LONDON, January 11, 2022 — Public and private sector organizations in Europe and Central Asia will invest almost $1 trillion in information technology in 2021, with COVID-19 accelerating the need to realize the full benefits of such critical investments in technology. Organizations that will succeed in the next normal are those that embrace technology innovation to deliver on economic and societal purpose; develop resilience against short-term shocks and long-term stresses; reimagine their business; master intelligence, operations, and experiences; and open up to dynamic ecosystems (PRIME).

This first edition of the IDC Europe and Central Asia Industry Insights Awards reviewed 30 candidate initiatives across 12 countries to recognize truly groundbreaking and transformative projects that will PRIME the future of industries.

The awards cover four categories: the future of personal mobility, the future of shopping, the future of things, and the future of well-being.

The future of personal mobility category included technology-driven initiatives that are making convenient, affordable, safe, and environmentally sustainable mobility possible.

The category included initiatives carried out by automotive manufacturers, mobility-as-a-service companies, public and private passenger transportation operators (such as railways, airlines, and public transit), academia and research organizations, and city transportation departments.

Three initiatives were shortlisted in this category:

• Dutch National Railways NS Flex, an account-based ticketing platform that offers transparent pricing and payments across train, bus, tram, and metro

• The city of Vaasa, which engaged residents to produce video data on the city's street and cycle networks

• MICHELIN DDI, a start-up organization within the Michelin Group, which is the initiator and animator of the Better Driving Community

And the winner is: MICHELIN DDI. With this initiative, MICHELIN DDI has joined forces with four industry partners to offer complementary mobility expertise and make roads safer. The industry partners are Colas, for transport infrastructure services; BNP Paribas Cardif, as the insurer; TotalEnergies, for mobility services and energies; and CGI, as the technology partner.

"The Better Driving Community is structured around the full potential of an ecosystem approach to accelerate innovation and achieve breakthroughs. It has gathered a community of partners with Colas, BNP Paribas Cardif, CGI, and TotalEnergies and their data scientists to work in an open environment to gain a better understanding of driver habits and behavior and to develop solutions collaboratively, away from the silo mentality." Sophie Foucque, CEO MICHELIN DDI and New Data Business Director

The future of shopping category included technology-driven initiatives that innovate the shopping experience by blurring the lines of physical and digital and create a trusted, holistic, real-time, ingenious, valued, and effortless shopping experience for customers and consumers.

The category included initiatives carried out by retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers.

Three initiatives were shortlisted in this category:

• Outletcity Metzingen, which invested in new IT infrastructure and applications to roll out future shopper engagement services

• Casino Group & Monop, which introduced "Black Box," the first unstaffed, checkout-free store in Europe

• H&M, which introduced Looop, a recycling machine to turn old garments into new ones in just eight steps to sensitize customers to the possibilities of recycling

And the winner is: H&M.

"The purpose of Looop is not to recycle garments on an industrial scale, but to show how textile recycling works, and to sensitize customers to recycling old clothing as part of H&M Group's ambition to become fully circular and climate positive by 2040."

The future of things category included technology-driven initiatives that push the boundaries of what manufacturing can achieve, blending physical with digital, creating connected, omni-available, recyclable-rematerialized-reusable, and experiential things from concept to commerce all the way to disposal.

The category included initiatives carried out by designers, manufacturers, operators, and service providers that design, build, operate, and/or maintain "things."

Three initiatives were shortlisted in this category:

• Rice Exchange, which partnered with Fujitsu to bring to market a global digital platform running on blockchain technology designed to buy and sell rice

• Skjern Paper, which manufactures 75,000 tons of paper and board products each year from 100% recycled fiber, partnered with GE Digital to implement an industrial advanced analytics platform to predict and optimize process performance

• AB InBev, which partnered with Fujitsu and SettleMint to launch a pilot to use blockchain technology to give full transparency and traceability in its supply chain of barley and production processes, from consumers back to the farm

And the winner is: AB InBev.

"At scale, the data collected will not only provide a fully end-to-end view of the supply chain to consumers and suppliers, but can also help to advance agricultural development and support the achievement of sustainability goals: improving growers' yields and water and energy efficiency, as well as soil health."

The future of well-being category included technology-driven initiatives built around purpose, respect, inclusiveness, mastery, and efficiency.

The category included initiatives carried out by hospitals, public health authorities, health insurance providers, community care centers, nursing homes, academia and research organizations, and life science companies.

Three initiatives were shortlisted in this category:

• The Machine Learning Ledger Orchestration for Drug Discovery (MELLODDY), a three-year EU-supported project which brings together European life sciences, research, and technology partners to establish a blockchain-enabled, privacy-preserving machine-learning platform that enables a new model of cross-company collaboration in drug discovery

• Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria (L&SC), which used technology like cloud and AI to support an integrated ecosystem of eight Clinical Commissioning Groups, five acute hospitals and community trusts and local councils

• NHS National Services Scotland, which in partnership with ServiceNow, Capgemini, Atos, and KPMG deployed a platform to scale a new citizen portal to enable easy, 24 x 7 self-service, and manage personal protective equipment for citizens and staff, the test and protect contact tracing system, and vaccine administration

And the winner is: NHS National Services Scotland.

"Very early on, NHS National Services Scotland leadership recognized that its existing legacy systems and processes needed to drastically change to be able to deliver what was desperately needed by both citizens and the Scottish government. A rapid decision was then taken to adopt a new strategy — a radical, citizen-centric, data-driven, and agile-based approach, leveraging the latest cloud-based technology."

IDC assembled a highly experienced team of expert judges for the awards:

• Roberta Bigliani — Group Vice President, Head of IDC Industry Insights and IDC Future of Work, IDC Europe
• Nino Giguashvili — Research Manager, IDC Health Insights, IDC Europe
• Jan Burian — Head of IDC Manufacturing Insights, IDC Europe
• Joe Dignan — Head of IDC Government Insights, IDC Europe
• Max Claps — Research Director, IDC Government Insights, IDC Europe
• Filippo Battaini — Research Manager, IDC Retail Insights, IDC Europe
• Rod Hills — Business Development Director, IDC Insights Europe

"Running the first edition of IDC's Europe and Central Asia Industry Insights Awards has been a major team effort, and a huge privilege," said Max Claps, who led the awards program. "We have encountered interesting applications of emerging technologies, such as IoT and machine learning, to make a real, scalable impact on the future of mobility, shopping, things, and well-being."

Coverage