations International Organization for Migration, said: “Every little bit helps during difficult times like these. When CoachHub reached out to us about supporting our staff through digital coaching it seemed very appropriate. As a humanitarian agency with staff all around the globe, many working on addressing the Corona crisis directly, everyone could use some help. Ensuring the wellbeing of our staff is even more crucial in times like these, so that we can produce our work efficiently and with compassion for the people we serve.”

By Professor Régis Coeurderoy & PhD candidate Xuejing Yang

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused worldwide disruption and we are now facing potentially tremendous changes, including de-globalization. The largest European companies could be seriously damaged by this, and Europe will need to help new industries emerge with a solid regional basis if they want to survive.

In our impact paper written as part of the ESCP Business School’s “Managing a Post-Covid19 Era” series, we compare the development over the past two decades of the largest multinationals in Europe Middle East and Africa, Americas, and Asia Pacific regions, and assess Covid-19’s short term and long-term effects on European companies, and the potential consequences of de-globalization. What we see is that European companies have the highest dependence upon host regions, while Asian and American companies remain strongly dependent upon their home regions. Therefore, the dependence of European business on the global economy under certain circumstances, will create a vulnerability among European companies if de-globalization does occur. Therefore, in the short run, Europe could be the main victim of a strong post-COVID-19 de-globalization wave; and therefore, it will need to help new industries emerge with a solid regional basis for its future competitiveness.

This is reflected when we look at emerging industries across the globe.  Industries are constantly evolving, and in the past two decades, many industries have disappeared and others have emerged. The largest European companies currently rely heavily on traditional industries such as oil and gas, yet across the globe we can already see a large number of new innovations in the medical, biotechnology and Information Technology industries, which are concentrated in the United States. This is due to the rapid rise in the demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), testing and tracing, and the surge for healthcare capacity. Therefore, Europe should be prepared to increase investment in these industries and plan in advance if they are to ensure stability for their economies in the future.

As well as healthcare, during this pandemic we have also seen the developments that car makers like Ford, Tesla and GM have been helping to solve the shortage of ventilators and masks through the flexible production lines of their Industry 4.0 factories – this opens up a new perspective on the future of manufacturing development. The production mode of Industry 4.0 will allow the production of various commodities to function through one single manufacturing facility. This may redefine the supply chain, and countries may accelerate the adoption of the flexible production model of Industry 4.0, thereby reducing the dependence of key products on the international supply chain. This should be an opportunity for Europe to increase the investment of innovation through Industry 4.0 and increase exposure to the future of manufacturing industry.

EU countries should be more united to form an integrated economy and larger internal market, in order to enhance the competitiveness of European companies. As well as this, European companies should definitively increase the efforts for investments that Industry 4.0 provides, specifically in the healthcare and manufacturing industries. Ultimately, the increased adoption of Industry 4.0 amongst European companies could be a great opportunity for them to prepare for the potential threats of de-globalization.

The international technology distributor put comprehensive protocols in place to keep workplaces safe while keeping goods flowing internationally during the lockdown.

Kevin Brzezinski, SVP of Operations, commented: “In normal times, we take the logistics of the supply chain – getting products from A to B – for granted. In the pandemic, this suddenly became mission-critical. Ultimately, it’s the efforts of our teams that kept the supply chain moving. But having a robust business continuity and digital-first, data-driven approach has also proved critical.”

After border closures became a reality, the reduction in global air traffic led to a decrease in air freight capacity and increase in prices. Many of Westcon-Comstor’s vendors rely on these for their thousands of suppliers and just-in-time delivery models. This, along with truck driver shortages affecting transcontinental road freight, led to delays in production due to missing critical components, and, more importantly, to increased congestion at major ports across the globe.

Brzezinski continued: “This illustrates how closer partnerships and collaboration could play an even more important role in the future. No single stakeholder can solve supply-chain problems or transform the supply chain on their own. We are all in this together. There is no doubt that we will take the opportunity to work closely with all our partners to ensure we collectively adapt and evolve. COVID-19 has exposed the reliance on human interactions and lack of visibility, data and flexibility, so the supply chain of the future will be more agile, flexible and adaptable to complex dynamic environments and disruption.”

The safety of Westcon-Comstor’s people was its top priority, and the company put comprehensive protocols in place to keep workplaces safe, including daily cleaning of logistics centres, deep sterilisation cleans at the weekend, and securing adequate PPE to safeguard our teams in such a demanding environment.

Brzezinski praised Westcon-Comstor’s Operations teams: “I’ve seen courage, resilience, commitment, agility, flexibility, cooperation and support for each other, and humility when called upon to rise to the most demanding health crisis of our time. They’ve stayed late, come in on the weekends to support the Nightingale Hospital in London and other hospitals, sent deliveries to support emergency medical equipment, and gone above and beyond to help keep key businesses and governments operational. I couldn’t ask for more. This pandemic has unified our business and created an even closer, more forward-looking team.”