The LAB Mediterráneo Foundation today organised an informative session, in collaboration with the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), in which business experiences in the field of digitalisation were presented.
-The President of the APV assures that “the Port has a role to play in the unlimited opening to innovation”.
-Valenciaport is currently working on more than 40 European R+D+i projects.
he president of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV), Aurelio Martínez, has indicated that “Valenciaport wants to continue to promote and grow, together with the city and the port community, with the Valencian innovative ecosystem, in this vision of unlimited society. The port, as the gateway which it has been in the past to the winds of change, innovation and wealth, must once again play a role in this limitless openness to innovation”.
“The ports, as well as being a gateway for the entry and exit of goods, are also dynamisers of the logistic-port community, and it is up to us to promote innovative and value-added services. We are an ambidextrous port, which has managed to attract the main national and international clients through a vocation for operational excellence but also through a firm commitment to innovation”, said the president of the PAV, who highlighted some examples such as “the development of one of the first Port Community Systems in the world, which continues to be a key element of our competitiveness, or the creation of the Valenciaport Foundation, which has become an international reference in innovation projects in the maritime sector. Currently, the PAV has more than 40 open European R&D&I projects”.
Aurelio Martínez took part in a conference on digital transformation organised by the LAB Foundation, a project created by the Valencian Business Association (AVE), in collaboration with the PAV. At the opening, the president of the PAV also pointed out that “the Spanish port system, through the 4.0 Fund, is helping people or companies, mainly start-ups, who have good ideas and projects, to develop them in order to continue capitalising on innovation as a lever for the development of our ports”. During his speech, he also highlighted projects such as the new north container terminal or the new passenger terminal for their very high degree of digitisation or management of renewable energies, or the launch in 2019, together with the EIT Climate KIC, of the Superlab Ports, the first innovation centre in the fight against climate change in the European maritime port sector.
Fundación LAB, challenges of digital transformation
Héctor Dominguis, CEO of GDES and vice-president of Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, presented the main challenges of digital transformation and pointed out that “digitalisation is linked to competitiveness, business growth, wealth and social welfare. That is why at AVE, through Fundación LAB Mediterráneo, we are taking on the challenge of digitalisation as a strategic line,” said the member of AVE’s Board of Directors.
“The avalanche of new technologies that are invading our lives is inevitable, no one will be able to escape this change, and we have no choice but to adapt. But what is more, all this technology generates massive amounts of information and the way we manage it will be the key to the success of our companies, our society and even our personal lives”, Dominguis pointed out.
Under the question “Digitising without transforming”, Fran Chuan, entrepreneur and expert in leadership and culture of transformation and innovation, stressed in his speech that “digital transformation is 90% transformation and 10% digital” and that the difficulties linked to this process “are not in the technology, but in our mindsets”.
Vicente Bielza, Head of Operations at Repsol Renovables, highlighted the company’s commitment to low-carbon generation, “with very ambitious installed capacity targets for the coming years” and pointed out that, given this growth forecast, “digitalisation is key to being able to exploit and operate these assets efficiently and profitably”. In this regard, he also valued Repsol’s investment in “the most advanced systems and technical platforms, such as the new control centre, which will enable the centralised acquisition and processing of data for the remote exploitation, operation and maintenance of all the plants”.
This was followed by a round table discussion on business experiences in digital transformation, moderated by Alberto Conde, CEO and founding partner of Xabet/Grupo Dominguis, who stressed that “any digital transformation process has three pillars: strategy, culture and technology, and if there is no balance between them, the initiative is not usually transformative”.
For Manuel Boggiero, Chief Digital Transformation Manager at Grupo Romeu, “digital transformation is an inevitable process in which people co-create the company of tomorrow and technology accelerates this process”. “Our goal as a transformation team is to work so that we don’t have to exist tomorrow,” he said, warning that “technological efficiency without the creation of future value is the guarantee of imminent disappearance and the generation of a business innovation machine is a challenge for people”.
According to the CEO of Cleanity, Mariam Burdeos, in 2014 they began this process with the digitisation of their operations and, “today, one of the main strategic lines transversal to all business units is digitisation, key to achieving servitisation in our business model”. “If we dedicate resources to be more digital, we will make a sector as important as industrial hygiene increasingly efficient,” he stressed.
In his speech, Pablo Lamsfus, director of the Horeca channel at Ice Cream Factory Comaker (ICFC), indicated that “the world of mass consumption has become highly competitive and to remain a relevant and profitable company over time, you have to be very efficient on a consistent basis”. In their case, they are committed to “standardising operations as much as possible and focusing on key indicators to detect malfunctions before a breakdown occurs” and digitalisation allows them to focus “in an executive, fast and efficient way where intervention by the industrial team is required”.
According to César Rodríguez, director of digital operations at Baleària, “digital transformation, together with sustainability, is one of the strategic pillars for the company’s eco-efficient growth”, with initiatives such as “the development of Smart ships such as the Eleanor Roosvelt, the world’s first fast ferry powered by dual natural gas engines”, or participation in the European Union’s Green and Connected Ports project, which includes the “installation of sensors on ships to monitor real-time data on fuel consumption and fleet emissions, and thus make decision-making more efficient and effective”.
LAB Mediterráneo Foundation
Fundación LAB Mediterráneo is a project created by AVE with the mission of positioning the Valencian Region as a national and European benchmark in entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and research. Its objectives are to promote the creation and attraction of technology start-ups; to work to attract national and international technology companies to set up in the Region and create a ‘tractor effect’; to promote support for companies in non-technological sectors in the Region to accelerate their digital transformation; to contribute to increasing private investment in innovation and R&D and to help boost research.