{"id":1956,"date":"2018-10-12T19:30:35","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T18:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conteudos.xl.pt\/altri-news\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2020-05-21T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T16:20:08","slug":"a-simplex-for-altri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/conteudos.xl.pt\/altri-news\/en\/a-simplex-for-altri\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simplex for Altri","raw":"A Simplex for Altri"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European paper and cellulose industry has followed very closely in the footsteps of the three main stages of industrial manufacture since the 18th<\/sup> Century. From incorporating steam-generated power to electricity, and including the progressive integration of automation and information technologies, the paper industry is now poised to accept the challenges of Industry 4.0.<\/p>\n

The new challenges presented by this digital revolution revolve around massive amounts of data (big data<\/em>), connection capacity throughout the value chain in real time (Internet of Things) and the existence of smart factories.<\/p>\n

Miguel Coelho took on the role of director of Information Technologies (IT) for the Altri Group in February. The path he has set out for the company includes ensuring technological equilibrium between all its factories, by identifying which one has the best practices in each system or process and then replicating them in all the other factories, where applicable.<\/p>\n

With regard to IT, there is only one direction to follow: consolidating systems, processes and applications in order to reduce the risk of having outdated factory units. All Altri factories will thus be able to benefit from a common corporate architecture. This will enable local teams to spend more time supporting business areas in seeking solutions to meet new challenges, rather than spending time on problems relating to capacity, availability or technological obsolescence.<\/p>\n

When we spoke to Miguel Coelho he told us all about the technological vision he intends to implement throughout the Altri Group and the challenges Altri\u2019s IT department will be faced with going forward. We went to meet him and here\u2019s how it went.<\/p>\n

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\nWhat are the main challenges currently facing Altri?<\/strong>
\nToday\u2019s world is faced with multiple challenges, and Altri is no exception. Climate changes, structural demographic changes and a lack of resources all affect industry transversally and globally. At the same time, competition from other parts of the world has increased, forcing companies continuously to become increasingly efficient and competitive. This puts pressure on regions with higher production costs.<\/p>\n
\nWhat role do information systems play in responding to these challenges?<\/strong>
\nRisks arising from low-quality information are unacceptable. The amount of information increases exponentially from suppliers, production information systems, customers and regulators. The Altri Group must build good \u201cinformation intelligence\u201d practices, using existing data analysis technologies based on machine learning, for example. This information will enable us to anticipate warnings of potential threats or identify potential business opportunities.<\/p>\n

Once filtered and correlated, the information gathered will thus maximise its value, and good data intelligence practices will help to ensure that other digital transformation initiatives are successful. This is a vital role that information systems must play: reliability and availability of information.<\/p>\n

\nWhat\u2019s the mission of the Altri Group\u2019s Information Technologies department?<\/strong>
\nOur mission revolves around being a strategic partner for the various different business areas. Although the very function of IT has changed over the last two decades, I feel we are already considered an irreplaceable partner in seeking and implementing new solutions for the ever-growing challenges facing each area.<\/p>\n
\nWho do you report to at Altri?<\/strong>
\nThe IT Management reports directly to Nogueira Santos, who heads up the Altri Group\u2019s administration, financial and shared services area.<\/p>\n
\nHow many people work in the information systems area?<\/strong>
\nThere are 13 employees in our area, spread out amongst the group\u2019s various different sites, albeit all united in one goal: to provide an excellent service to our domestic customers. If we contribute towards ensuring our domestic customers\u2019 satisfaction then we feel we are also contributing towards the Group\u2019s success and towards achieving the goals it has set for itself.<\/p>\n
\nHow many outsourced partners do you have?<\/strong>
\nOur strategy involves maintaining strong and lasting partnerships with companies which are technologically innovative, visionary and socially responsible such as SAP, IBM and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

Our internal services are complemented by the more specialist services provided by Roff (SAP), IBM (Maximo), Claranet (data centre and security systems), Cilnet (networks), Inflor (SGF) and a local partner which maintains some satellite systems (for raw materials management).<\/p>\n

For communication technologies, our partner is Meo, which supports our entire (fixed and mobile) data and voice network. We are nevertheless always open to establishing new partnerships which add value to our operation and which bring innovative solutions to the table.<\/p>\n

\nOn average, how many information systems projects does Altri develop every year?<\/strong>
\nAs well as the improvements we are constantly making to all our local or corporate information systems, Altri is currently developing around six projects every year.<\/p>\n
\"Miguel
Miguel Coelho, Altri\u2019s director of Information Technologies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\nWhat\u2019s the average duration of those six projects and how many people, on average, are allocated to each one?<\/strong>
\nThe length and number of people allocated is always dependent upon the scope of the project. One of the last SAP projects took 18 months and required a team of 10 people (both internal and external). Nevertheless, our overarching concern is always to ensure we are delivering quality with our information technologies, in line with constantly-changing business requirements. Lengthy projects also entail higher risks, so we always have to be very careful in setting out the best strategy to achieve the goals stipulated for each project.<\/p>\n
\nOn average, how many projects do you have on the go at any given time?<\/strong>
\nIn order to ensure efficient project management and to achieve the goals set out (in terms of scope, time and cost), we can\u2019t really have more than two projects underway simultaneously.<\/p>\n
\nWhat\u2019s the department\u2019s annual budget?<\/strong>
\nOur budget is almost 1.5 million euros.<\/p>\n
\nWhat were the last three IT projects you undertook?\u00a0<\/strong>Can you explain what you had to do for each project and what was the purpose of each initiative?<\/strong>
\nIn terms of application, we saw a major SAP project Go Live throughout the Group in 2017, which was aimed at integrating our logistical processes into the corporate ERP, and the Forest Management System also went live. We increased the robustness, efficiency and reliability of the company information system. We also implemented Maximo at Caima, thereby consolidating the maintenance processes of the three factories into a single system. As regards IT infrastructures, we also executed the Office 365 project and migrated the company email to the cloud. Finally, in terms of security, we implemented a new corporate system, on all the group\u2019s sites (large and small) which includes a firewall, VPN and proxy. These are just some of the examples of diverse projects with successful results, which demonstrate the excellence of the work performed by our IT team.<\/p>\n
\nWhich IT projects are you currently developing?<\/strong>
\nThere are several. For example, we are currently developing the bases for implementing the MOPS system at Caima, in a project which incorporates elements of the corporate IT, local IT and elements of the operation. We are also finishing up an FSC timber credit management project common to the entire group, developed on SAP.<\/p>\n

In order to guarantee the quality of future projects on SAP, Maximo or SGF we have also updated the QAS environments of these three applications. This was managed by our team and executed simultaneously by three geographically distant companies (Lisbon, Porto and Brazil).<\/p>\n

We are also actively participating in the GDPR project together with the Legal Department. Basically, we are working on several fronts, on projects which can be considered more business-related than technological.<\/p>\n

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