TomTom has chosen HowNow to support its move to a skills-based organisation, with the partnership centred on TomTom Academy, an internal learning platform for its workforce.

TomTom Academy launched in December 2024, with its full skills functionality rolled out in July 2025. The platform is intended to link employee development to changing business requirements as part of a two-year people strategy.

Based in the Netherlands, TomTom provides geolocation technology, including maps, real-time traffic information and navigation services, to carmakers, businesses and governments. The group employs more than 3,300 people worldwide.

A key factor in selecting HowNow was its AI-based skills-mapping technology, which is designed to give TomTom a current view of workforce skills and gaps while directing employees to relevant learning opportunities.

The partnership also reflects TomTom’s effort to reshape learning across the business by giving employees skills-led development paths aligned with shifts in customer demand and market conditions.

Other factors behind the decision included product alignment, integration with other systems and ease of use. The partnership also fits TomTom’s wider internal approach to work and employee development.

One early aim has been to widen access to content creation inside the company. Employees in different markets can now create learning materials for colleagues, broadening the flow of knowledge across the business.

For HowNow, TomTom joins its list of technology sector customers. For TomTom, the project forms part of a broader effort to organise learning around business needs rather than fixed roles.

Aneta Milosierna-Santos, People Product Lead at TomTom, said, “[HowNow’s] AI skills mapping functionality was a big selling point for us, as was the strong sense of partnership we felt during those initial conversations. Like TomTom, HowNow is an agile, fast-growth company…because of that, we could see their potential to evolve with us, and that really resonated.”

Milosierna-Santos also highlighted the platform’s effect on internal knowledge sharing: “In just a few short months, HowNow has enabled us to democratise learning. Any one of our employees, in any of our geographic markets, can now become an internal content creator. This is already multiplying knowledge across and between our employees at speed – and in a way that is quick and easy for them.”

TomTom’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Arne‐Christian van der Tang, linked the project to the company’s broader workforce model: “At TomTom, our people strategy is built around what we call the now of work – creating the conditions for our teams to have impact today. Academy gives us real-time visibility into skills across our organisation and enables our people to learn, grow and deliver value with agility. In a world where the pace of change is relentless, this partnership helps us stay responsive, flexible and focused on empowering TomTom’ers to do their best work, every day.”

Nelson Sivalingam, co-founder and chief executive of HowNow, described TomTom as a business moving towards a different organisational model: “TomTom is a progressive organisation that continues to create world-class products and services. By becoming a skills-based organisation, the company has demonstrated a strong commitment to its people and future success – and we’re delighted to be supporting TomTom on that journey.”

Liverpool FC has expanded its partnership with SAS to use artificial intelligence and analytics in digital supporter marketing, with the work focused on creating more personalised fan experiences across its digital channels.

The arrangement centres on SAS Customer Intelligence 360 and SAS Viya, which Liverpool will use to analyse supporter data across web, mobile and social platforms. The aim is to make digital interactions more relevant and timely while improving tracking of engagement, conversion and fan sentiment.

The move reflects a wider push by sports organisations to use customer data more directly in marketing, commerce and audience development. For Liverpool, which has one of football’s largest global followings, digital channels have become an important way to stay connected with supporters beyond matchdays.

Early uses identified by the club include personalised merchandising offers, changes to digital journeys where users encounter friction, and models designed to predict supporter behaviour and preferences. Those insights will shape communications and marketing activity based on how fans interact with the club.

Rather than treating web, mobile and social activity separately, Liverpool plans to combine those data sources in a single system. The approach is intended to give its marketing team a broader view of supporter behaviour and allow campaigns to be adjusted continuously.

Chris Jennions, Vice President of Marketing at Liverpool FC, linked the project to the club’s broader digital audience strategy.

“Our focus is on our supporters – how we engage them digitally, the quality digital experiences we offer and how we continue to grow that audience globally,” said Chris Jennions, Vice President of Marketing at Liverpool FC. “With SAS Customer Intelligence 360 we can deliver AI-powered real-time, individualised digital fan experiences, serving our supporters better than ever before. Just as importantly, it gives us a clear way to measure success through engagement, conversion and fan sentiment supporting long-term sustainability.”

AI agents

Another part of the plan involves AI agents within SAS Customer Intelligence 360. These tools are intended to support the management of digital customer journeys in real time and help marketing teams refine audience groups, adjust journeys based on behaviour, and review operational performance from the platform.

SAS described the next phase as a shift from AI-assisted marketing to more automated orchestration of fan engagement. The system can be used to design audiences, recommend actions and adapt marketing decisions as new data comes in, while leaving strategic oversight with human teams.

“As LFC looks ahead, the real opportunity lies in moving from AI-assisted marketing to AI-orchestrated digital fan engagement,” said Jonathan Moran, Head of Martech Solutions Marketing at SAS. “With the AI agents embedded in SAS Customer Intelligence 360, LFC can begin coordinating intelligent audience creation, designing customer journeys and decisions in real time using AI to surface insights, and recommend next best actions to accelerate execution and conversion, while marketers remain firmly in control of strategy, approvals, and guardrails.”

Wider trend

The partnership highlights how football clubs are increasingly treating supporters as year-round digital audiences rather than only match-going customers. In that model, data from browsing habits, app use, content consumption and online purchasing can shape how clubs sell merchandise, distribute content and maintain loyalty in international markets.

Liverpool has long had a substantial overseas following, making digital engagement central to its commercial strategy. Personalised marketing systems offer clubs a way to tailor outreach by geography, behaviour and interest, particularly when many supporters may never attend a match in person but still interact with the brand regularly.

Technology suppliers have also been pushing further into sport as teams seek more direct relationships with fans and better visibility into online behaviour. Marketing platforms that combine analytics with automated decision-making are now being pitched as tools for improving user journeys, identifying drop-off points and increasing the relevance of outbound messages.

For Liverpool, the practical test will be whether those systems improve supporter response across its digital estate and convert engagement into measurable commercial returns. Jennions said the club would judge the work through metrics including engagement, conversion and fan sentiment.

More than 11,000 paper-based data breaches were reported to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office between 2020 and 2025, according to Officeology. Its analysis found employee data featured in almost one in five incidents.

The document management specialist reviewed ICO records on paperwork that was lost, stolen or incorrectly disposed of. It identified 11,141 incidents over the period, including 2,103 involving employee information such as personal identifiers, health details and financial data.

The figures point to a persistent form of data loss outside the usual focus on online attacks and system intrusions. Under the ICO’s classification, paperwork-related incidents are treated as non-cyber breaches because they do not involve a clear online or technological element linked to a malicious third party.

In 2025 alone, 1,820 paperwork breaches were reported to the regulator, the analysis found. Of those, 330 incidents, or 18%, involved employee data and could have affected as many as 28,000 workers, based on the size of the organisations involved.

Reporting delays

The analysis also highlighted repeated delays in notifying the regulator. UK GDPR requires organisations to report personal data breaches within 72 hours of becoming aware of them, but that deadline was missed in 41% of paperwork cases recorded in 2025.

That included 399 incidents reported a week or more after discovery and 351 reported between 72 hours and one week later. For breaches involving employee data, 39% of incidents, or 130 cases, were reported after the 72-hour deadline.

The information exposed most often was basic personal data, including names, addresses and dates of birth. In 2025, 708 incidents involved those identifiers, accounting for 39% of the year’s paperwork breaches, while health data featured in 23% of cases.

Among breaches linked to employee records, a third, or 112 incidents, involved the loss, theft or incorrect disposal of basic identifying information. This suggests routine administrative records remain a notable source of risk when physical files are mishandled.

Few investigations

Most reported incidents did not lead to a formal ICO investigation. Fewer than 5% of paperwork breaches recorded between 2020 and 2025 were escalated for formal investigation, according to Officeology.

In 2025, only 12 paperwork-related incidents were passed to investigation teams to assess what action, if any, was appropriate, down from 55 in 2024.

Last year, the ICO chose not to use its formal powers in 1,429 paperwork mishandling cases, instead providing guidance and advice. Only one incident involving employee data was formally investigated in 2025.

The steady level of incidents over the past five years suggests the shift towards digital systems has not removed the risks tied to physical records. Although many organisations have reduced their reliance on paper, remaining document flows still appear to create opportunities for files to be lost, left insecure or improperly discarded.

Officeology argued this leaves a gap in many security approaches, particularly where businesses have focused investment on digital protection while paying less attention to the storage, handling and disposal of hard-copy records.

Adam Butler, chief executive of Officeology, commented on the findings and offered advice on managing offline data security.

“Our analysis of ICO data has highlighted areas of concern, specifically businesses using paper-based systems.

While cybersecurity dominates the news, physical theft, loss or the incorrect disposal of paper records remains a significant risk to companies’ data security, including their own employees’ private information.

GDPR legislation, the legal framework that aims to protect the privacy and personal data of individuals, is technology-neutral and applies whether data is processed online or offline. It covers any filing system intended to be used in a searchable way.

Paper-based processes are inherently more vulnerable to human error. Adopting document management systems allows businesses to streamline workflows and store information in secure, centralised environments, helping organisations better safeguard data and maintain compliance,” Butler said.