JTI
Chief Information Officer Atiq Samad reveals the transformations he has overseen at JTI , from industry 4.0 to artificial intelligence
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TI is the world ’ s third largest tobacco company , operating in 130 markets with a workforce of 44,000 people , 29 factories , 8 R & D centers and 6 tobacco processing facilities around the world . The company ’ s Chief Information Officer is Atiq Samad , and he has been in the role for two years . Such a large , global company has had a head start on the adaptations companies are experiencing worldwide in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic , as he explains : “ Fortunately at JTI , we were already used to having virtual teams , because we are spread out all across the world , representing many different locations . We ’ ve learned over the last 15 , 20 years how to work in a virtual team .”
When Atiq joined JTI , he made it his mission to look at the company ’ s IT landscape holistically , in order to modernize its technology platforms under the banner of a Business Platform Modernization ( BPM ) program . “ We were one of the first big companies with a single instance database on SAP