About the speaker

Tom Jarle’s career spans nearly three decades across both sides of intralogistics. He started on the customer side — as logistics director at retail companies Voice and Bohus — before spending twenty years in senior roles at automation integrators Swisslog and Dematic, covering business development, solution design, technology selection, and contract negotiations.

For the past five years he has brought that combined perspective to NovaRetail, where he helps companies navigate technology selection, vendor negotiations, and project governance without the bias of a product to sell.

How to De-risk Automation Projects

Warehouse automation projects fail more often than the industry likes to admit — not because the technology doesn’t work, but because of poor scoping, misaligned contracts, and vendors whose incentives don’t match the customer’s.

Drawing on nearly three decades on both sides of the table — twenty years at integrators Swisslog and Dematic, and eight years as a logistics director managing automation investments — Tom Jarle Dehkes breaks down where projects actually go wrong and what you can do about it before you sign the contract.

This session covers how to structure the procurement process to protect your interests, what to look for in vendor proposals, how to negotiate commercial terms that hold up when things get complicated, and how to maintain control through implementation. Practical, vendor-neutral, and grounded in real projects.

If you are responsible for an automation investment — or advising on one — this is the session you want before your next RFP/RFQ goes out.