Managing costs, raising productivity a challenge for Malaysian SMEs

KUALA LUMPUR: A survey conducted by United Overseas Bank ( Malaysia) Bhd ( UOB) has revealed that managing costs while raising productivity is a challenge and a concern for small and medium entreprises (SMEs) in Malaysia.

The survey titled “ASEAN SME Transformation Survey”, was jointly conducted with assurance, tax, transaction and adv i sory services provider, Ernst and Young, and commercial data, analytics and insights provider, Dun and Bradstreet.

UOB, in a statement yesterday, said the survey showed that almost seven out of 10 Malaysian SMEs thought automating and digitising their business processes was the best way to raise productivity levels and to reduce overall operating costs in the long-run.

It said 69 per cent of the Malaysian SMEs surveyed said that raising productivity through automation, greater use of technology and business process simplification would be important or very important to drive productivity.

“While SMEs are keen to reap the benefits of digital technology, it can be costly to implement such technology,” it said.

It said in line with their focus on harnessing technology to help drive performance, 65 per cent of companies surveyed intended to invest in technology infrastructure while 71 per cent indicated that they would welcome funding assistance to help them adopt digital technology faster.