Businesses should embrace digitalisation, say experts

GEORGE TOWN: Digitalisation is the way forward for businesses as the world gradually recovers from the panic and pessimism of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many businesses have embraced digitalisation to run and manage their concerns on a unified platform that is optimised to streamline processes and generate data quickly for better decision-making.

Many businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMES), are now going digital and equipping themselves for fast expansion.

Digitalisation efforts

At the fourth The Star Outstanding Business Awards (SOBA) LAB, which was held at The Wembley, A St Giles Hotel, Penang last Thursday, participants were shown ways to further enhance their businesses as well as digitalisation efforts that can be used to up their game.

Two sessions were held in Mandarin on how businesses can scale up.

These were moderated by Wybrant Consultancy managing director Will Teh, who is also JCI Kulim local president.

Teh said businesses can leverage on digitalisation as it saves resources and time.

“Business owners not only need to know about the systems or processes, but must also know the mindset and behaviour of users.

“Businesses must not only follow trends but take the time to identify key problems to know what is needed to resolve challenges.

“However, business owners should take one step at a time and build their confidence from there,” he said.

The first session examined how to “Improve business efficiency via digital finance transformation”.

The panel speakers included RHB Bank Bhd SME Banking head Yip How Nang, Great Ideals Group founder and chief executive officer (CEO), and also PUMM president, Tan Lay Seong and Big Academy Sdn Bhd managing director and JCI senator Alen Yeoh.

Yip said digital technology is being applied to almost every part of a company’s value chain, making it difficult for businesses to identify priorities.

Critical myths

“Many managers believe that digital transformation involves a radical disruption of the business, new investments in technology, a complete switch from physical to virtual channels and the acquisition of tech.

“We need to debunk these critical myths about digital transformation and better understand how to respond to current trends,” he said.

Tan said digitalisation helps businesses understand customer behaviour better.

“With the data, businesses get to familiarise themselves with the target customers’ behaviour and further understand their business models.

“It is easier to gauge their target audience and provide solutions to the industry’s pain points.”

Business models

Business owners must be able to know their business models, their position, as well as their direction, he added.

Yeoh said although it might be hard at the beginning when embracing digitalisation, the result will definitely be rewarding.

“Initially, it might take time, manpower and cost to stabilise the digitisation process, and during this time, many SMES get impatient as they are unwilling to wait.

“I hope business owners can be patient and look long term as digitalisation can decrease physical costs and, at the same time, increase procedure efficiency, which will make it easier for them to expand their business in the future, be it locally or internationally.

“Furthermore, digital banking and loan application processes can be done online nowadays, so we no longer need to line up and spend time at the bank.

“Internet transactions are transparent and it is easier for banks to trace and view the customers’ profile.

“It will also be easier for banks to approve loans, so that there will be better cash flow and it will be easier for businesses to expand,” he said.

Meanwhile, the second session delved into ways of “accelerating business growth through digitalisation.”

This session featured Digi SME Direct Sales (nationwide) head Thew Soon Kheng, PKT Logistics Group Sdn Bhd chief marketing officer Kuan Eu Jin and Goldsome Innovation Sdn Bhd managing director Poon Wai Kit on the panel.

Thew said digitalisation is essential and it is now inevitable in SMES. We have to embrace digitalisation nowadays.

Incremental success

“It is important for businesses to identify their problems and resolve them one by one. Through these small steps, they will be able to achieve incremental success over time. They will also have to identify the right business partner to work with them, embrace digitalisation and get advice from consultations to achieve more.

“At Digi, we talk to our customers and treat them like our business partners to further understand their pain points and problem statements before providing them with solutions.

“By doing this, customers will be able to see incremental improvement and be more confident in embarking on a bigger scale digital transformation journey at a later stage,” he said.

Business growth

Kuan said digitalisation is no longer a choice, but has become a norm.

“There is software to do everything now. Smart entrepreneurs or CEOS should make use of digitalisation tools to get the data they need, as digitalisation sharpens marketing efforts, grows businesses and helps with scalability.

“Digitalisation can also solve manpower shortage problems as some processes can be automated or robotised.

“For example, at PKT we employ machine learning to take over data entry jobs in the logistics industry,” he said.

ecommerce marketplace

Poon spoke of how embracing digitalisation has improved his business.

“Due to lockdowns, I started my business’s retail on social media and ecommerce marketplaces. This is one of the boldest but wisest decisions I’ve made. The gold industry is considered a traditional industry, and customers will worry about getting non-genuine gold if they purchase it online.

“By embracing digitalisation, we worked hard to build customers’ trust as well as make good use of online platforms to build our brand and market our products.

“Thankfully, I managed to soar in sales and marketing, becoming one of the top sellers of gold jewellery on Shopee.

Bold innovations

“As we enter the endemic phase, we now welcome walk-in customers to the store as well as provide the best customer service online,” he said.

SOBA 2022 is organised by Star Media Group with Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd, Digi, PKT Logistics Group and RHB Bank Bhd as main sponsors, Talentcorp Malaysia as co-sponsor and Matrade as official trade promotion partner.

Supported by Bursa Malaysia, it is audited by BDO with 988 and Suria as the official media partners.

Showcase your organisation’s bold innovations and how you’ve scaled your ideas into sustainable realities.

Submit your application for the Star Outstanding Business Awards at www.soba. com.my before Nov 11, 2022.

For more information on SOBA 2022, call SMG Events at 017-2311789 or visit www. soba.com.my