Sprimoglass has only just emerged from a cyberattack, but views the digital future with hunger and ambition. An enthusiastic IT team is tinkering with solutions that support production for a chunk of on-premises, while the Salesforce ecosystem is crucial for streamlining business processes and AI ambitions.
Sprimoglass transforms and installs glass. To efficiently support those activities, the company has specific IT needs. In fact, they are so specific that Sprimoglass today sells some internally developed solutions through a separate entity called Synerglass. For most of its needs, however, the organization relies on existing solutions. Currently, the digitalization process revolves around the further rollout and optimization of Salesforce.
Salesforce has already proven itself in part with the company, which fell victim to a cyberattack earlier this year. The SaaS solution helped ensure that Sprimoglass could quickly resume commercial operations and customer data remained secure.
What are the priorities of Sprimoglass’ IT team today? ITdaily talks on the fringes of Dreamforce not only with CIO Peter Cuypers (pictured), but also Enterprise Architect Pierre Mathieu about the goals and challenges of the glass company’s digital transformation.
What does the IT environment you are responsible for look like?
Cuypers: “The Sprimo group is a large company with many facets. Our company has a total of nine sites. Sprimoglass has two sites that focus on production, Synerglass is the software company where we develop our own customized solutions. Then there is SprimoInstall, which is responsible for glass placement. For this we have six installation hubs, because it is important to be as close to the customer as possible.”
“At all those locations, I am responsible for the IT environment. Along the hardware side, it consists of laptops, VDI and plant control, among other things. Then there are the tools, such as Google Workspace. Then there are software platforms that help optimize sales and customer experiences, as well as solutions that support the various departments in production And finally, there are applications that allow us to develop the necessary analytical capabilities to support all departments in their decision-making. All of these infrastructure and application environments work together in an integrated way using Mulesoft.”
Mathieu: “Customers and users need secure access to Web applications such as Salesforce. So we are also responsible for networking, switching, segmentation and security.”
What are the main priorities right now?
Cuypers: “When I started in my role as CIO, we mapped out the entire application landscape and all business processes. Right now, we use that information to work out our path forward. If we encounter a problem in an application, we take a step back. We look at the process, and start from there.”
“For our installation department SprimoInstall, we aligned Salesforce with the processes. SprimoInstall worked entirely on paper, and has now gone paperless. The next step for SprimoInstall is to set up Service Cloud for sophisticated centralization of all customer requests.”
“Sprimoglass is following the same modus operandi to further customize the systems to meet customer needs. We are also currently evaluating the Commerce Cloud and are excited to test this solution.”
Does the business sufficiently understand the IT challenges?
Cuypers: “On the one hand, the business certainly has a lot of confidence in us. On the other hand, it is also important to keep the business informed and regularly update them on further developments.”
“For projects, we always try to involve all stakeholders besides myself. That way we always combine the technology perspective with insights from the business side.”
“We are further fortunate that our CEO is very IT literate. I realize that is an exception. He is a big proponent of Salesforce solutions and is a driving force behind our presence in the ecosystem. We’re using Mulesoft for integrations, Tableau for decision support, Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, and we’re looking at Commerce Cloud as mentioned.”
Does the CIO organization have access to sufficient people and resources?
Cuypers: “In general, we have no major problems with this. The executive committee sees the added value of digitization and we get positive feedback from our customers. Moreover, when we want to scale faster, we look primarily to partners.”
The executive committee sees the added value of digitization.
Peter Cuypers, CIO Sprimoglass
Is the future of Sprimoglass’ IT environment in the cloud, on-premises or a combination?
Mathieu: “We migrated servers from the cloud to on-premises. In the end, that option turned out to be cheaper for certain workloads. For the factory, the cloud is impossible anyway, so we also handle on-premises infrastructure. With the Salesforce ecosystem, we do embrace the cloud. For such applications, the cloud is perfect.”
Cuypers: “The factory has to keep running, even if there is a problem with the connection. A hybrid infrastructure is then the only solution. Performance-sensitive things we run locally, but others together in the cloud. In some cases, such as for Salesforce, we rely entirely on SaaS.
What impact do regulations such as NIS2 have on policy?
Cuypers: “NIS2 is a fantastic initiative. If you look at the volume of attacks today, you can only conclude that a huge amount of companies are falling victim to hackers. Belgium is being hit financially. The impact on companies and the government is really big and NIS2 finally gives some direction. The regulations are necessary and it is good that they are mandatory.”
Mathieu: “We ourselves fell victim to a cyber attack some time ago and then we were caught in speed. All the necessary measures were already on the roadmap but we had not yet implemented them. In the meantime, we contracted a SOC service. For this we partnered with Easi. In this context, we also included Darktrace and Sentinel One to protect our networks and assets.”
“We also have a comprehensive backup strategy, including secure backup in the cloud. During the attack, our internal backup was also hit, but not the one in the cloud. You can’t just delete anything from that.”
About two weeks after the attack, part of our production was already running back in a limited mode.
Pierre Mathieu, Enterprise Architect Sprimoglass
Cuypers: “About two weeks after the attack, part of our production was already running back in a restricted mode. We then had to restart, but in the right order so that the right orders were completed first. That went, because all customer requestsvia Salesforce are safely in the cloud. “
How is Sprimoglass handling the AI hype?
Cuypers: “We are currently looking at the added value that AI can bring us. For recording employee hours, we have already worked out a system ourselves with computer vision.”
“Salesforce is on the program. Two years ago, Salesforce launched the Data Cloud. Back then we were waiting for a clear added value. With the introduction of Agentforce, things are getting really interesting. Also Tableau Pulse, which is driven by AI, our sales people find very interesting.”
“We are going to start with a small pilot project and see what it gives. We have a lot of interest in moving forward with Salesforce AI agents.”
What are the main plans and challenges for the near future?
Cuypers: “Further improving the digital experience of our customers and suppliers is our main focus, such as implementing a state-of-the-art customer portal and web shop. We also want to simplify our communication strategy. We have too much. Slack is an interesting solution, but right now we can’t connect external phone capabilities to it. If we were to switch to Slack, that would be one more solution. When we can connect the tool to the telephony system, though, that opens up possibilities.”