Participants from Barcelona have already shared ideas of what they would like to cover
Helmut Krcmar, Professor at the Technical University Munich, will ask CIO Move participants the same question in 2017 that he has been asking them every year: “What keeps you awake at night?” Everything that is particularly exciting or maybe frightening will become part of the agenda. CIOs suggest topics to their peers which will then be discussed in working groups of 3 to maximally 6 participants.
KONRAD SCHNEIDER, SEAT:
Can mobile devices replace desktop computers?
Car manufacturers of the Volkswagen group are thinking ahead: CIO Konrad Schneider does not think that the time has yet arrived for completely abandoning desktop computers, but has been observing colleagues who complete almost all their work with a Smartphone. The computing power of these little helpers is already strong enough to complete all office tasks. Schneider remarks: “It would be interesting to know if other CIOs have thought about alternative strategies for users who seldom sit at their desktop computer and no longer use land lines. Maybe colleagues from Asia have more experience with users who have stopped using desktop computing altogether.”
The Spanish car manufacturer with its parent company in Wolfsburg/Germany has more than 12,000 employees. The headquarters are in Martorell, about 30 km west of Barcelona. SEAT produces about half a million cars per year in Martorell. On Monday, May 8th2017, Schneider will give the group a factory tour. He will then, with the help of the R&D department, report in detail on “Connected Cars”.
CARSTEN BERNHARD, EDREAMS ODIEGO:
How to grow IT development by 30% a year?
The online travel agency with 5 billion Euro in sales is better known by its four brands eDreams, Opodo, Go Voyages and Travellink. In 1999, Javier Pérez-Tenessa de Block and James Hare founded the company in Sillicon Valley. In the meantime Odiego has moved to Spain and has established itself as a market leader there. The headquarters in Barcelona are remarkable because developers, sales representatives and management are sitting side by side. If a topic needs to be discussed, meetings can happen in one of the individually designed meeting rooms – or on the spectacular roof top deck. We will enjoy the view from there!
It is somewhat curious that CTO Carsten Bernhard has such a hard time finding personnel for such a beautiful setting. At the moment he is employing an IT staff of 600, but an additional 100 are needed – immediately! More and more companies are moving development centers to Barcelona and are competing for talent. Spain’s tremendous youth unemployment problem seems to have vanished in Barcelona’s IT field. Bernhard asks: “What do I have to do to find good people who maintain a startup mentality within an established organization?”
CATALINA GRIMALT, PORT DE BARCELONA:
What will logistics look like in 20 years?
Drones, Hyperloop, Amazon, these are three terms that immediately come to Catalina Grimalt’s mind when she muses on the future of the harbor. CIO Grimalt can imagine using drones for surveillance or transport. Shipping company owners, drug dealers and the police share her thoughts on the use of drones. The air space above the harbor could become very crowded.
Hyperloop is not yet ready to be deployed, but could upset existing logistic models. The shuttles, which inventor Elan Musk plans to shoot through reduced-pressure tubes, could take the place of transport by road or rail. For the second largest cruise harbor (Miami is the largest) this could be a larger challenge. What Musk is demonstrating in California at the moment is less than a Transrapid test track, but Grimalt wants to keep an eye on this technical development.
And finally Amazon: For the first time in history a retailer has amassed so much power that it shapes overall logistics. Amazon’s ambitions are more threatening for logistic companies than Google is for car manufacturers. Self-driving cars might become an interesting side business for Google, but logistics belongs to Amazon’s core business. Catalina Grimalt follows developments regarding “Same Day Delivery” with great interest. She is not only “Directora Sistemes d’Informatico“ of the Port de Barcelona, she is also Chairwoman of the “Consell de CIOs de Catalunya”. This regional council is looking forward to our visit.