Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, ENERSYS
Self-Funded Innovation & Enterprise Modernization by Michalsky Philipp, EnerSys | SuneraTech
DAS2020 #EnterpriseModernization #EnerSys #SuneraTech In this virtual panel discussion hosted by Hiral Chandrana, ...
About Philipp Michalsky
Philipp Michalsky, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at EnerSys, has discussed the company's IT strategy, which he described as driven by the need to consolidate and harmonize a historically distributed and heterogeneous IT landscape. He stated that the role of IT has shifted from enabling business processes to automating them, with a focus on using digital assistants and AI to handle complex requests and extend services 24/7. Michalsky noted that prioritization is a key challenge and that getting a clear view on return on investment before starting initiatives has become more critical due to economic uncertainties. Michalsky said EnerSys is moving toward outcome-based engagements with partners to reduce upfront investments and ensure success through aligned goals. He mentioned that the company has worked with SuneraTech to implement digital assistants in IT service management and to reduce manual workload in areas such as regression testing. Michalsky also observed that concepts common in B2C settings, such as self-service portals, are making their way into B2B scenarios and that the current situation presents an opportunity to readjust and accelerate strategy.
Transcript (11 segments)
A
Alan0:10
Thanks, Philippe, for joining this panel. Enersys is a complex business with global operations, manufacturing plants across multiple languages and countries. Maybe you can start off with just introducing the company a little bit, your role, just overall strategy for the organization.
P
Philipp Michalsky0:33
Thank you, Alan, thanks for having me as well. So Enersys is a global manufacturer of stored energy solutions for industrial applications. We have a global footprint of engineering, manufacturing, and distribution capabilities. In terms of IT for us, this means that we are very distributed and heterogeneous, and the systems have grown historically in local markets, and that drives now the need for harmonization and consolidation across our business. It also makes IT certainly a key enabler to support the business across these traditional boundaries within our organization. As for my role, I'm heading IT across our EMEA region. My background is in IT-enabled business transformation, specifically in ERP and CRM space. For Enersys, our strategy is driven mostly by the need to consolidate and harmonize the IT landscape, and also to be able to adapt to the changing business conditions and to use technology to create new opportunities.
A
Alan1:42
That's great. You know, Enersys is driving various initiatives, Philippe. And when it comes to modernizing your IT landscape or cloud adoption, how are you prioritizing some of these global initiatives? And also, if you can touch on projects like customer experience or even B2B commerce that you guys are driving, how's that coming together in this pandemic, post-pandemic time frame?
P
Philipp Michalsky2:15
So the move to the cloud, I think in our case like probably for most companies, that's already in progress for some time. I think for all of us, we've certainly seen a significant reduction already of our on-premise infrastructure and applications. And although there's a lot more that we can do, I think the first wave of this move most likely is already in the past. Certainly a trend that we're seeing is that for most new projects, a cloud-based approach is pretty much the default choice today. There are a few exceptions to that rule, especially when it comes to systems that are close to core manufacturing activities, where we still have and most likely will have an on-premise footprint for some time to come. You mentioned prioritization. Absolutely, I think prioritization is key also for us as an organization. Improved customer experience and innovative solutions are almost as important, if not more important, than simplification and rationalization of our IT landscape. Ultimately, we need to be able to be easy to do business with in order to be successful, in terms of IT as well as the wider business context.
A
Alan3:35
Yeah, and maybe building on the B2B commerce theme a little bit more. I know Enersys is using enterprise and customer platforms like SAP and Salesforce and others. Maybe you can build on that a little bit in terms of what role technology is playing in driving that transformation on the customer journey in front of the site.
P
Philipp Michalsky3:59
The key challenge for us, as for many organizations in the current situation, most likely is prioritization: what to do first and what maybe not to do, especially given the constraints on investment and also the general economic uncertainties at the moment. Getting a clear view on ROI and business benefits before starting initiatives or new initiatives is always critical, but I think it's even more critical now. Based on this, the expectations towards partners like Sonera Tech are changing for us as well. So we are now moving more and more towards outcome-based engagements, which will help us to reduce or to avoid completely upfront investments, while also ensuring success through mutually aligned goals. So this is certainly a new level in terms of relationships that we're trying to seek with our partners, that will really align our interests and also drive success for the initiatives that we do start.
A
Alan5:12
Exactly right, Philippe. Given the need to continuously innovate and transform, I'm just curious: how is Enersys and how are you, as head of EMEA IT, driving certain funding-related challenges in terms of new business models, in terms of funding your digital innovation initiatives? I think the audience would be very curious to understand your perspectives on that.
P
Philipp Michalsky5:41
Yes. So I think what we're seeing today is that there are a lot of new concepts that really come from a B2C setup, or that are very common in a B2C setup, are also making their way into a B2B scenario. So we see topics like customer self-service portals, e-commerce solutions, very typical B2C setups that now are also relevant and more relevant even given the current situation in a B2B concept. So what we are doing there is certainly that we're looking into ways, into options to expose more and more of our processes to our customers, to allow them to self-serve, but also to enable a new generation of customers that probably has other requirements and other expectations towards service in general, to utilize technology to help them fulfill their requests when they want it and how they want it, and also to fulfill their needs for information in their own ways. So that's certainly things that have now been accelerated also due to the current situation around COVID, et cetera.
A
Alan7:12
Thanks for sharing that, Philippe. So maybe we'll close with a future-looking question. I mean, 2021 is not that far away, and it's been a challenging year, like I said earlier, to say the least, with 2020. So as you look forward from an Enersys IT lens, what are some of those futuristic initiatives you're thinking about, and what's your overall vision for 2021 and beyond?
P
Philipp Michalsky7:42
Certainly we're trying to use the current situation also to progress and enhance our strategy in ways that we are trying to anticipate new trends, but also areas that won't really be relevant anymore given the dramatic changes the economy is going through at the moment. So this is certainly something where we just try to use the time that we have available to readjust, refocus, and also accelerate, and maybe also skip certain initiatives that we might have planned maybe a year back that just won't be relevant for us anymore. So I think it's a unique opportunity, and also in that opportunity, an event like the Digital Acceleration Summit is certainly helpful to gain insights, to share thoughts with other peers from other businesses. So I'm looking forward to gaining further insights also during the day too. And thanks again.
A
Alan8:44
That's fantastic. Thanks, Philippe, and thanks to the entire panel. You've heard different perspectives and insights from various industries in terms of how Philippe, Deidre, and Lee are driving their digital innovation initiatives with unique business models, unique ways to self-fund their initiatives. Gartner recently had their symposium and they talked about what is called composable businesses, and it aligns very well with some of our thinking in terms of building blocks to build adaptability and speed. At Sonera Tech, we pride ourselves in creating new business models to drive committed results. The path to a modern, future-ready digital enterprise is not just about adopting technology or cloud, but it's about creating a self-sustaining innovative model for growing, reigniting growth in some cases after the pandemic, but also delivering committed results in different engagement and business models. Of course, we leverage our digital accelerators, we leverage our innovation ecosystem and various tools and solutions around business process automation and cloud, with our agile talent and people to deliver these guaranteed ROIs for our customers.