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APPOINTMENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Hills Limited announced that it has embarked on a digital transformation program in partnership with Cognizant, a
global professional services leader, to revitalize the company's e-commerce capabilities and improve core busi-
ness processes, customer engagement, and operational efficiencies.

Hills is focused on the distribution of technologies that 'connect, entertain and secure people's lives'. With a strong
presence in security, audio-visual, communications and health markets, Hills has positioned itself as a 'one-stop
shop' for integrated building technology solutions, targeting industry verticals such as health, education, banking,
and government infrastructure.

Cognizant will leverage its digital strategy, design, and technology capabilities to develop an e-commerce platform
that will provide the customers of Hills with 24x7 real-time inventory and self-service capabilities, including cus-
tomer statements, invoices, pricing, online payments, and delivery information. Cognizant will implement a man-
aged service model to enable Hills to improve operational agility and lower costs, while re-deploying savings to
fund investments in innovation for growth. Hills believes it will allow staff to be more engaged with customers and
vendors, and create a stronger platform to promote vendor products.

The planned go-live date for Hills' e-commerce site is early 2018. ◊

Essence, a data-driven global agency that is part of WPP, announced two new additions to
the agency's regional leadership team: Stephen Tompkins has been named Head of Media
Activation, APAC, and Haruna McWilliams will become Regional Strategy Director, a newly-
created role.

As the Head of Media Activation in APAC, Tompkins will be charged with overseeing a team of
social, display and search media activation experts across APAC. He will sit on the Regional Lead-
ership team and report to Oscar Garza, global director of media activation. With over 15 years of
Stephen
Tompkins rich digital media experience in Asia and North America, Tompkins most recently spent six years
at Publicis across New York, Beijing and Singapore handling operations, activation and strategy
for the programmatic practice. Additionally, he was part of the initial Vivaki Media Technology team which devel-
oped the original audit process for all ad tech vendors in North America and APAC. He was part of the launch
team to setup Vivaki's biddable media practice in Southeast Asia across 8 markets. Prior to joining Publicis, he
worked in marketing and account management for Microsoft, Mediaplex and Nielsen.

McWilliams will step into the newly-created role of Regional Strategy Director to build Essence's
strategy offering in the region. She will work closely with Alastair Boyle, Global Strategy Lead, to
coordinate Essence's regional and global viewpoint. McWilliams will report to Kyoko Matsushita,
CEO of Essence APAC. With over fifteen years of industry experience, she most recently served
as Global Planning Director at Leo Burnett, Singapore, where she played a key role on P&G
brands. Previously she held roles in Japan, US and the UK with Ogilvy & Mather, BBDO and
JWT in charge of strategy for global clients such as Unilever, Danone, AmEx and Cisco Sys-
tems. Before her move to Singapore, she built the strategy capability for IPG Mediabrands in Haruna McWilliams
Japan, where she was the lead on key global clients including J&J and Coca-Cola.

The appointments are effective immediately. Both leaders will be based in the agency's Singapore office. ◊

TrueCommerce, a global provider of trading partner connectivity and integration solutions, announced
the acquisition of Datalliance, the world’s largest provider of technology and services to support collaborative
replenishment programs such as vendor managed inventory (VMI) and related business needs.

This addition complements the TrueCommerce portfolio of offerings by providing a strategic technology service
that extends its commerce network into the collaborative replenishment, inventory management and demand fore-
casting markets.

Omni-channel enablement changed the traditional ordering process by requiring more visibility and collaboration.
VMI aligns business objectives and streamlines supply chain operations for both suppliers and their supply chain
partners. Trading partners focused on collaboration through VMI programs are expanding at a rapid rate, using
better demand signals, optimizing shipping and distribution to increase profitability and automating more of the
replenishment process to drive efficiency and reduce costs. Datalliance VMI solutions allow them to scale their
programs to cover more categories, more geographies, more partners and increase sales. ◊

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