I n g e n i o

SMARTFusionAyesa merges the Smart Solutions and ICT Facilities areas to bolster its posi-tion in this emerging sector. Under the direction of Juan de Dios Hermosín, it brings together around 500 individuals specialised in the latest technology, such as big data and automation. This line of business is destined to be the company’s spearhead.(continues on page 4).

Nº 34 | OCTOBER 2017

Digital transformation in education

Interview with Pedro Sanz

Page 12 Page 20

Organic architecture at IFCO

Page 9

Contents y design:Corporate Communications Department.General Corporate Managing.

Contact: comunicacioncorporativa@ayesa.com

Head office:Edificio Ayesa, Marie Curie, 2Parque Científico Tecnológico Cartuja41092 Seville, Spain

All material is subject to copyright. It isstrictly prohibited to distribute all or anypart of this magazine without the expresspermission of the author.

Smart Fusion

Big Data at the service of the seas

Ayesa in the engineering Top 100

Transformation of La Rambla

Organic Architecture for the IFCO

Mexico after the earthquake

Educational management systems

BPO diversifies

The Ayesa Foundation

People

My CV 2.0

Interview with Pedro Sanz

I n g e n i oNº 34

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Table of contents

As the president of Ayesa, I would like to express to all our members, in every corner of the globe where we operate, and to all our clients and friends, the immense pride I feel for the humanity shown by our colleagues in the Mexico office in response to the terrible tragedy of the recent earthquakes.I wish to publicly acknowledge the staff’s bravery and personal sense of duty, starting with our engineers, who have not only been hard at work meeting their responsibilities toward clients, but who have also spontaneously gone out on the streets to help in any way necessary, from assessing building damage to shifting rubble in the search for survivors and delivering supplies. They have done it all.Throughout this horrible drama, none of them have neglected their responsibilities to our clients (Ayesa and Actica have remained in operation and continued to meet clients’ requirements in the face of extremely challenging circumstances), whilst simultaneously responding to the community’s cries. It has been truly humbling. I would also like to draw attention to the dedication and commitment of the entire workforce who, regardless of qualifications and position, have given their very best. Human Resources, for instance, have done exemplary work and every individual, from the office cleaning lady to the head of production, has met the challenges of these terrible times with bravery.It is difficult for me to say anything to our people whose lives were at risk, who felt

the earth shake beneath their feet, who have witnessed death, who can see a whole city suffering and who cannot be sure whether it is all over or if it could happen again at any time. It might appear easy to speak to you from a seemingly safe distance – although nothing in life is completely safe – to share your fears or offer encouragement. But I must say this. I must express, on my own behalf and on that of all your colleagues at Ayesa, the pride we feel when we see the courage with which you have faced this situation: the courage of brave human beings and the courage of engineers.At Ayesa and at Actica, we do engineering. The role of engineers is to tame a natural world that is the source of life, but is also demanding and hostile. We defend communities from drought, flooding, isolation and earthquakes.I am sure that, when we calculate new structures, we will not forget this quake. But, as a result of the tragedy, the people at Ayesa will know that we will save many lives.I would also like to express our love for Mexico, a land that has welcomed us, made us its own and entrusted many of its problems to us. Today, across the globe, Ayesa is Mexico and we carry the colours of its flag in our hearts. As much as our strength will allow, we will fight for this beloved nation to recover from its wounds and get back on the road to the growth and health it deserves.Today at Ayesa, a single song plays: an ode to Mexico, beautiful and beloved. And we swell with a single pride: the pride we feel for our Mexican heroes.

Mexico, the courage of an engineer

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José Luis Manzanares JapónPresident of Ayesa

PRESIDENT’S OFFICE

(continued from front page)

The world is destined to go smart. Current living conditions, with growing population concentrations around large cities, and the technological capabilities developed hand-in-hand with the universal spread of the internet, have brought with them this new concept that is set to dominate the world. It is an emerging business that is based on giving intelligence to infrastructures, thereby opening up immense opportunities. According to a range of calcula-tions, investment in this sector (which includes transport, such as electric vehicles, building management and security) will reach around 75 billion dollars by the year 2020.Ayesa is already at the start line of this race which the big multinationals are preparing to run. In this context, at the start of the year, the company decided to make a commitment to this area and pooled its resources by merging two departments: Smart Solutions and ICT Facilities. Since its foundation, the group has always embraced technology and understood it as an inherent part of infrastructure. It has carried out numerous automatisation and remote control projects in the hydraulic power field in its lifetime, and it is worth remembering that the name Ayesa comes from the Spanish for

“water and structure”. In fact, the foundation of the former ACT dates back to 1989. It is an activity that has been growing and, in June, culminated in its largest contract in this field. It sensorised 180 facilities and connected them to a control centre for the whole of Canales

del Taibilla. This critical infrastructure supplies drinking water to 2.5 million people in south-east Spain.However, the world changes quickly and it is now time for the next step, which consists of applying this knowledge to new technologies such as big data, the IOT and blockchain, with the aim of establishing predictive technologies and enabling machines to make reliable deci-sions without human intervention.In the words of Juan de Dios Hermosín, director of Smart Infrastructures, “with the consolidation of the Smart Infrastructures business area, Ayesa is expanding the scope

of its services and the way it approaches its clients, clearly positioning the company with a new and different discourse. Even though many engineering, consultancy and techno-logy companies have incorporated this trend in their strategies, very few combine those disciplines in a single team”.The team is made up of 500 people across Spain and America who bring together expe-rience in automatisation and control systems, big data, communications and analytics, and a broad understanding of the world of energy, water, transport, IT infrastructure and security. “This understanding, together with the ability to integrate solutions with the areas of Engi-neering and Consultancy, makes us genuinely stand out and our clients appreciate that”.

InnovationFurthermore, Santiago Blanco, head of Innova-tion, explains that this “creates enormous op-portunities for innovation. We create solutions that combine these concepts and enable our clients to optimise their operations and align them with business”.Likewise, he adds that “we are prioritising innovation in energy, mobility and transport in general, because these are the sectors that are undergoing a transformation as a result of digitisation. With regard to technologies, sen-

This area focuses on creating solutions that are capable of making reliable decisions without human intervention

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smartLIFE

REMOTE CONTROL AND MONITORING OF HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS

MOBILITY

WATER

EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF BUILDINGS AND BUILDING AUTOMATION

ENERGY

CLOUD IT:BIG DATA, IOT, ANALYTICS

SMART METER ANALYTICS

OPTIMISATION AND REMOTE CONTROL OF SOLAR PARKS

SMART SYSTEM FOR PORT

MANAGEMENT

BRAINPORT

FLEET MANAGEMENT

ZEFLEET

DISTRIBUTIVE ENERGY

STORAGE TECHNOLOGY

NETFFICIENT

R+D

ELECTRIC CAR CHARGING

OPTIMISATION

PLUG & CHANGE

SMART INFRASTRUCTURES

MONITORING OF MEDIUM- AND LOW-

VOLTAGE NETWORKS

MONICA

EFFICIENT PHOTOVOLTAIC

MODULES

STARCELLINFRASTRUCTURE INSPECTION AND

SECURITY

DRONES4CIPR+D

R+DR+D

R+D

sorisation and analysis are no longer enough. Rather, the trend is toward the systems making decisions themselves and executing them. In this regard, we are working with algorithms and machine learning technologies that, when applied to big data, allow the opti-

misation of decision-making. Our ultimate aim is to develop new solutions and technologies that make us more competitive in the market”.

MobilityIn the mobility area, the R+D projects ZEM2ALL and EFLEET have enabled the development of electric vehicle charging management techno-logies, which are now booming on the market with SIME and ZEFLEET. Currently, investments are being made in new ideas to keep these solutions at the cutting edge. One example is PLUG&CHARGE, whose aim is to simplify the charging process, making the vehicle “talk” to the infrastructure and “refuel” automatically.In energy, the MONICA initiative, developed with Endesa and other partners, is creating solutions to provide medium- and low-voltage networks with monitoring and automatisation systems.In Germany, the NETFFICIENT project is rolling out a platform that allows photovoltaic energy generated and stored in homes to be taken to the wholesale market. This solution opens up new possibilities to increase the flexibility of electricity networks and to maximise the return on investment in sto-rage and renewa-bles. In STARCELL, we are working with European research centres and manufactu-rers to develop a more efficient, generation of pho-tovoltaic cells.

Ayesa has pioneered the sensorisation of hydraulic infrastructure in Spain

SaaS for managing and monitoring electric and fuel vehicles.

Sensorisation of medium- and low-voltage networks to avoid electrical problems and loss.

Intelligent systems and engineering connected for energy efficiency in buildings.

Platform and tools oriented toward surveillance using electric drones that charge automatically and without human intervention.

Sistema Integrado de Movilidad Eléctrica. Gestión de puntos de recarga y comercialización de energía.

Automatic and virtual energy plant that creates an offer optimised for the market.

Big data and analytics of reading energy smart meters.

European project to develop more efficient photovoltaic cells.

SMART Developments

R+D Projects

5SMART INFRASTRUCTURES

Smart Infrastr. Managing Dir.

Juan de Dios Hermosín

>> The Port Authority of Algeci-ras Bay receives the Brainport Analytics project, carried out by Ayesa. It is one of the first systems of the Brainport 2020 program that enters into service to digitalise Spain’s largest port area.

The algorithms have disembarked at Algeciras Port, with the help of Ayesa. With the aim of becoming a global flagship for intelligent management, Spain’s foremost port area is im-plementing a series of technological projects encompassed by the Brainport 2020 program, which will position Algeciras at the cutting edge of the sector.In this context, Ayesa was awarded the con-tract for the BPA (Brainport Analytics) package, for the first to enter into operation of the 15 planned and which have given the infrastructure its central “brain”, where important decisions regarding the dock’s operation will be made. The APBA (Port Authority of Algeciras Bay, by its initials in Spanish) has just received the project, which has included the installation of sensors, the development of mobile applications for port logistics (RO-RO traffic) and the OPE (“Crossing the Strait Operation”) and the establishment of a big data repository and a control panel through which all the information will arrive.The aim of all this is to enable the organisation to make strategic and operational decisions in real time. Manuel Cardona, head of the project imple-mented by the Smart Infrastructures area of the company, indicates that, “with this project, we have managed to get a step closer to the concept of Port Collaborative Decision Making,

whose ultimate objective is efficiency in the logistics chain and related processes.”

DataThe program’s operation is based on capturing and exploiting data coming in from sensors, mobile applications, the APBA’s own data repository and external ones, which is then processed and presented on a control panel. In this way, BPA includes information generated in the maritime zone (such as planned and real docking schedules and load lists) and the land zone (detection of passing lorries with registra-tion plate reading and time stamping, and the spaces occupied by OPE vehicles). “All this is combined with the correct algorithm and logic to offer value results to the different users of the application, which include the heads of Operations and Intermodality and of Port Protection.”

Ayesa has implemented three mobile applica-tions. One of them transmits information about the travellers who intend to carry out the OPE and helps to create a port arrivals forecast by geolocation. The other two make up the Hercules application, and their function is to manage OPE vehicle traffic within the Algeciras and Tarifa port areas, and are used by Port Police officers.The value of the contract was around 900,000 euros and the timescale was two years. It is

currently in the maintenance phase. During these two years, twelve people at Ayesa were involved, including consultants, architects and programmers.These advanced technologies are particularly important for the Port of Algeciras during the OPE, which reaches its 30th anniversary this year.Last year, which was the first year of operation for the Brainport pro-ject applications, more than 213,000 vehi-cles and 826,000 passengers passed through this relevant Andalusian dock.

Big Data at the service of the seas

Ayesa has installed the central brain where important decisions about logistical management are made

Head of Project

Manuel Cardona

Screenshot of the Hercules system for the Crossing the Strait Operation (OPE).

6 SMART INFRASTRUCTURES

Aerial photo of the Port of Algeciras.

Ayesa strengthens its position in the Top 100 engineering firms

Ayesa is strengthening its position as one of the world’s major engineering companies. Accor-ding to the Top 225 International Design Firms 2017 ranking, calculated by the well-known American magazine, Engineering News-Record (ENR), Ayesa has improved its ranking on last year, rising to 78th place from the 83rd place it previously occupied. This classification only takes into account the area of civil engineering and production derived from works design.

The ENR report revealed that the international infrastructure design market has shrunk in recent years. It indicated that “the slow growth of the Chinese economy has led to plumme-ting demand for raw materials, the drop in fuel

prices has caused delays and cancellations in major oil projects, and global politics have generated uncertainty in some regions.

However, population growth and the new demand for infrastructure in most of developing countries of the world point to a bright future for certain international firms.”

In this context, the international production of the top 225 global companies in this sec-tor dropped by 2% in 2016 in relation to the previous year, to 64.1 billion dollars, according to ENR. However, revenue in their domestic mar-kets increased by 21.1% to 79.3 billion dollars.In Ayesa’s case, the company closed 2016 with 3.5% growth, to 240.4 million euros, as a result of the large projects it undertook outside of Spain. Some of the largest contracts it won in 2016 were the expansion of the Mexico City airport terminal, line 3 of the Mumbai Metro, phase 3 of the Rabigh desalination plant and the Panamá Children’s Hospital.

Growth in Latin AmericaAyesa’s progress in Latin America has, for the first time, pushed the company to within the top few of the ENR table, where it occupies eighth place.It is currently carrying out about ten projects on the continent, whilst projects in other parts of the world continue to grow.Works on the Latin American continent have multiplied over the last five years. Ongoing projects include designing lines 2 and 4 of the Lima Metro and line 12 of the Mexico Suburban Rail.Similarly, and also for the first time, the com-pany appears on the list of non-American firms dedicated to project management. Here, it is in 19th place.Ayesa is currently undertaking the supervision of the Tocumen terminal in Panamá and the El Roncador bridge on the Yatí-Bodega highway which will be Colombia’s longest. Among the contracts won in 2016, considered by the ENR’s ranking table, one of the most significant is the supervision of the Lucknow metro in India.

The most notable design projects include Mexico City airport and line 3 of the Mumbai Metro

This is the first time the company appears in the list of non-American project management firms

Lucknow Metro launches commercial operations

Ayesa has reached a new milestone for rail transport engineering in India with the entry into operation of one of our biggest projects, the Luc-know Metro, which started rolling last September. Four trains operate with a frequency of 11 mi-nutes and the train line is expected to transport 430,000 passengers every day, although this could rise to a million by 2030.This suburban rail is one of the most advanced in India, a country where numerous rail projects are in progress with a view to improving connections between its growing cities. In fact, together with China, India is the global leader in the construction of this type of infras-tructure. Ayesa has been working for nine years in India, where it has become one of the top three engineering companies specialising in metros. In fact, it is currently involved in eight of the twelve suburban rails that are undergoing construction.In Lucknow, Ayesa led a multinational consortium that undertook oversight of the infrastructure, including integrated consultancy, from reviewing the design and systems to the security and the quality. A Spanish-Indian team of more than 90 people from Ayesa has carried out the imple-mentation of this project over the last eighteen months.Mariano Álvarez, country manager for India, highlights that “this contract has been a great ac-colade for us to compete for new bids because of the timescale achieved and delivery guaran-tees. As well as Lucknow, Ayesa has successfully completed the Noida-Greater section”.

SustainableLucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC), a con-cessionary group constituted by the central and regional governments, maintains that this metro has been the fastest to construct in the whole world, and the most cost-efficient. Furthermore, it has recently received a platinum rating for eight of its stations due to their “green” systems, whereby rainwater is collected, two megawatts of solar energy are generated and LED lighting is used. In total, the north-south corridor between Transport Nagar and Charbagh (Phase 1A) comprises 23 kilome-tres, 22 stations (just three underground) and a budget of 7.8 billion dollars.

LATIN AMERICA RANKING

Técnicas Reunidas

Arcadis NV

Sener Ingeniería y Sistemas SA

Fluor Corp.

Worleyparsons

Fugro NV

Hyundai Engineering Co. Ltd.

Ayesa

CH2M

Power Construction Corp. of China

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7ENGINEERING

Country Manager India

Mariano Álvarez

>> The company rises five places in the ranking published by the prestigious magazine, Engineering News-Record, going from 83rd to 78th in the last year.

Ayesa has added a new iconic project to its portfolio. The company will be part of the team that redesigns La Rambla of Barcelona, in one of the most significant urban develop-ments in Catalonia in recent years. Its importance owes not just to the scale of the project but also to the social, commercial and touristic prominence of the works on this most iconic street, where 100 million people pass through each year.Barcelona City Council has recently granted the UTE_kmZERO joint venture the contract to draft the action strategy document, the pre-liminary project, the La Rambla development project and the work management.

Consortium Ayesa participates in the consortium with 29.98%, and the remainder is completed by the architectural studios Espinas i Tarrasó, Lola Domenech, Itziar Gonzalez and Arnau Boix.A period of six months is planned for the preparation of the strategy document and the preliminary project, and another six to write the development project, so that the works may commence in early 2019.

The UTE_kmZERO team, comprising 15 pro-fessionals, prevailed over five other groups in this international competition that the council opened last March. Its aim was to decide on “actions to revitalise, improve and physically and socially transform La Rambla and its sphere of influence”.In this multidisciplinary team, composed of experts in a range of fields, Ayesa is represen-ted by Cristina Pedraza, Alberto Conesa and

Sebastián Ribot.The latter, director of Civil Engineering and Architecture in Barcelona, points out that as well as being a key work for the city, this also represents Ayesa’s debut in the field of projects with participatory processes”.It means delving deeper into the practice of citizen cooperation in the region, fostering dialogue between the authorities and the

public with a view to achieving joint respon-sibility among all the stakeholders involved in the project.”Key features of the UTE_kmZERO proposal include the plan for management of busy thoroughfares, which includes strategies to change the commercial uses of ground floors aimed at tourism and to empower citizens.

ProposalThe proposal also plans to develop housing policies to recover residents neighbouring La Rambla, actions to improve access to public

transport and efficient goods distribution, and measures to restrict private vehicles.With regard to the preliminary development project that will be drafted over the next six months, the aim is to make La Rambla“a pleasant and healthy space that invites you to take a walk and, with its new look, improves pedestrian movement, trees, rest areas and benches”, ac-cording to Ribot, as well as including a memorial to the vic-tims of the attack that took place on 17th August in the capital of Cata-lonia.

PhD in Civil Eng. (Barcelona)

Sebastián Ribot

The contract include the strategies of action and the urbanization project

>> The company is participating in a joint venture selected by Barcelona City Council to renovate its most iconic and well-used street, which receives 100 million visitors every year.

Ayesa to participate in the transformation of La Rambla in Barcelona

La Rambla boulevard, Barcelona.

8 CIVIL ENGINEERING

It is expected that the works of the iconic avenue beginin early 2019

Organic architecture for the leading photonics research centre

Ayesa is making progress as a flagship com-pany in the exclusive field of research buil-ding design, having won the call for tenders to plan the project for a unique building, launched by the Mir-Puig Private Foundation. It will house the ICFO’s most advanced na-notechnology facilities, in the Mediterranean Technology Park in Castelldefels, Barcelona.“We went for an avant-garde design, that adapts to and respects the environment, and this is what captivated the client”, explains Daniel Herrera, section head of Architecture and Project Management. In addition to this, the client also appreciated “Ayesa’s financial standing as a facilities and systems enginee-ring company”.It is a modern facility, open to its green surroundings and a lake. The design seeks

to meet the centre’s functional needs whilst integrating the construction with the green space around it. The aim is for it to form part of a whole, together with the trees and the lake, following the essence of organic architecture.“The building is open to and interacts with the exterior and, in that way, seeks a connection with the original headquarters”,

indicates the architect. It will consist of four floors above ground level and three wings that “embrace” the forested surroundings. In total, the built surface will cover around 7,000 square metres.

MaterialsGlass is one of the predominant materials on the façade, with large windows that, in some parts, will be covered with a tinted stainless-steel lattice. This is aimed at creating a mimesis with the flora, as well as providing necessary protection from the sun. The solu-tion for the rear of the building, which faces a road, is the proposal of a solid wall which protects the laboratories in this area from both light and noise.Inside, the concept of avant-garde offices has been applied. So, the offices are open-plan and dynamic, as they comprise multiple mee-ting rooms, private areas for making calls and areas for rest and interaction.It is all linked with an attractive design, inspi-red by the exterior. So, glass makes another appearance to compartmentalise the rooms, along with wood where needed to provide privacy.One of the technical peculiarities of this cons-truction arises from the work the organisation carries out, as its research focuses on applica-tions of photonics in areas such as nanome-dicine, graphene-type materials and quantum technologies. Experiments involving light require complete isolation, from both natural light (solid façade) and vibrations.

For this reason, “the structure has been designed so as to separate each element, and the foundations are very carefully planned to reduce vibrations reaching the nanofabrica-

tion laboratory instruments”.Construction of the MIR-PUIG Building, cu-rrently in its draft phase, will require an inves-tment of over 10 million euros, and this will be provided by the Mir-Puig Private Foundation which acts as the project promoter.Ayesa will undertake the management of the work as well as the architectural design. Work is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of this year and the timescale will be around eighteen months. For the company, this pro-ject is a significant support when it comes to presenting new design proposals for research centres, which is a growing market on both a national and international level. “It puts us in a stronger position for future tenders and we will earn solvency in a sector that is limited to a handful of com-panies”, Herrera pointed out.

>> Ayesa designs the new Institute of Photonic Science (ICFO) building, which will be in Castelldefels, Barcelona. Investment in this civil project reaches 10 million euros.

Architecture Director

Daniel Herrera

9ARCHITECTURE

The design is avant-garde and respects the natural surroundings

For the company, this project is a great support for new design proposals

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Mexico has been hit by several earthquakes over the course of its history. But the 19th of September 1985 was a black day in the country’s history as a result of the earthquake measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale that shook the ground. Since then there have been more than 6,200 aftershocks but, in a freak coinci-dence, 32 years later the 19th of September has once again proved a fatal date for the nation. At 13:14, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 and an epicentre 120 kilometres from Mexico City shook the nation once again.Just two hours before, the city was carrying out its annual drill in commemoration of the 1985 quake. The central offices of Ayesa Mexi-co are on the 19th floor of the Torre Magenta, in one of the main avenues and luckily,they were not affected. Once the move-ment stopped, from the offices, dust clouds could be seen rising from buildings that had collapsed just a few kilometres away and the telephone lines were down, increasing the state of alarm the city found itself in. But our staff maintained their calm.Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, Guerrero and Estado de Mexico all suffered heavy damage which claimed the lives of 360 people. But the typical Mexican solidarity could be felt stron-gly once again. Hours after the quake, help had already reached the City’s critical points. It came from all over and Ayesa’s team were no exception.

CooperationThere are so many admirable stories to tell in which Ayesa’s staff were involved, providing on-site support where buildings had collap-sed, rescuing people, lifting rubble, handing out supplies or providing emotional support and first aid to the people affected.Likewise, supply stations were organised to transfer supplies and people, medical equipment was taken to the affected areas and, even today, the structural damage to thousands of buildings is still being assessed.Although the state of emergency has been reduced over the weeks, there are still people living in shelters because they have lost their homes and thousands of children who are unable to return to school. Reconstruction is a process that takes more time.Recovering from this disaster is not just a question of removing the rubble. There is a lot more work after that. In order to get back to

normal, the damage has to be analysed and repaired so this doesn’t happen again; the people who have lost everything have to get back on their feet although this cannot com-pare to the pain of having lost a loved one in this disaster.

Mexico is a strong country that is getting back on its feet thanks to the teamwork of its people and the international support provided since the catastrophe. There’s still a lot to do but with solidarity and compassion, Mexico will rise again.

>> The country has suffered another earthquake, 32 years after the great quake that battered the country. Ayesa’s offices in the capital were not damaged but our staff were very heavily involved in the aid work. The disaster as reported from Mexico City.

The earth shakes, Mexico rises up

Aid groupsMany of Ayesa’s staff

were involved in aid work in the city.

ReconstructionAfter the earthquake, the damage began to be assessed. No employee or the offices themselves suffered serious damage.

Hours beforeAyesa’s offices carried out an earthquake drill two hours before the actual earthquake.

MEXICO

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The list of projects undertaken for Repsol continues to grow. Spain’s leading gas com-pany has chosen Ayesa to undertake detail engineering and purchase management for its new ammoniacal gas treatment plant in the Tarragona Industrial Complex.According to Ayesa’s director of Oil & Gas, Stefan Pardo, this project is “very important for Repsol Petrol from an environmental perspective, as it ensures compliance with the legal specifications for NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions in the refinery flare stack”. The Tarragona complex is the largest pe-trochemical infrastructure facility in Spain and one of the most important in southern Europe. It covers 500 hectares of land and provides more than 1,500 jobs. Its refining capacity is around 186,000 oil barrels per day of butane or propane, vehicle fuels, kerosene for aeroplanes and base products for the preparation of chemicals and asphalt.The solution designed by Ayesa allows the treatment of the ammoniacal gases that the complex produces, in a new treatment unit whose innovative process includes, initially,

the separation of the liquids present in the gas stream originating from the crude and hydrocracking units.Then, the dry gas enters the treatment plant which comprises a Zeeco-technology burner with, first, a reduction chamber with quench area and, second, a reoxidation chamber.

The chemical reactions that take place through these systems destroy the ammonia present in the gas stream, guaranteeing NOx emissions that comply with the new environ-mental legislation.The project is being implemented by the Oil & Gas division of Ayesa’s industrial area, whose offices are in Barcelona.

At the peak of the work, the team consisted of 20 professionals. “The planned duration is 11 months, and progress is currently at 95%. The work planned is 10,500 man-hours”, Pardo explains.

Track recordAyesa has already carried out other projects at the same complex in Tarragona. Spe-cifically, it implemented a medium-sized investment agreement from 2008 to 2012, and was also responsible for the extension of the olefins cracker in 2008. The latter also included supervision of the work.The Oil & Gas division specialises in the design of parts or elements for refineries,

chemical plants, gas pipelines, natural gas compression stations and liquefied natural gas stations.Ayesa has been carrying out projects in the oil and gas sector for more than twenty years, first in Spain and now also in Brazil, Peru, Panamá, Mexico and the United Kingdom. “The fact that we have companies like Repsol and Ena-gás as our loyal clients gives this di-vision great strategic importance within the group, totalling more than 2.5 million man hours”, indicates Stefan Pardo. Division Director

Stefan Pardo Kolesch

The aim of this facility is to comply the environmental legislation of NOx emissions

>> Repsol awards Ayesa the detail engineering of its new ammoniacal gas treatment plant in Tarragona, Spain’s largest petrochemical infrastructure facility.

How to make a gas factory with 130 tonnes of pipe

Works on the Repsol ammoniacal gas plant in Tarragona.

130t pipes, mechanical equipment, valves and accessories

350m3 concrete

72tmetal structure

15.000mlcable

Big numbers

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Ayesa has had a team of twenty professionals for this project that is nearly completed

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The ICT systems installed by Ayesa will reach record levels with 4.5 million students,300,000 teachers and 20,000 public centres across Spain, once the Roots project starts up this autumn in the Community of Madrid. Since Ayesa first embarked on the creation ofSéneca in 1999 together with the Andalusian Regional Government, the world has changed radically thanks to the Internet. Therefore, the possibilities of this pioneering education infor-mation system have grown exponentially.Today, real time, centralised management of schools and connection with parentsare a reality. But 18 years ago, to even think of this scenario was a utopia. As explained by Rosa María Romero, manager of Education Practice and Ayesa’s Rayuela project in Extremadura, who said that the Andalusian government had the vision of a centralised system when they were still working with a local one (files were

sent physically). This allowed Ayesa to become a pioneer in this sector, which it continues to lead today.In 2001, the system went to production, at the time focussing solely on academic -registra-tion, evaluation, education and admission- and

administrative management (registration of teaching staff). It wasn’t until years later that Pasen (the Séneca Access Portal) was created which enabled parents to access and which made communication possible.

It didn’t take long for other initiatives from other autonomous regions to start rolling in off the back of Séneca. In fact, the subsequent projects of various communities fed off the Andalusian structure. Asturias and Castilla La Mancha were the first to follow suit and sign an agreement with the Regional Government to implement the application in their respective regions.Next was Extremadura which made a firm commitment to this platform and integrated its academic, administrative and economic mana-gement into a unified model. In fact, the start of Rayuela in June 2007 implied a point of inflection in the manner of conceiving the academic and administrative management of the education centres, as it was designed to allowmanagement and school-family communication to coexist under the same system, with perso-nalised, secure access through the Internet and information updated in real time.

Ayesa finalises its seventh year of educational management in Spain>> Following having been a pioneer in Spain with the Séneca platform, developed together with the Andalusian Regional Government, the company continues to consolidate its position of leadership with further implementation of ICT in public education. The last project is Raíces in Madrid.

Internet and the new technologies have multiplied the potential of these developments

School-family communication· Course monitoring· Communication with management teams, teachers and between families· Socioeconomic questionnaires· Notification of absences and bad conduct

Teaching staff· Teacher’s digital notebook· Correction of standardised tests· Creation of digital content· Virtual classrooms integrated with ERP· Management of teacher training· Tutoring of remote regulated education

Education and centre administration· Academic, administrative and economic management of education centres· Management of teaching staff· Management of material resources· Smart Education· Mass online evauation and testing

CONSULTANCY

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In this respect, Romero points out that “Rayuela has created a whole new culture in the educa-tion community, contributing to improving the quality thereof, aiding decision-making proces-ses and optimising very important milestones”. Other regions that have also opted for this method are Cantabria in 2008, La Rioja in 2010 and Madrid in 2017, which awarded this project to Ayesa at the start of the year on which pro-duction is to start soon.In the latter case, various modules have been installed which allow the unification of data,access to this information and the creation of a collaborative environment. This allows the teaching staff and management of the centres to check student files, record attendance, send SMS notifications of potential absences and organise evaluation activities. In the case of children and families, they will have access to all the centre’s data, qualifications, assessed activities, personal diary and messages.Likewise, the Canary Islands, Navarra and Castilla y León “also trusted in our knowledge of education, allowing us to form part of theireducational community”, added Romero.

New challengesAlong the way, Séneca has experienced outstanding development. “In terms of the digital transformation of management, the system (electronic administration) is exceeding expectations with electronic processing, the centralisation of most processes and proven intermediation savings, in addition to achieving greater reliability”, he assured.The loose ends that still need tying up pertain to integration with other systems like, for example, the single national digital file.

As for the “open lines with the most usage”,to send notifications and establish two-way communication. “This will be a challenge as our applications were created focussing on computers and now we need to cater for the non-professional side of the educational system with an adapted version. In any case, Séneca was the first to issue Android and IOS versions and we currently have lines open in Ionic (cross-platform) technology”. The future will come hand in hand with predic-

tive systems based on big data. “We have 18 years’ worth of historical data and we could perform some very interesting analytics, such as detecting students likely to drop out of school or, on the contrary, anticipate the diagnosis of gifted children. In general, the locating of groups requiring special attention is interesting”. Thus, the data will not only be valuable in itself for management but will also become the key to “seeing the future or detecting special situations amongst the students explained Romero, these are mobile applications in advance”.

These systems speed up and optimise decision making processes

Constant improvement

The financial management of public centres in Andalusia has gone a step further recently with the integration of e-billing on the part of school suppliers within Séneca and connec-ted to the GIRO system, also imple-mented by Ayesa within the Regional Government of Andalusia with SAP technology.This development has made it pos-sible for companies and freelancers who provide services toeducation centres to submit invoices in electronic format, using the elec-tronic invoice entry points provided for suppliers by the General State Administration (through FACE) and the Regional Government of Andalu-sia (PUEF) over the internet.Séneca receives these invoices and sends them on in a convenient way to the centres they are addressed to. “The integration includes the automated incorporation of these receipts into the centre’s accounting. This avoids having to enter these manually, speeding up the processing thereof and minimising any errors”, said Juan Pavon, project manager for Ayesa.

Project Manager Education

Rosa M. Romero

CONSULTANCY

Diversification of BPO clients

Business Process Outsourcing, better-known by its acronym, BPO, has been one of the emerging sectors of the last decade in Spain and, despite the fact that it is showing signs of maturity, continues to show positive growth rates. Ayesa took stock of this activity and has managed to position itself as a key player, thanks to its technological skills and its specialisation in the field of utilities and the public sector. Its clients include Endesa, Redexis Gas, Viesgo, Natural Gas, ICEX, Ema-sesa, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the Town Council of Seville.Having quintupled its turnover in the last six years, this department split away from that of consultancy, becoming a separate line of business, in order to exploit all its poten-tial and impact, including beyond Spain’s borders.

Together with internationalisation, the main challenge of the department run by Javier Requejo is to continue with the diversifica-tion of services and clients. A goal in which it has recently made significant progress, ha-ving been awarded new contracts in the last

quarter. These include the comprehensive care of large Endesa clients (front office), the VAT collection and recovery service for Uti-lities and citizen support (email channel) for the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. “We have incorporated new skills in the

areas of front office, financial management, payslips in the cloud and collection manage-ment”, the director highlighted. In addition to large companies and public entities, SMEs also have their place amongst our client ecosystem. “We have a specific financial and payslip management line of services, an area in which we are very competitive as we have industrialised processes that previously required significant manual labour”.Ayesa has BPO centres in Seville (Vega del Rey), Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Tetuán, “equipped with the latest technology and procedures to provide front office, back office, financial and human resource servi-ces”. In total there are 1,200 positions, with an average of nine years’ experience. This network, together with the technolo-gical solutions developed, make Ayesa one

of companies with the most potential. “The enormous integration possibilities of the processes with our technologies allow us to offer full outsourcing services. We cover the whole cycle, from the data centre and information systems to the management of outsourced processes, where clients pay per end activity processed”, explained Requejo, who specified that Ayesa can currently im-mediately absorb increases of over 30% into its production capacity. In terms of the technology incorporated, automation, BPM, artificial intelligence and multi-channel technology stand out.The work centres are also very well-equip-ped, with totally redundant communications and contingency plans, in addition to sys-tems in the Cloud - SAAS.

OriginThe BPO services started fifteen years ago with the back office service for an invoicing and collection centre of Endesa Energía, with a team of over 200 people in the Cartuja PCT in the city of Seville. Since then the Spanishcompany has conti-nued to diversify its services and clients, both of the Spanish public adminis-tration body.

>> This line of business has quintupled its turnover in the last six years, which has led it to consolidate itself as a separate business unit from IT consultancy.

The corporationhas centres in four cities in Spain, which make up1,200 jobs

BPO Managing Director

Javier Requejo

14 BPO

Automation, Artifitial Intelligence and multi-channel technology are being incorporated

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Ingenio_16 Ingenio_17

Ayesa Foundation

This year, the Ayesa Foundation has implemented a programme for the development of innovative technological solutions aimed at social organisations. Named #onthewave, it seeks to facilitate the internal management of these entitiesand improve the provision of services to the beneficiaries of its aid work. To date, the Ayesa Foundation has developed five applications that are now available to these entities.

One of them is Seter, a system for themanagement and use of the fleet of bu-ses that pick up disabled people to take them to care centres where they carry out their activity.Another is Demplea, a specific online shop for special employment centres (companies made up of disabled people).Favi is the last of the portfolio of sys-tems developed by the Foundation; it is a mobile application that allows the

reproduction of a list of videos, limiting the dangers of use on the part of people with special needs who have problems with normal media players; EducaTIC, designed to favour the learning of people with an intellectual disability through interaction with electronic devices; and MuseoTIC, aimed at favouring the inclu-sion of people with a disability, favouring their interaction with the works of art on display in museums.

Social innovation

On Saturday September 23 took place the 5th Ayesa sports day dedicated to all em-ployees of the company and their families in the sports grounds of La Cartuja (Seville).The day started at 9:30 in the morning with the welcoming of the fifty plus attendees, who were given a sports t-shirt, to then continue with the scheduled tournaments. The good weather held out for the whole day and so all the padel tournaments (with 14 couples competing) took place without delay, in addition to zumba, pilates and golf classes.Once again, the Day was marked by team spirit and the desire to have a good time.

5th Ayesa sports day

>> The Foundation doubled its support for social entities with new technological tools aimed at improving the lives of disabled people.

AYESA FOUNDATION

Technological products developed by the Ayesa Foundation to meet the needs of special needs groups. From left to right: Demplea (your local shop on the internet), Educatic(interactive education solution) and SETER (En-Route Journey Time Estimation System).

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PEOPLEEcuador, at the middle of the worldThis Latin country is shaping up to be one of the emerging economies of the coming years. You can still see stark features of its history in the streets but the capital city is already showingall the signs of a large metropolis. Ecuador, the country at latitude 0, is a place worth seeing but also one of new opportunities.Ayesa reached the Andean nation in 2013 and today there are a large number of ex-pats who share their day to day to lives with local staff and staff from neighbouring countries like Venezuela and Mexico.

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Andrea Moncayo (Quito, 1985) is a commercial engineer with an honours degree in finance and a master’s in planning and strategic management. Furthermore, he is certified as an FI SAP consultant. He started with Ayesa in March, 2015.

“I was looking for consultants with local products and found Ayesa through the company’s website. I really like working for this company because it has interesting projects and the staff are very professional” According to Andrea, “the team spirit is great and in particular, the cultural exchange enriches our work: we share our customs, traditions and gastronomy. And, although we all speak the same language, we also have different words and expressions”.

SAP InstallationsThe market of SAP installations for the digitalisation of public and private management in Ecuador is quite new, which allows the arrival of companies like Ayesa and allows Ecuadorian consultants like meto work on large, interesting projects that represent a significant challenge for our careers”. Andrea has been assigned to the project of the financial and salary management system of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. “The offices are relatively close to my house, about six kilometres away, however, the traffic in the city has increased considerably which

means it can take 35 to 40 minutes by car on a good day”. In another apartment of the same building where Ayesa has its head office in Quito, his engineer colleague José Rodríguez supervises the works of the Main Line of the Quito Metro System, the aim of which is to alleviate the traffic congestion and pollution. José Antonio was born in Bilbao in 1975, but his family are Andalusian; specifically from

Malaga. A Path, Canal and Port Engineer, he started to work for Ayesa in December 2007, as a works manager for the Malaga Metro works. “This is my second destination as an ex-pat, before I came to Quito we were in Lima (Peru)”. Although his decision to go abroad was motivated by the employment circumstances of the Spanish market, he said that “becoming an ex-pat is an excellent option to continue your professional career, as you can participate in international projects such as the Lima and Quito Metro systems, which I consider a great qualitative leap”.

“My family has adjusted well to Ecuador, since, as it is oursecond destination abroad, we already have experience in facing change and adapting to a new situation”

The climate, he said, is spring-like all year round, “although in the rainy season it tends to rain heavily most afternoons, which slightly complicates the work on work sites”.As regards the leisure possibilities offered by this Latin American country, José Antonio said that “there may not be as many options as in Spain but, on the other hand, Quito is surrounded by mountains and nature, and Ecuador in general has spectacular nature. There are various options to enjoy your free time and places to visit, which makes your stay in the country more enjoyable”.

AYESA’S PEOLPLE

Andrea Moncayo with friends in a restaurant in El Panecillo de Quito.

José Antonio Rodríguez with his family at the Mirador de los Volcanes.

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The Enertic awards for innovation and technology for energy efficiency chose the MONICA initiative (monitoring and control of medium and low voltage distribution grids) as one of the finalists of this edition of the awards organised by this platform of companies. This is an innovative R+D project, co-financed by the CDTI and

FEDER funds, which is taking place in relation to the SmartCity of Malaga. The consortium includes the firms of Endesa Distribución, Ormazábal, Ingelectus/University of Seville and Ayesa. You can register by following this link and vote for your colleagues (http://www.enertic.org).

The Monica project, finalist in the Enertic awards

Last July, the president of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Susana Díaz, inaugurated the Cordoba City of Justice to which various legal departments are currently being transferred whichwill begin operations soon. The building, designed by Ayesa and the architectfirm Mecanoo, is the largest legal

infrastructure executed in recent years in Spain. It will allow the centralisation of nine legal offices, thanks to over 51,000 square metres of surface area. The investment came in at 66.7 million euros. For the design, the architects got their inspiration from the city’s Moorish influences.

Inauguration of the Cordoba City of Justice

Ayesa has opened new offices in India. Due to the growth experienced by the company in this Asian country thanks to the numerous railway projects it is participating in, it has moved to offices with greater capacity located in Noida, a city placed 45 kilometres from the capital. The company has thus unified their work

centres that were previously distributed between the cities of New Delhi and Noida to improve the communication and coordination of the teams working from India, currently 116 people. The space of the office has increased to 900 square metres, distributed over two floors.

New Indian offices in Noida

Ayesa has participated in European Mobility Week (EMW) which took place in Seville from the 16th to the 22nd of September, with a speech at the Town Hall of the Province Capital entitled The tram as a strategy for cities. Francisco Javier Vázquez and Beatriz Moreno Aguilera were in charge of the presentations.

Rail transport is one of the most sustainable solutions today and Ayesa is the engineering firm that is designing the expansion of the Seville MetroCentre to reach the Nervión area and the Santa Justa AVE (high speed) station. This public contract was awarded to the company last June.

European mobility week

Autodesk Forum Barcelona 2017 took placeon the 5th of October under the motto‘The Future Of Making Things’. The speakers invited to the event by the mul-tinational company included two Ayesa directors: Fidel San Emeterio (Technology and Processes Director) and Xavier Güell (Engineering Director of the Engineering

and Industrial Construction Department), who explained the firm’s experience with the use of BIM. Various innovative tech-nologies such as augmented and virtual reality, reality capture, generative design connected BIM, Internet of things, 3D and additive manufacturing, amongst others, were covered during the event.

Autodesk Forum Barcelona

IN THE NEWS

19CORPORATE SYSTEMS

>> The company offers its staff an updated version of the My CV application. The programme allows employees to connect easily via Yammer and Skype as it includes access to these networks. Completing your profile as much as possible is notably advantageous for your employa-bility and training.

Linkedin has undeniably become a tool for networking, employment searches and training on a global scale. But within companies with a large volume of workers like Ayesa, it is also key to have internal networks that facilitate the management of people’s knowledge, in addition to establishing search and communication channels between them. All this is what the new My CV application, developed by the company’s Information Systems department, aims to provide.The platform, hosted on the intranet (Ayesa World), within the Employee Area, allows workers to manage all their CV information and find their colleagues, in addition to contacting them from any device (smartphone, tablet or PC) thanks to Yammer -the internal social network- and Corporate Skype, in a single click.José Carlos Muñoz, e-Business manager, explained that the application has improved a lot with respect to the previous version, as it now allows you to do very advanced searches of professional profiles. “You can refine the search a lot by specifying the language, the knowledge required, if they belong to a specific project and alsoif they have a certain certification, for example”.The application also has the option of directly creating a Yammer group with the people who share these characteristics, Muñoz pointed out.

KnowledgeBut in addition to facilitating communication between employees, this application is key for knowledge management. The fact is that knowledge, together with skills and attitude, make up the tri-factor taken into account when assessing a candidate for possible promotion, the assigning of a relevant project or inclusion in a training plan.However, there is not always sufficient data due to failure to update CVs or lack of precision in relation to the experience of

workers.Thus, one of the goals of this application is that makes up each employee’s profile.“The application guides you using a pop-

up menu with direct access to the main sections, such as training received and given or professional experience. Additionally, the on-screen presentation has been simplified and it has been made more user-friendly”, explained Muñoz.Domingo Ortega, HR director of the Enginee-ring Department stated that “the use of tools

like this one increases employability within the company, this being understood as a person’s ability to access a job role, develop and maintain skills and knowledge and change career path”.He added that it will be a key tool for inter-nal promotions as it allows profiles suitable for that needed at any given time to surface.Finally, the information supplied to the platform will also be fundamental in opting for training plans, “as it will allow greater detectionof the needsof both individuals and teams”, concluded Ortega.

My CV 2.0

e-Business Manager

José Carlos Muñoz

Menu interface of the My CV application.

Employees must update their knowledge areas and experience in the projects.

This tool is key to analyse profiles with a view to internal promotion

Nº 32Nº 32Ingenio 34

What have you done in your career?My whole professional and even personal life has been linked to aeronautics as a family vocation. In fact, the first time I got on a plane was when I was six on anC-212, from Morón to Torrejón.I started working for Aena in 1999 and in2003 I got into industry in Air-bus. Since then I have always worked in the field of manufacturing engineering, very closely with production, getting my trousers dirty and burning safety boots. In 2012 the opportunity came up to participate in the creation of AAC and here I am, delighted to be here.

What challenges do you have to face on a daily basis as General Director of AAC? Luckily I have an amazing team and my day to day work doesn’t consist of putting out fires. Our speciality is complex work where the details are everything, which is why choosing the right people is the biggest cha-llenge. The second most complex chapter is sales.Aeronautics is a difficult, closed market in which it is difficult to grow.

What has Ayesa’s evolution been like in the aeronautics department?In five years we have doubled our turnover and staff. We already have 140 employees, whilst when I started there weren’teven thirty of us. However, I think themost important advance is the market’s per-ception of us: we have gone from being the new kid on the block to being respected by our competitors and considered a technica-lly-solvent, reliable company.

Why has this year been especially good?Last year international production finally took off. Breaking this barrier has been great for our brand, and has also opened the door on new professional opportunities for AAC’s engineers.

What countries are we working in? Mostly in Europe, Germany, the UK and France in that order. In October if everything goes well we will start our first project in China. We’ve just got back from Brazil and we were recently providing support in Indonesia.

What does the future have in store for this line of business?We want to continue to grow at an annual rate of 5 to 10% but overall,we want to grow outside of Spain. Our inter-national activity will have represented 23% during this financial year.

What aircraft programmes will we be participating in?Our greatest specialisation is military programmes, particularly the A400M. As for commercial aircraft, if you fly on any Airbus, part of the manufacturing engineering is ours, as we are in all the planes. We also participate in the programmes of Boeing’s best-sellers such as the 737, 777 and the 787, and the Embraer 190. It’s an indirect relationship, but I’d like to think our plane tickets are that little bit cheaper thanks to the manufacturing cost of our engineering solutions being a little bit lower.

>> Telecommunications engineer, born in Seville in 1980. He transferred to Madrid in 2013 as Operations Director of Ayesa Air Control (AAC), one of the company’s newest lines of business. He is currently the General Director of this firm, which is now a reference manufacturing engineer for the aeronautic giant Airbus.

“We have gone from being the new kid on the block to being respected by our competitors”

Managing Director of the Aeronautics and Defence AreaPedro Sanz Marcos

One book. Norwegian Wood, by Murakami One journey. I’m content to go for a walk round the block as long as it’s in good company.One dish. Red tuna.One sport. Padel.One wish. I don’t ask for much, if my loved-ones are happy I don’t need anything else.