Cape Chief Information Officer Dave Jones was appointed CIO at Altrad at the start of 2018 after engineering and industrial services provider to the oil and energy sector, Cape, was acquired by the France-based industrial services group in July 2017. For the first six months of 2017, Jones and his team focused on adding operational value with a new digital strategy. The introduction of mobile apps that can accurately record productive and non-productive time on various tasks in real time replaced a manual, paper-based process that involved admin staff entering data, often days later. One major benefit of the change is real-time reporting – highlighting issues where projects might be falling behind schedule, or tasks taking longer than they should. In the longer term, the more data collected allows analytics and intelligence on why a similar project in one location may take much longer (or cost more, or less) in another, ensuring that bids for new projects have a greater chance of finishing in profit. Cape have enjoyed success through the creation of innovation portals where all Cape staff can submit ideas or new ways of doing things. One example of Innovation within Cape is a 360-degree VR safety program: the VR headset immerses the user in a virtual industrial worksite scenario, providing an interactive experience that highlights risks, improves hazard awareness and reinforces best practices and processes. For the second half of the year, Jones continued to build on the work commenced pre-acquisition as well as focused on ensuring a smooth integration of the Cape IT team with the existing Altrad IT team.