Our focus on operational excellence at DHI covers a multitude of aspects, from business ethics to innovation, client relationships and data security. The security of our operations and client data remains paramount. 

Investments in innovation  

Investing in innovation is essential to DHI. To reflect our commitment, we have created a Technology & Innovation unit within our global structure to provide support to our global business units. Part of this new structure is an Innovation Lab, which focuses on commercialising our innovations. The Lab seeks upfront market validation through experimentation, staying true to market-driven innovation and supporting fast scaling of ideas. Engagement spans all of DHI, from investigating potential within blue carbon markets to providing design and mock-ups for prototypes or facilitation of innovation processes.

In 2023, DHI's investment in innovation amounted to EUR 6.1 million, which is an increase from the previous year (2022: EUR 5.8 million). All resources are invested with the goal of boosting our innovation capabilities and connecting DHI with external innovation ecosystems such as start-ups, funding, R&D partners, etc., linking innovation and sustainability. In 2023, DHI’s external revenue from research & development amounted to EUR 8.3 million (2022: EUR 7.7 million).

Advancing client relationships  

Client relationships build our reputation as a trusted advisor. Whilst bringing in new clients is important, maintaining our excellent relationships with existing clients is essential for sustainable business growth.

DHI+ is centred on operational excellence and client management. We are committed to: 

 

 

Our global business unit heads have an overall responsibility for maintaining client relationships, with oversight from the Executive Leadership Team. Our ambition is for our clients and other stakeholders to be involved with our innovation work and their inputs to drive our innovation and sustainability direction so our innovation has the highest value possible for our clients and partners. 

To maintain our good reputation, each of our project and sales managers is trained in client communication and management. Following the conclusion of a product or service, we also issue a client satisfaction survey to review our performance and delivery and to help us improve our service in future from lessons learnt.   

During 2023, our key account managers have further developed trusted relationships with clients and built an understanding of their needs and how DHI can contribute to solving their water challenges. The effectiveness of our approach is evaluated through our revenue figures as well as our order inflow. In the future, we will additionally be establishing a net promotor score (NPS) to assess the loyalty of our clients as a measure of our positive relationships with them. 

Excellence in information security  

DHI deals with client solutions where confidentiality is essential for data and knowledge. We build decision support systems for different clients where integrity is paramount. Furthermore, availability of data is a critical factor, and constant access needs to be maintained. Our clients need to be able to trust our services and recommendations.

Protecting DHI’s confidentiality, integrity and availability is the foundation of our information security governance. Our Chief Information Security Officer is tasked with the responsibility of maintaining our information security. We have established a Cyber Security Board as a steering committee to implement security policies, comprised of senior management and the Executive Leadership Team. The role of the board is to ensure compliance with relevant regulations and to ensure the necessary resources and commitments.

We aim to continuously improve our enterprise security architecture. In 2023, we have implemented a DHI-wide Information Security Management System according to ISO 27001. The external certification process was carried out end-2023, and we achieved the certification on 26 February 2024.