Because the chief enterprise transformation and expertise officer at Twinings Ovaltine (TwO), some may think Sandeep Seeripat’s position to be the epitome of what a senior expertise government must be, with a remit past IT operations, an authoritative voice within the boardroom and a reporting line straight to the CEO. However it hasn’t at all times been this manner, with IT as soon as leaving little greater than a bitter aftertaste for this historic tea marketer.

When Seeripat joined the organisation in 2018, having been the worldwide IT supply director at multi-national client merchandise producer Kimberly-Clark, IT was seen as a back-office price centre. Introducing new expertise to drive development was neither inspired nor supported, not least in a federated organisation throughout 9 enterprise models.

Seeripat requested the senior management staff throughout his interview if the organisation needed change, or business-as-usual.

“The reply was, ‘We wish change,’” he says. “What wasn’t dimensioned was what that really meant. I can’t say I had open arms to vary the world, however there was undoubtedly an intent that we wish to do issues. We simply didn’t know the way.”

Change is actually what TwO has executed, even when this centuries-old British establishment retains the world’s second oldest brand from 1787, and the identical 216 Strand, London, workplace because it has since founder Thomas Twining opened it as a tea store in 1706.

Owned by Related British Meals since 1964, TwO right now sells teas and infusions to greater than 100 nations, and is evolving into well being and wellness merchandise and experiences inside the tea market.

However the federated enterprise mannequin makes defining a single expertise technique tough to articulate, says Seeripat, which means that the IT staff as a substitute works to a broad set of enterprise themes, equivalent to facilitating enterprise development, creating scalable platforms, and growing a technology-capable staff and studying tradition.

Alongside these themes, Seeripat rebranded the IT perform from Info Programs to  BizTech to vary the way it engages with the broader enterprise. He additionally oversaw the introduction of a brand new goal assertion—BizTech Companions that Ship Wow—accompanied by two staff behaviours: be curious and study constantly.

This evolution of IT to turning into a digital companion to the enterprise is already yielding outcomes, with the BizTech staff participating earlier on enterprise initiatives, driving higher outcomes, and rising in dimension. It’s additionally helped Seeripat, a mechanical engineer by commerce, progress into a brand new transformation position.

On the again of initiatives to construct a platform enterprise and linked provide chain final 12 months, he was promoted from international CIO to international chief enterprise transformation and expertise officer, the place he reviews to the CEO and works with different executives to create a so referred to as end-to-end innovation organisation.

“This position is actually a enterprise position as there’s no broader enterprise exercise that I’m not concerned in: NPD, provide optimisation, client engagement and gross sales power enablement,” he says. “It’s nonetheless accountable for expertise, however strategically versus operational.”

Rebranded IT perform begins to pay dividends

A key ingredient of Seeripat’s success has been rebranding the IT division to BizTech to vary the way it engages with the broader enterprise, in addition to growing an ethos inside the staff to be curious and study constantly.

Seeripat says that the BizTech title reminds us of all the explanations we come to work. “We must always drive enterprise outcomes first supported by expertise,” he says, including it strikes IT away from being order-takers. Introducing a goal assertion inside the staff—BizTech Companions that Ship Wow—has helped.

“We needed to deal with the top person expertise by trying to create moments of wow,” he says. “This variation has allowed us to earn a seat on the determination desk and begin influencing expertise selections, educating our stakeholders on how and the place expertise can add worth.”

He provides that the simplicity of a reputation change, coupled together with his personal promotion, has seen BizTech transfer from a supply functionality with no affect, to an entity influencing the expansion agenda.

BizTech staff members are actually engaged in conversations lengthy earlier than technical necessities, typically being requested to be a part of shopper pitches and design processes. Infrastructure groups just lately liaised with manufacturing groups on utilizing HoloLens and VR tools to digitally visualise manufacturing crops, whereas dialogue with the advertising staff has sparked an Optimus challenge the place there’s a collection of martech initiatives in flight, equivalent to standardising the agency’s client expertise platform, reviewing client knowledge platforms, and collaborating with start-up companions.

Seeripat says that BizTech staff engagement is among the many highest within the enterprise and has improved each six months since 2019, leading to a much bigger staff. BizTech is anticipated to develop from 54 to 80 individuals by the top of 2023 as properly, with new features for knowledge and analytics, structure, safety and the Microsoft Energy Platform.

“BizTech wasn’t simply phrases on paper,” says Seeripat. “It’s phrases, supported by supply, and supported by mindset, which has now created the platform the place the enterprise has the arrogance to speak to us in regards to the client or expertise.”

Enterprise transformation in flight

A collection of enterprise transformation programmes are actually underway at TwO. Program Optimus is a full revamp of the inner expertise platform, with S/4HANA on Rise on Microsoft Azure as its core, whereas Venture Unify sees Twinings Ovaltine tech groups modernise infrastructure, end-user compute, and safety by shifting from MPLS to SD-WAN. There’s additionally rising funding in automation, like Automation Anyplace, Energy Platform and Alteryx, with use circumstances rising in automating bill processing, gross sales validation, finance course of, P&L evaluation and claims administration.

Seeripat says that Optimus will set up new methods of working by establishing a collaboration hub for finance, provide chain and procurement, in addition to a standardised tech stack throughout 10 geographies, an information analytics platform, and a digital adoption device to extract worth. It’s about driving a data-driven decision-making tradition.

“The worth proposition I introduced to our CEO and CFO was that we may standardise our ERP to supply the spine for our enterprise whereas creating an integration layer and knowledge platform to allow the programs of differentiation and innovation,” he says.

One 12 months from now, Seeripat hopes to have improved back-end infrastructure, constructed out the BizTech staff, and have Optimus off the bottom. The answer is being applied now, and is anticipated to be accomplished in early 2025. “The primary goal is to guarantee that what we’ve executed, when it comes to fixing the fundamentals, is sustainable,” he says. “Since you lose all credibility in case you discuss all of the intelligent stuff, however can’t keep my community or laptop computer. To develop the enterprise is knowing extra worth we are able to convey to it. Delivering our first implementation for Optimus is complicated and bold, but it surely’s my number-one precedence.”