“Planning often has an impact on the core processes of the customer”
For someone who claims to have had little interest in IT, Bart Willemsen has spent thirty years in the IT world, particularly in the field of supply chain planning & optimisation. We spoke to Bart about planning solutions and his "sniper shot" approach: in other words, the art of getting the right person to the table.
How did you get into IT and what is your current position?
“The funny thing is that initially I had little or no interest in IT. I studied Industrial Engineering and Management at Eindhoven University of Technology, but at the end of my studies I still didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I got to know someone at a party, and he asked me to apply for a job at Oracle, where I was hired immediately. I started in sales, and it was a tough but good learning experience. From one day to the next I had to start selling relational databases. After 5 years at Oracle, I joined IBM as a software account manager via BEA Systems. I then spent eight years at Quintiq. I had a fantastic time. We were world-changing back then because we could solve almost all planning problems with standard software, and we gained many new customers in all kinds of industries. The company also grew enormously during that time. There were 75 people on the payroll when I joined, and over 850 when I left. After that, I worked for a couple of supply chain cloud suppliers in various sales management roles. In 2020, I moved to Ordina, now Sopra Steria, where I worked again in sales with planning solutions, because that's where my heart is.”
Why did you choose Sopra Steria?
“I have been selling software solutions for 25 years. I know from experience that software technology is important, but its success depends on the right implementation. This is more than a technical exercise. Embedding it in the organisation is at least as important as the technology itself. In my career I have worked with many implementation partners, including the Big Four. When it comes to planning, few are as focused on the successful implementation of a solution for a client as the OptimAI team at Sopra Steria. That's why I wanted to be part of it, because you get the chance to really take the client by the hand. And I also consider it a privilege to work with smart people who do their job without too much fuss.”
What kind of clients do you have?
“They are very diverse. They range from logistics and metal companies to public service organisations such as the police or customs. But also railways, manufacturing companies, airports and even home care organisations. For many government organisations, the main issue is workforce planning and scheduling solutions. The common factor is that they all have to deal with complex planning puzzles.”
What opportunities does the merger between Ordina and Sopra Steria offer the team and your clients?
"Last year, the Supply Chain Optimisation (SCO) department merged with the Belgian Datascience team. The cross-border team now consists of around 85 people, including specialists in both Supply Chain Planning & Optimisation as AI powered Smartsearch & Assistance. This allows us to serve our customers even better, for example by applying innovative technologies such as Smart search and AI assistance. The team has also been given a new name: OptimAI, a fusion of optimisation of core processes and AI. Our supply chain services are designed to solve the complex puzzles of logistics, production and workforce planning and optimise outcomes. We have strategic partnerships with Dassault Systèmes, OMP, Microsoft and More Optimal.
The former Ordina organisation has many great customers from the past, but mainly in the government and financial sectors. I expect our team to benefit from Sopra Steria's network and that it will open doors to other markets and countries. Take, for example, Sopra Steria's footprint in rail and aviation. These are two markets where planning, optimising and concrete AI applications go well together.
As Sopra Steria, we focus on larger clients, and this offers opportunities to position solutions at a strategic level. In the Netherlands, this has been quite successful, especially with the government, with large clients in the Benelux, both in the area of planning, and with great Smart search & Assistance solutions. On the other hand, the OptimAI solutions are very well suited to be adopted by larger companies, where we are not yet active. To achieve this, I think we need to focus on becoming the trusted advisor to customers, looking at the big picture and not just the technology.”
What do you enjoy most about your job?
“A few things. First of all, dealing with customers, where I always treat people in an honest and authentic way. The first step is to listen carefully to your customers before blindly bombarding them with service and product information. When you dare to be open and vulnerable, it's always nice to see that people are willing to share their challenges with you. Once you know what they are, you can help them in finding solutions. And with planning, this is possible because planning often has an impact on the client's core processes. Better planning allows you to make a tangible improvement to their operations by making them more efficient. Cost savings and/or increased sales will improve your profit margin. Your customers will be happy too, because the service will be more reliable and better. And your employees will be happier because their work will be more manageable and predictable. A win-win-win situation.”
How do you get in front of potential clients?
“Clients don't usually call us when they have a problem. Cold calling hasn't worked for years because it causes more irritation than results. Ideally, you will be introduced somewhere by a reference, but this is not always the case. As an alternative, you have to look for opportunities to approach a potential client yourself. This means researching the industry, the customer and the person you want to approach. This takes time and energy. Not only do you need to know the ins and outs of the business, but you also need to research who is the best person to approach and find out what that person's business challenges are so that you can address them in the conversation. I call this the 'sniper shot' approach. You only get one chance, so it requires extremely good preparation.
Copenhagen Airport was a good example of this approach. Airports are interesting to us because they have to solve a lot of planning puzzles, but you can also think of railways or manufacturing companies. I didn't know anyone at Copenhagen Airport. You often look for people who have final operational responsibility for the company's results, someone who is high enough up in the organisation, but also someone who is still in touch with the operations. When I found out that the COO (Chief Operational Officer) had written a thesis on operations research that was completely in line with our vision on planning, I sent him an old-fashioned 'letter' to get his attention. It worked because he put me in touch with the person ultimately responsible for planning, which led to a very nice deal.
If you do manage to get an appointment, it is important the prospect sees every interaction as meaningful. You do this by first listening to them and then having compelling, ready-made stories where other customers have overcome their challenges in a similar way. I firmly believe that it is the stories that stick in people's minds, not the products and services you offer. Everyone is telling those stories and they do not set you apart from the competition.”
In one of your blogs on LinkedIn, you write that Excel is still the most commonly used planning solution. Why is that?
"It is often a legacy of the past. Smaller companies are perfectly happy to plan using spreadsheets. When the company starts to grow and planning becomes less straightforward, the planner will often come up with difficult macros to keep it working for a while longer. The next step is that more planners are brought in, more data is involved, which means that planners have to deal with many things besides planning. It is also common for the person who created these clever macros to leave the company, which is a problem because this knowledge is usually not secured within the organization. For larger companies, it is therefore wise to switch to a good planning solution at a certain point in order to avoid this 'single point of failure'.”
When is a planning solution interesting for a company?
“A solution is interesting if delivers value and has an acceptable return on investment. As mentioned earlier, this can be because the company starts working more efficiently, but also because they can serve their customers better and faster than the competition, or because they make fewer mistakes or break fewer laws and rules. It is often the case that customers see the reduction in planning effort as the immediate reason, but usually this is not the right approach. It is about the planner having more time to plan and less time to spend on peripheral matters, because good planning improves your results.
When it comes to workforce planning, there are other factors at play. In today's tight labour market, it is crucial to retain your staff. Replacing staff is very expensive. Smart rostering and planning gives people more control over their own work-life balance and the well-being of their colleagues. This is particularly important to the new generation of workers. We are seeing a growing demand for self-rostering, but this is more appealing than it is. In short, the difficult shifts remain. As a planner, it is particularly important that you take into account the fairest possible distribution of all personal preferences.”
How do you decide which solution a company needs? What considerations do you make?
"Ultimately, it's about the value a solution provides. So you need to discuss this as early as possible. What is the underlying business case? What are the customer's objectives and how do you link the solution to what the company wants to achieve? That's why I like to talk to the business, because you don't get caught up in the technical bells and whistles, but you can have a conversation about what it means to be able to solve certain challenges for the customer.
I also regularly challenge clients by discussing the 'Go for the No' principle. I challenge potential customers by asking them if a solution will really benefit them enough. You often find yourself in a situation where the prospect comes up with arguments as to why they think otherwise. At such moments, you know you are on the right track and you have a good conversation that gives you enough information to make it clear to all parties where the real challenges lie and what is needed. Price will rarely be the deciding factor.”
What supply chain trends and technologies do you think customers will be interested in?
“Obviously it's AI. However, it is not entirely new to the world of planning. The planning solutions and more advanced optimisation algorithms we work with come from knowledge technology and artificial intelligence, before AI became a hype. What’s new is the speed at which the technology can process a vast amount of data and the short timeframe in which AI has evolved, especially in the last two years. Meanwhile AI has become generally accepted in the society. As a team, we are looking at how we can embed AI into our planning solutions in a smart way.
One development that stands out is that AI helps us to consider not only standard patterns, but also alternatives that were never considered before. For example, the technology can help predict demand more accurately. For manufacturing companies, this could mean that they need to hold less stock because a better forecast will allow them to better match supply and demand. Of course, AI also offers endless possibilities for unstructured data, voice, images and video. We're already seeing this with intelligent chatbots, where the planner can communicate with the schedule and have the AI look up things in the schedule.
We should not expect AI to be the holy grail. If work processes are disrupted, AI will not automatically solve them. So human logic will still be needed, and AI is a very useful tool for the time being.”