Trust and the "new digital"

We have experienced three centuries of globalization driven by technologies from the steam engine to quantum chip. Since the 1990s we have lived in the digital age: the internet, smart phones and social media created digital value chains, and during this time, our economy has globalized. The rise of China, India and ASEAN for low-cost manufacturing and outsourcing.?Today, more than two-thirds of global products and services are the result of a global value chain. The Internet and globalization have made the world a smaller place. Silicon Valley has been the key player in digitalizing the global economy.

Fragmentation

Even before the pandemic, our digital-driven globalized economy was showing signs of cracking under the strain. Consumers were questioning how social media companies were using their data: internet companies were tracking people, governments were building barriers to trade and the free flow of data, cybercriminals were better armed than cyberdefense, and nationalist politics, regional conflicts and mass migration are making governments put a brake on global trade and free flow of money & data – the rise of data sovereignty

Rocket fuel

The pandemic accelerated all these trends, Because we could rapidly shift from physical to digital, we have survived the pandemic. Remote workers went from a being a minority to the entire workforce

In Feb 2020, Maersk had the capacity for around 4,000 people to work remotely. In March 2020, we made it possible for 44,000 to work remotely. We helped hundreds of customers do this.

Digitization of customer interactions accelerated by several years. According to McKinsey, 58% of customer interactions are now digital – triple what they were three years ago. Even in the face of a global recessions, enterprises accelerated their digital transformation plans – spending more on technology than the previous year, while the rest of the business was belt tightening.

On the road to the new digital, we stand at a crossroads. Customers want more digital products and services but are concerned how suppliers (and their partners) use their data. Employees want to work from home when it suits them, but want a rich collaborative, supportive environment in which to work.

Customers want companies to be more ethical and sustainable – to put purpose ahead of profits, and that’s what we want…to create products and services that have less environmental impact in their production, use and disposal

Digital tools promise a tantalizing future where businesses can create digitally-enabled services that are genuinely personalized, optimized, with less waste. The new digital will be built on trust.

Four dimensions to trust

The New Digital is built on trusted relationships with consumers, with partners & suppliers, with employees and the communities we operate in.

Four areas where we can reinforce trust:

1. Capabilities: how you work and how you make what you make. Whether your company can create quality products, services?and?experiences, all enabled by trusted data insights.
2. ?Reliability: whether your organization reliably delivers on the promises you make to your customers, suppliers, employees and partners
3. Humanity: using empathy and kindness towards people and treating everyone fairly. That extends to ensuring data and AI are used ethically and putting the building blocks in place to combat any potential bias.
4. Transparency: be clear about what data you store, how you store it, and what you use it for. You also need to give customers the right to have their data deleted.

We work hard to gain and build trust, but it can be lost in a moment. As Warren Buffet said, “trust is like the air we breathe - when it’s present, nobody really notices. When it’s absent, everyone notices.” Let me discuss three areas where trust can be won or lost.

Workplace reinvented

Work has become something you do rather than a place you go. Even roles that couldn’t be performed remotely before. We created a “virtual surgery” the UK’s national health service (NHS).?This allowed doctors and primary care workers to access patient data on their own devices, while in isolation from their?clinics, without the need for expensive VPN connections or buying new hardware

Research shows that remote working improves productivity and will bring lasting economic gains. A study of 87,000 business leaders found three things form the foundation for workplace trust: positive relationships, good judgment/expertise, and consistency. So the new workspace – in the office, at home, on the move – requires integrated, seamless digital experiences.

Smart & green : a fantastic duo

Sustainability and corporate purpose are now a priority when people consider whom to buy from or what company they want to work for. By 2025, millennials will make up 3/4 of the workforce:

• 83% will be more loyal to an employer who helps them contribute to social and environmental issues.

ESG commitment also translates into better financial results. Digital technologies help companies meet their net-zero targets and have ethical supply chains. Smart manufacturing with predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization and resource management – will make industry more efficient.

?IoT monitoring will help us understand what our outputs are, and AI will help us to reduce them.?We can then demonstrate to our employees, to shareholders and the public that we are part of the solution rather than part of the problem

Orange Engage 2025: committed to being a net-zero company by 2040: reducing energy use in our buildings and transport systems. Deploying the largest car-sharing fleet in Europe with 2,540 hybrid and electric cars. Deployed a videoconferencing solution at our new EMEA headquarters that will help us reduce travel by 25% by the end of 2021

The New Digital is built on trusted infrastructure: trusted cloud, trusted connectivity and trusted security. Many of our customers are the global leaders in their fields. They need a trusted digital infrastructure which is localised, relevant, compliant, secure.

Infrastructure: the foundations of trust

Trusted connectivity

Connectivity needs to be resilient. Trusted connectivity for employees to their “virtual workspace” and cloud-based applications, which may be residing in another continent. These connectivity platforms need to be trusted infrastructure platforms as your data is transported across countries, stored in datacenters, and multi-cloud environments etc. We are the global leader in trusted B2B connectivity with global partnerships with hyperscalers (Google, MS, Amazon) and feet on the ground, all over the world. In sensitive locations, like Russia, we are the only licensed foreign operator

Trusted cloud

Today only 20% of the application estate of enterprises is cloud-based. By 2025, this is going to be more than 80%. These larger sets of data need to be structured and organized.

Your multicloud strategy depends on: geography (which digital ecosystem you are in), regulatory requirements (e.g. GDPR, financial industry), the coding/softwarization needs (public cloud, container etc.), the content of the data (sovereign, less critical) and the contractual flexibility a company wants to apply with a cloud service provider.

We have worked with Microsoft & Cap Gemini to create a hyperscale French cloud for Azure and 365, which is 100% governed by European jurisdictions

Trusted security

The pandemic has accelerated digital transformation but at the same time multiplied security threats.?More remote workers mean more potential points of vulnerability.

Orange Cyberdefense found that 40% of companies were hit with a ransomware attack, and the average cyber ransom payment tripled to over $300,000 in 2020.?Enterprises experienced on average 278 security incidents in 2020. There were more than 10bn records breached in 2020.

Consumer trust in data is being eroded: 55% of consumers believe companies are not doing enough to protect their personal information, and 48% expect to be the victim of a data breach in the future. Trust is a frequently-used word in cybersecurity.

It speaks to your reputation with your customers. Are they confident their data is safe with you? Do you trust who and what is connected to your network? Do you trust that your organization is not exposed to unnecessary risks and leaving weak points?

Restoring trust to security.?Zero-trust network access (ZTNA) - more suited to the modern environment, supports the hybrid workplace and protects people, devices, apps and data wherever it is located. Threat intelligence - by collecting, processing and analyzing data to understand an attacker’s motives and behaviors, you can make yourself better prepared to deal with it

As a network-native digital services company, our purpose is to provide our global customers with a trusted infrastructure including cloud, connectivity and cyberdefense. We provide the trusted foundation upon which the New Digital is built.

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