WORTEN
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
Worten: digitally transforming to boost agility IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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Worten: digitally transforming to boost agility WRITTEN BY
GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY
BEN MALTBY
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Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation at Worten, discusses the company’s digital transformation journey to becoming more agile and customer centric
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resh out of graduating from Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto with a degree in Electrical and System
Engineering, Felipe Ferreira started his career at Siemens Group as a Process Engineer for a semiconductor plant. “I left Siemens in 2001 to take an 04
MBA,” says Ferreira. “When I finished, I started working at SONAE (the holding company that owns Worten) roughly 18 years ago. Since 2017 I have been exclusively working at Worten, first as Head of Supply Chain, and by the end of 2018 I was invited to launch the Digital Transformation area. Describing Worten, Ferreira emphasises that the company’s vision is to be “a digital company, with physical stores and a human touch.” Worten’s objective is to expand the business, creating a distinctive value proposition, which starts with consumer electronics to serve the ever-changing consumers better and more comprehensively. “We are expanding our business into new territories of products and services and merging the best of the online and offline worlds, in the firm conviction that the near future will be omnichannel, rather than just
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digital,” he adds. “At Worten we believe that we can deliver business results around two ambitious ideas: that our brand is elastic enough to serve the consumers in more areas than just consumer electronics, sustaining their trust as we always did; and that the result of the merger of the digital world with the physical world can be much greater than the sum of its parts, especially if the human factor (emotional closeness, availability, personal attention, affinity) is maximised 06
as a differentiating factor.” Currently, Worten is going through
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Year founded
$1bn+ Revenue in US dollars
a major business transformation that will last for five years. As part of this strategy, “Worten is going to continue to grow online, invest in our marketplace and reinforce our omnichannel strategy,” explains Ferreira. “Another one of our priorities is to increase our product portfolio through the marketplace business model at Worten.pt and Worten. es, along with services that continue to
>1,500 Number of employees
grow year after year in a clear strategy of offering our customers more and more convenience. At the same time, we are transforming the company through the digital transformation program,
Worten Portugal: Take a technological leap CLICK TO WATCH
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from everyday life, to be a pleasant
In particular, Baringa has helped us in
space, and above all, to be a promoter
the discussion and conclusion of what
of collaboration, discussion and, con-
the new principles to guide us should
sequently, faster, higher quality results.
be and, mainly, in the identification and
We also created the slice and dice
guidance for the implementation of the
methodology, which divides a big prob-
first 2 key moments, or in other words,
lem into minor ones, up to the point
in the moments that have the most
of finding the actionable unit that we
impact on our customers.”
then act extremely quickly on.” Since
At the moment, Worten’s strategy
adopting this digital and agile approach
is to promote the digital culture, work-
Ferreira has seen huge benefits.
ing on the organisational aspects
“The first is that we are improving
and working methodologies of the
our customers’ experience since the
company. “We opened our digitalism
entire approach to finding the right
hub last June, to be a different space
solutions is focused on them. w w w.wor ten . p t
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The second is that we are much quicker
Covid crisis. We had no setup time to
to act and deliver results with decisions
start working remotely because we’re
that are supported by data, helping us
used to collaborative tools and we could
to prioritise, act and then control imple-
launch several initiatives and services
mentation. Finally, we have created a
to adjust our offer to new market condi-
safety net for our teams so, if they fail
tions in less than three weeks.”
the “safety net” for our teams, if they
In addition to driving improved agility
fail there is no problem as they learn
within its operations, Worten is also look-
quickly from the error and try again
ing to change its operating structure.
with greater probability of success.
“It is going to be an iterative process so,
“Our efforts to kick off and promote
as we grow, we will realise what adjust-
this new mindset and way of working
ments we have to make to the model
in 2019 paid off since it is having a huge
so that more and more people are
impact on the way we reacted to the
involved, not least because we believe
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :
Felipe Ferreira
Title: Head of Digital Transformation Company: Worten Location: Portugal
it is the winning model. But we are more pragmatic than dogmatic, which means that there may be situations where this formula is not the most appropriate and there is no harm in keeping another one if that is the most effective way,” says Ferreira. Another key part of Worten’s
Felipe Ferreira is Head of Digital Transformation at Worten, a program which he has led from its inception. With more than 15 years of professional experience in the retail industry, over the last years Felipe managed the logistics operations of Sonae Specialised Retail and led many large and complex projects in the context of the Sonae Group. Felipe studied Systems and Electronics Engineering and took his MBA in 2002.
strategy is the redesign of the system architecture and the way its IT is organised and relates to the rest of the organisation. In fact, Ferreira explains that evolution at Worten “involves a lot of technology ‘entering’ the organisation and being part of the way Worten works.” w w w.wor ten . p t
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“We had no setup time to start working remotely because we’re used to collaborative tools and we could launch several initiatives and new services to adjust our offer to the new market conditions in less than three weeks!” — Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation, Worten
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Currently within the organisation, Rui Cohen, Head of IT at Worten explains the company’s use of business intelligence, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technology. “We strongly believe that data and analytics will become one of the most important factors for future business competitiveness and success. We envision a fully integrated and unified data platform based on an open architecture that is capable of ingesting, processing and correlating large
Digital transformation. It’s not just about new technology or the latest in AI solutions. It’s about completely – and strategically – rethinking your business. It means bringing a digital vision to everything you do: from transforming your operating model to deliver profitable growth, to reshaping your supply chain to meet customers’ changing needs. At Baringa, we have helped countless businesses like Worten shape their transformation journeys, supporting them in the moments that matter, and ultimately enabling them to balance the need to deliver innovation and excellence with the cost of doing so. Not sure where to start your digital transformation journey? We can help.
www.baringa.com
E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :
Rui Cohen Title: Head of Technology Company: Worten Location: Portugal
“ Undoubtedly, I believe our people are our greatest strength because, besides having great know-how, they also have a great sense of belonging to the organisation and love to overcome the challenges they face” — Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation, Worten
Rui has over 25 years of IT experience working mostly in internet, media, telco and retail industries. Back in 1995 he was one of the founders of the most successful Portuguese ISP that, in 1999, was bought by the telco branch of Sonae Group. Since then, he has been leading several IT structures within Sonae Group covering areas such as strategy, architecture design, infrastructure management, IT operations, service delivery, security and IT office. Rui graduated in computer science and information systems at the school of engineering of lisbon university (1ST) where he has also finished, in 1993, his degree in Master of Science in Computer Science and Information Systems.
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“ We are transforming the company through the digital transformation program, which Baringa has helped us to design” — Felipe Ferreira, Head of Digital Transformation, Worten
volumes of structured and unstructured data sets from multiple lines of business and operational sources, both in batch and in real-time, from internal and external sources. At the core of our transformational architecture initiative seats such a platform that will help us reinforce our customer centric and omnichannel strategy and reimagine the whole store experience,” comments Cohen. “Another IT principle at the core of our transformation is to adopt a cloudfirst approach, meaning that wherever possible and economically reasonable
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we will adopt cloud and SaaS solutions
culture and systems. “Undoubtedly,
to enhance speed, agility and innova-
I believe our people are our greatest
tion. In addition to these core principles,
strength because, besides having
Worten is also trailing the use of AI,
great know-how, they also have a great
machine learning, natural language
sense of belonging to the organisation
processing and IoT and we will ensure
and love to overcome the challenges
we deploy them in an ethical and trust-
they face. That has helped us to build
worthy way,” adds Cohen.
a brand of trust that has been recog-
Reflecting on his time at the com-
nised by our customers for over 20
pany so far, Ferreira has seen Worten
years, and that will be the pillar of our
make rapid changes in three key areas:
transformation to assure the next 20.”
increased product and services offerings, increased focus on customer experience and transforming its w w w.wor ten . p t
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