2020 Annual Report

Center of Excellence (CoE)

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Votorantim’s Center of Excellence is made up of centers specialized in information technology, finance, accounting and taxes, human resources, real estate solutions, innovation and data use (analytics).

Agility and a sound relationship of trust among its approximately 800 employees enabled the CoE to adapt to new ways of working and communicating in the face of the pandemic. As a result, the CoE not only maintained its ongoing operations but also achieved productivity gains that were passed on to the portfolio companies. 102-6

People

The people management activities conducted during the pandemic were detailed in the case study “Getting the job done: caring for and connecting with the team during the pandemic”, which received the Ser Humano Award, promoted by the Brazilian Human Resources Association of Paraná state (Associação Brasileira de Recursos Humanos do Paraná, ABRH-PR).

In 2020, the CoE also continued its diversity activities. Promoted mainly by a Diversity Committee, the discussions have increased knowledge of diversity issues and resulted in changes in attitude.

As part of this effort, the CoE hired and promoted a total of five women to management positions (at the end of the year, 48% of all leaders were women), accelerated the hiring of People with Disabilities (PWD) and contributed to the redesign of the Internship Program selection process, carried out in partnership with a consulting firm specialized in diversity.

Innovation and Product Development

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Innovation is at the core of the CoE’s purpose to develop original, effective and integrated solutions to the common challenges of companies. During the year, the CoE began offering these solutions to companies outside Votorantim’s portfolio.

Product development happens through BoXUp, an accelerator of innovative initiatives that since its creation has produced 21 approved ideas. Four of them stood out in 2020:

A procurement intelligence product based on artificial intelligence that automates purchasing processes, evaluates commercial proposals, conducts negotiations and concludes purchases after considering the procurement strategies and policies of each company.

Uses artificial intelligence to analyze inventories; it interprets their descriptions and specifications, points out stock redundancies and directs the appropriate systemic treatment for the material.

An algorithm that can predict which employees are likely to leave the company and when they might resign. The tool has 94% accuracy and helps human resources leaders manage people through a new perspective.

A web platform that analyzes data of companies and individuals with regard to meeting legal and compliance requirements through due diligence reviews of business integrity issues.

Using artificial intelligence, the CoE develops solutions to enable decision making through data analysis, including intelligent algorithms in the collection area that predict client movements in the payment and credit area, to strategically manage this flow for the companies in the Votorantim portfolio. Similar initiatives were developed for product pricing and to analyze the dynamics of industrial processes, anticipating potential problems in production.

Some of the CoE’s solutions are already available to the market; the three that stand out are:

With a focus on loss prevention, it identifies risks and waste in business transactions through the intensive use of technology; it monitors activities virtually and continuously. Sykn is used by the portfolio companies and, in 2020, the CoE signed its first contract to provide the solution to an external client.

With a focus on health and benefit management, it provides access to information on claims, user profile and costs through a single system, which ensures greater autonomy for Human Resources employees and provides a redefined, unique experience for them, as well as for doctors. In addition to segregated access, the solution ensures medical confidentiality and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is used by portfolio companies and centralizes the management of 87,000 lives and 20,000 employees.

The goal of this startup is to accelerate the property appraisal process and contribute to the digital transformation of the sector through data use. In 2020, Avaliei performed approximately 10,300 evaluations for banks and fintechs, and was included in the proptech maps (startup selection).

Solutions Against COVID-19
The CoE supported the Votorantim Institute and the strategy of Votorantim and portfolio companies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The activities conducted by the CoE included mapping and working with partners in the area of digital services and strategic and epidemiological data intelligence solutions to assist governments in decision-making, in addition to developing a platform to provide psychological support to health professionals (learn more).

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