Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 20 | Page 8

NEWS Volkswagen Group España Distribución selects Cognizant for Digital Transformation Couchbase more than doubles footprint in Manchester with new state- of-the-art facility C ognizant has been selected by Volkswagen Group España Distribución in Spain to enhance customer and partner experience and improve business processes as part of a company-wide Digital Transformation programme. Barcelona-based Volkswagen Group España Distribución is the distributor of vehicles, customer care services, spare parts and accessories, as well as mobility solutions, for Volkswagen, Audi, ŠKODA and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. Two initiatives were designed and implemented by Cognizant experts on the Salesforce Platform. The new platform will automate and streamline fleet sales management processes and improve the customer contact centre user experience. The initiatives centralise data in the cloud to provide fleet sales and services management with real-time access from anywhere, and enable greater levels of business automation, insight and decision-making. “We chose Cognizant because its Salesforce practice has a proven track record of planning and delivering complex, international projects involving multiple systems, data integration and associated change management processes,” said Miguel Ángel Iglesias, CIO at Volkswagen Group España Distribución. “As part of our ongoing strategy to accelerate growth in our international business, Cognizant continues to invest in key partnerships, including Salesforce.com. Our European Customer Success Center in Barcelona provides us with the perfect vehicle to support our clients across the region in making their Digital Transformation a success,” said Santosh Thomas, President, Global Growth Markets, Cognizant. 8 INTELLIGENTCIO The company aims to help businesses accelerate their application innovation C ouchbase, has announced the opening of its new facility in Manchester, UK. Couchbase, recognised by Forbes as one of the next billion- dollar startups due to strong growth and future potential, has chosen to expand its presence in the city to meet the growing demand for its enterprise- class multi-cloud NoSQL database in the EMEA region. our presence in the city six years ago and our continued connection with local universities is a vital part of the decision to set up our EMEA engineering and support hub in the city.” The new office, located in the Northern Quarter, will accommodate up to 80 members of Couchbase’s engineering and support teams that will help enterprises such as Tesco, BT and Sky accelerate the innovation of their enterprise-critical applications. The company has also been an active participant in the Northern Quarter’s ongoing development as a hub for technology companies. “Manchester is quite simply a fantastic place to do business,” commented Huw Owen, Vice President of EMEA and APJ at Couchbase. “The city is the beating heart of the Northern powerhouse with its great international transport links, world-class universities and a highly skilled workforce. In fact, University of Manchester graduates first established Couchbase has run an internship programme for undergraduates at the University of Manchester since 2014, with 20 students taking part so far. “Technology is a crucial element of the UK’s economic future and Couchbase is proud to be doing its part – both in choosing the UK as one of the global development centres where our innovative cloud-native distributed database technology is developed, but also in working with dozens of European businesses to develop exciting new digital services,” added David Haikney, Senior Director of Engineering at Couchbase. www.intelligentcio.com