From SAP awards to our famous Strava challenge, Ypto already has a number of great achievements to be proud of!
For the second time in a row, we received a Corporate IT Award. This time, we were recognized for our case “Digitalisation of train operations and services”.
The jury praised the fact that our submission perfectly met the requirements: optimising and scaling up IT resources, rethinking IT business models, reallocating IT infrastructure and improving business agility and resilience.
Our efforts, through the commissioning of eDrive, DITA and Linda (the three solutions we highlighted in our award entry submission), contribute to the user-friendliness, comfort and safety of our travellers and our SNCB colleagues. They are important for the fulfilment of the obligations in the new 10-year public service offering contract that SNCB signed with the Belgian government as far as punctuality, safety and digitalisation are concerned.
At Ypto, we deeply care about the well-being of our collaborators. We therefore have a well-being team and also strongly encourage everyone to exercise. We do this not only through our annual Ypto Move Challenge, but also by sponsoring participation in sporting events, such as the 20 km of Brussels and the Ekiden Run.
During the Corporate IT Awards gala on 24 March 2022 in Affligem, Ypto was named winner in the category “Best IT recruiting and onboarding programs”. For more than 10 years, these awards have been among the most prestigious awards in our sector.
During this edition, the focus was mainly on organisations that address the key challenges of recruiting, onboarding, managing, engaging and retaining talents in the IT and technology sectors. The jury rewarded Ypto for its innovative efforts to attract the right profiles while paying particular attention to the candidate’s cultural fit, which is deemed as essential as their expertise and knowledge.
“For Ypto, winning this Corporate IT Award is an acknowledgement of its excellence”, says Christof Kieboom, Head of HR & Communication. “We are delighted and proud to have won this prestigious award. As it is a corporate award and not an individual one, it is a real sign of recognition, not only to our management but also for the entire HR department and, more broadly, for all our collaborators. When hiring people, we indeed attach great importance to their adherence to our PROs values. For us, this already starts during the pre- and onboarding process.”
The CIO of the Year award is presented each year by Data News. With this prize, the news agency wishes to praise a CIO for his or her achievements, vision, strategic insight, leadership qualities and personality. He or she must succeed in aligning IT with the company’s strategy, positioning IT as a new business driver and helping to drive or accelerate the company’s digital transformation.
Our CEO (also CIO of SNCB), won this award in 2020, ahead of Dirk Altgassen, Group CIO of Etex, and Yves Dupuy, CIO of Euroclear.
“With Guido Lemeire, the jury chooses a CIO in a sector with a somewhat outdated image, where digitalisation has gone through some though times. In the eyes of the jury, the fact that in recent years he has managed to get the train back on track, as the saying goes, shows that Guido Lemeire is not only a strong leader, but also the right man for the job. It is also remarkable that digitalisation has taken place both on the technological and on the architectural side. This digitalisation is reflected in the internal back-end but also impacts the travellers, which are additional strengths that contributed to the choice of Guido Lemeire.”
Both overjoyed and proud. That is how we felt after the virtual FEIEA Grand Prix 2021 Award Show. FEIEA is the European platform for internal communication. They awarded us the prize in the category ‘Best Audiovisual Production 2021’ for our entry ‘A day in the life of …’. We were very pleased, because this competition is widely regarded as the European championship for internal communication, with participants from the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland, Romania and Belgium competing in eight different categories this year.
In our prize-winning entry, a series of four videos clearly explain how we at Ypto and from behind the scenes make an impact in the lives of train drivers, train managers, SNCB employees in the workshops and travellers.
In its motivation, the European jury praised our entry by qualifying it as “a nice example of clarifying key roles in the life of the company and making them available to anyone in the enterprise”. They added, “It is an innovative way of presenting your company. This entry also offers numerous amelioration opportunities, both for communication towards the world and the collaborators.“
Each year, SAP, a world leader in software for business applications, presents the SAP Quality Awards. These awards are given to projects or solutions that make a significant contribution to the organisation in which they are implemented and are realised to the highest quality standards.
Ypto, in collaboration with SNCB, won a gold medal (Belgium) and a silver medal (EMEA) in the “Fast delivery” category, with an application aimed at digitising and automating the legal process of guaranteed service in the event of a strike. By means of a correct project approach, a good delivery method and a very efficient and quality cooperation with SNCB, Ypto developed a digital SAP Fiori solution that allows to quickly assess the possible impact of an announced strike on the service. This allows SNCB to react promptly and to offer an alternative timetable, thus providing a minimum guaranteed service.
Four times a year, Ypto organises a “Town Hall” for all its collaborators and for TCS, its outsourcing partner. Various speakers address important and topical issues. Since the start of the health crisis, this event has been entirely virtual. About 1,300 people joined it. This always requires a great deal of organisation, in terms of communication as well as on a technical level. And every time, it is a success!
In addition, all Ypto supervisors meet on a weekly basis at the virtual management forum. This meeting is used to pass on general communications as well as to challenge points of view, ask questions and share what is going on in the different teams.
It is then up to the leaders to ensure this information circulate within their teams. Together with their collaborators, they have to find the balance between the top-down information flow and what is actually going on.
Since the beginning of the health crisis, we at Ypto have been looking for ways to be “together” without compromising our safety. This is why we launched the Ypto Move Challenge, to which all Ypto, SNCB and TCS collaborators were invited to participate. The aim of this challenge was to cover 5,000 kilometres in one month, walking, running, cycling or swimming. And we did not cover 5,000 km… but 26,576.29 km! This event allowed us to get closer to our colleagues and to strengthen our team spirit. A more than successful challenge!
Strava has now become a household name among a large number of colleagues. Sometimes, some of them decide to go for a bike ride together or do some other sport on the spur of the moment.
Every day we continue to digitise critical national infrastructures. That brings pride that you do not find in all professions. The social impact of our work is felt by millions of travellers and can be seen in the ecological footprint of our society.
Ypto has been working with its outsourcing partner TCS since 2018, to respond to the IT requests of SNCB. This multicultural cooperation is a challenge, but an enriching one. We include TCS in our internal communities and we also share our holidays. For example, we celebrate Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, with our colleagues from TCS.
In recent years, Ypto has been invited to speak at major events about how we use certain IT platforms within SNCB. As our client has different divisions in which multiple players need to be connected, we have an extensive Enterprise Content Management system (ECM). Because of our visionary approach and cutting-edge knowledge, it is particularly interesting to discuss our case at international technology events.
In 2021, for example, we were invited to give a presentation at OpenText World, a digital technology event hosting all sorts of webinars on trends and innovations in the market.
We were also able to share our experiences with SAP customers at SAPPhire, a major event organised by SAP on a yearly basis.
The recognition of our knowledge at an international level makes us particularly proud and motivates us to keep innovating.
