Sunthar Supparmaniam, Credence’s Vice President of Supplier & Application Modernisation, shares how manufacturers can gain greater visibility across their supply chains for better efficiency.

At TM One’s LEAP Forward Manufacturing 2022, enterprises that are keen to fast-track their transformation learned more about virtualised cloud-based services, how to leverage digital networks to modernise legacy processes, accelerate workflow efficiency, and improve their cybersecurity.

Sunthar Supparmaniam from Credence, TM’s cloud and digital services entity, shed some light on Credence’s supplier and distributor management solution to help manufacturers gain wider visibility across their supply chains. This article summarises the highlights from his talk.

Introducing Credence to the World

Launched in July 2022, Credence is a new cloud and digital services provider powered by TM Group. Leveraging strategic partnerships with the world’s leading service providers such as AWS, SAP, and Oracle, Credence opens up a global talent pool of domain and tech experts, delivering a new breed of digital transformation solutions for Malaysia.

Credence provides specialised market offerings within cloud, SaaS, analytics, digital upskilling, and managed services with a focus on crafting curated solutions for industries such as manufacturing, energy, healthcare, BFSI and the public sector.

Through its diversified portfolio, Credence aims to accelerate Malaysia’s digital transformation process by helping businesses understand their unique technology landscape and provide solutions to suit each business priority.

With the added value of highlighting risks and rewards through advisory and delivery services, Credence offers the right guidance coupled with targeted solutions tailored to each business challenge.

Partnering with Arteria to transform Malaysia’s manufacturing industry

In building the right solution for Malaysian manufacturers, Credence has struck a country exclusive partnership with leading supply chain management and fintech player, Arteria, enabling access to its’ extended financial supply chain platform – FinessArt. 

“FinessArt enables real-time collaboration which extends the power of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to suppliers, transporters, sub-contractors, warehouses, sales teams, and multi-tier distribution networks,” Sunthar shared during his presentation.

“By digitalising business requirements from procurement to distribution, FinessArt allows full and complete visibility of supply chains and drives data-driven decision making to the next level.”

FinessArt to Enable Greater Supply Chain Visibility

Through FinessArt’s digitalisation solutions and full visibility to supply chain management, Credence is enabling the next step of modernisation in the manufacturing industry’s end-to-end processes. Built on existing SAP platforms, the expansion of an ERP solution designed to target and integrate every aspect of the supply chain journey will create more opportunities for a variety of functions available for manufacturing principals.

As noted by Sunthar, the Core ERP functions that SAP platforms currently provide covers a range of services such as Core Finance, Material Management, Financial Supply Chain, along with Sales and Distribution – tools that are essential for a principal manufacturer’s visualisation of their current supply chain. The addition of FinessArt to the SAP platform allows the integration of further management tools beyond core ERP functions, allowing them to tap into Upstream, Downstream, Banking, and Logistics management functionalities and data. The introduction of these functions of FinessArt are roughly grouped into three distinct target areas, run by the SupplierPortal, DealerConnect, and DigitalBanking branches, aimed at providing visual coverage over the entire supply chain journey concerning manufacturing principals.

By identifying these target areas for principals and increasing supply chain visibility, the integration of FinessArt allows engagement with suppliers and provides data-driven analytics and data-backed evidence to continually improve supply chain efficiency.

Key Features of FinessArt’s DealerConnect and SupplierPortal Platform

What is in DealerConnect?

FinessArt’s DealerConnect allows principals to connect seamlessly with its distribution network, from primary sales with distributors to tertiary sales with retailers. After a successful onboarding with distributors, manufacturing principals will access a host of automated functions and data available at their disposal to manage and track the progress of anything related to their products.

FinessArt’s order management system has the following capabilities: 

• Create and track electronic orders, claims and returns.
• Management of order documents for PO, invoices and goods’ receipts.
• Generates integrated dashboards and reports to help track overdue and incoming shipments, stock movements and order status.

These processes allow for dealers to focus on product selling through targetted planning and dealer FOS management. These functions, accompanied by streamlining financing with dealers, also allow better visibility backed by data-driven reports to better capture the efficiency and effectiveness of each process. By reducing turnaround time with faster collection and automated processing, principals can identify key target areas to boost demand. This is done through the provision of information and insights generated by the integrated reporting and order management system.

FinessArt also extends its visibility range to secondary and tertiary sales with retailers through its network management capabilities. After onboarding retailers on to the platform, the data available to principals will allow them to take control of the FOS, by enabling:

• Geo-tagging outlets’ performance.
• Tracking regulatory forms, permits, and inventory.
• Expediting of route planning, invoicing and fulfilment, and secondary schemes and returns.

The ability to extend the expedition of resource flow throughout the distribution network via the use of insights and information generated from distributors’ systems can help manufacturing principals focus on building demand for customers. Information and insights generated from the full visibility gained can help them understand what is missing, how to improve their business processes, and the peak periods or trends when they should boost sales.

What is in SupplierPortal?

FinessArt’s SupplierPortal features integrate the upstream network of supplier management. These features allow manufacturing principals to:

• Directly meet and track their sources of production.
• Track specific data and performance of suppliers, enabling them to compare sourcing, shipment, quality, stocks, and finance, creating a reverse auction effect.
• Increase spending management efficiency through analytics, along with a PO history and schedule to gauge reliability.
• Create advance shipment notifications and invoice uploads paired with supplier performance and rating to expedite a faster turnaround.
• Efficiently scale up or scale down business processes to meet demands.
• Allow efficient tracking and options for manufacturing principals through an integrated report and dashboard viewing page, similar to DealerConnect

By synthesising the features and benefits generated from DealerConnect and SupplierPortal, FinessArt provides a one-stop platform that offers full visibility and functionality to manufacturing principals in their entire distribution network and their supplier relations.

Why This Matters to Manufacturing Principals

Integrating FinessArt on existing SAP Business Technology Platforms (BTP) allows for complete integration with SAP suppliers and dealers. This cloud-based platform is able to store and transmit data across different manufacturers, providing information and insights on the onboarded and integrated suppliers and dealers within the distribution network.

By being fully integrated on a cloud-based platform, FinessArt is able to merge the SAP UI5 as the front end with the SAP Cloud Connector to backend SAP ERP while also providing the opportunity to secure real-time calls with embedded firewalls in place. Through its operation on a role-based access system with authentication using the SAP Cloud Identity Provider, FinessArt can provide ease of access by operating remotely and on-demand. 

With Arteria’s vast network of over 400 satisfied customers across verticals spanning varying industries, Credence and FinessArt’s platform will be able to connect over a million supply chains and channel entities. This could potentially generate upwards of USD 43 billion in commerce. This offering to modernise a manufacturing principal’s supply chain from end to end by owning, manipulating, and monetising current data presents a dynamic opportunity for them to continually expand their business process efficiency and target growth through data-driven analytics. A full view of the distribution network with complete integration with SAP suppliers and dealers could continually open opportunities for manufacturers to diversify revenue streams such as financing credit loans, among others.

Credence is positioned to offer customers localised advisory capabilities and the best returns on their technology investment. It provides organisations the ability to embark on their digital journey with greater predictability, lesser concerns and disruption while choosing the best tech solutions that suit their needs and priorities, allowing them to focus on their core business.

Find out how your organisation will benefit from Credence’s localised advisory capabilities, especially in digitising your supply chain. visit www.credence.tech

Shazurawati Abd Karim – Executive Vice President , TM One

TM One’s LEAP Summit 2022 revolved around the theme of encouraging companies to make their next move in digital innovation and transformation. During the summit, digital experts from across the globe were brought together to shed light on transformation process their companies experienced and discussed pointers for others to be emulated. This article outlines the closing speech by Shazurawati Abd Karim, Executive Vice President at TM One where she officially launched TM One’s 5G Sphere Programme and shared with us its benefits.

5G to Fill in the Gaps of Our Digitalisation Process

The next generation of mobile network infrastructure has arrived. 5G is now deployed across numerous states, industrial areas, and technology parks in Malaysia and is projected to be accessible to at least 80% of the population by 2024. This will mark another evolution of information and communications infrastructure which will far outweigh our transformative experience during the transition to 4G.

5G is ready to take its place as a new breed of communications infrastructure. Businesses and consumers alike can expect an elevated digital experience through the benefits of 5G, such as:

• Faster transmission of large quantities of data
• Easy computation of data
• Improved real-time detection
• Instant analysis and action for data usage efficiency
• Reduced downtime and improvements in safety
• Better business performances
• Elevated user experiences

The Next Smart Solution for Businesses

For businesses, the adoption of digital solutions must be able to cater to the individual needs of every industry for it to be truly effective. This understanding has deepened over the years across several industries.

For example, financial services have refined and regulated selection processes for highly specific digital solutions to manage the large catalogue of services within the industry, from processing loan applications to financial product acquisition.

Another example can be taken from the usage of digital solutions in public spaces. Amsterdam’s smart city shows proof of the utilisation of smart solutions managed to streamline cost management, while simultaneously accelerated their smart city planning process. Within the manufacturing industry, digital solutions have transformed the management of production lines, resulting in highly efficient operations and cost savings.

While brief, these are just a handful of examples which indicate the versatility of the digital services being provided in serving specific industry needs, and how a targeted approach can generate insightful decision-making and streamlines operation. This understanding, coupled with the introduction of 5G, shows heavy promise in accelerating the adoption of these solutions and the benefits that come with it, paving the way for businesses to update and elevate performances even further.

However, while we strongly encourage businesses to begin scaling up their digitalisation efforts, we must also keep in mind the risks that come with. Indeed, a heavy reliance on technological tools and services presents a higher vulnerability to cyberattacks.

Shazurawati quoted a 2022 Kroll Cyber Risk and CFOs study of CFOs in Asia Pacific where 84% of the respondents confirmed they had more than three cybersecurity incidents in the last 18 months

A ranking by VPN service company SurfShark, placed Malaysia at the 11^th spot as a highly invasive and digitally threatened country. This indicates that unfortified businesses may experience an influx of cybercrimes in the future, resulting in potential data and financial loss.

While we chase our dreams of achieving total digital transformation, we must ensure that pursuing and upgrading our cybersecurity networks remains an uncompromisable priority.

Considering our new digital landscape and the potential vulnerabilities that come with it, there is a real need for a safe acquisition and integration process of digital solutions for businesses to be able to align their processes towards an IR 4.0 nation.

Entering a new era of productivity and safety with TM One’s 5G Sphere Programme

A new alliance between TM One and global and Malaysia’s top tech and smart services partners has now given rise to the 5G Sphere Programme.

The programme is an ecosystem of smart and digital solution enablers for enterprises for their innovation and transformation to the Next. TM One 5G Sphere partners harness the 5G services and capabilities to accelerate the fit for purpose solution and use cases from ideation to implementation for enterprises. All industry verticals public sector services, healthcare, education institutions, factories, manufacturers, and the transport and logistics sector could benefit from opportunities to smarterising their business operations with multiplicity of IoT-related solutions.

These tools will boost education institutions, factories, manufacturers, and the transport sector in revamping their systems and operations. There are also opportunities in propelling businesses in reaching 5G-related opportunities that lie on the horizon (i.e. Video monitoring, logistics, and fleet management). 

If there is one lesson to be taken from the uncertainty we experienced during the pandemic, it is one which highlights the value of innovation to businesses that is proven to be an effective investment for business sustainability and stability.  Rooting today’s efforts towards supporting tomorrow’s needs is key for strong, resilient organisations, capable of withstanding dynamic changes of the business landscape and even creating growth trajectories within the competitive market. As Malaysia’s business landscape continues to evolve, TM One is your trusted partner to propel you to greater heights towards a digital nation.

To register your interest in TM One 5G Sphere Programme, please visit https://www.tmone.com.my/5g/

Panelists:

Fabian Bigar, Chief Executive Officer, MyDIGITAL
Effendy Shahul Hamid, Chief Executive Officer, CIMB Digital Assets, CIMB Group
Ir. Dr. Lim Eu Shawn, Chief Global Solutions Officer, Aerodyne Group

Moderator:

Manoj Menon, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, twimbit

This article summarises the second panel discussion held during our LEAP Summit event which discussed trends and tips for Malaysian businesses to stay on top of their digitalisation game. The panel was moderated by Manoj Menon from twimbit, and was joined by Fabian Bigar from MyDIGITAL, Effendy Shahul Hamid from CIMB Digital Assets, and Ir. Dr. Lim Eu Shawn from Aerodyne Group as the panellists, who shared their experiences on digitalising their own organisations and the impact that the government initiative had upon their journeys.

Pushing Through the Turbulence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic presented a slew of unprecedented challenges to businesses, ranging from lockdown restrictions to disrupted supply chains and the dwindling availability of physical labour – challenges which forced many businesses to, unfortunately, throw in the towel.

However, businesses and organisations that managed to weather the storm have now credited their survival to the most valuable weapon in today’s business landscape – digitalisation.

CIMB’s Effendy Shahul Hamid first shared how the pandemic negatively impacted their equities in domestic markets and other firms. However, with today’s updated regulations and internal systems, the industry has managed to bounce back in record time as a new key player has entered the playing field.

Financial technology, or fintech, is now shaking up the industry by spreading the usage of apps and AI analytics to automate several traditional forms of banking such as loan applications and wealth management. To accommodate the newly ravenous appetite for convenience in banking services, the financial service market is now racing to increase technology utilisation into several verticals.

Regulatory frameworks and legacy systems have long since constricted banks’ ability and agility to introduce service revamps. However, as fintech continues to upend the landscape and customer expectations, traditional banks now find themselves at a critical inflection point – the continuing inflexibility of service and a hesitance to transform processes may now spell obsolescence.

Effendy once again emphasised the role of tech integration in facilitating CIMB’s goal of improving their customer experience and are a critical factor in attracting customers back to physical banks, a number that has been dwindling over the past 6 years.

Several organisations have already seen the benefits in integrating financial services into their organisations, with a key result being greater product distribution. Touch ‘n’ Go’s loan application alongside its’ main mobility ecosystem has effectively diversified their revenue portfolio. Meanwhile, Lazada’s Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) offering has elevated customer spending power. However, despite the benefits, non-financial institutions are finding that they lack the credibility and trust placed in traditional banking institutions. This highlights a great possibility of product and service-oriented businesses joining forces with traditional banks to deliver a new breed of convenience and credibility in customer experience.

Aerodyne’s Ir. Dr. Shawn Lim also shared how the Malaysian drone-based solutions provider relied on technology to manage their pandemic struggles. With many of Aerodyne’s operating industries affected by the COVID19 lockdowns, the company found opportunity in shoring up the manufacturing industry. Providing drone services for powerline inspections plugged the lack of labour, while reducing costs as well. An eye for spotting problems solvable by technological solutions opened up another opportunity for Aerodyne as they began rolling into the plantation industry – an industry previously completely out of Aerodyne’s radar. By providing problem-solving technological solutions through automated harvests, pesticide application and targeted fertilisation, Aerodyne was able to prevent a RM250 million’s worth of crops from being spoiled – clear evidence that realistic, targeted application of technological solutions can transform entire industries, equalling to success and sustainability for an organisation.      

Government Initiatives Easing the Path of Digitalisation

Alongside businesses’ efforts to harness the benefits of digital transformation, a strong support system is crucial in ensuring a smooth transition. The Malaysian government has been making great strides to encourage digital transformation in the nation. One of the key efforts is in launching initiatives such as MyDIGITAL in 2021, with the aim of elevating Malaysia into a digitally-driven, high income country.

MyDIGITAL spearheads the execution of The Malaysia Digital Economy Blueprint, a comprehensive national strategy to promote the country’s socioeconomic development, using cutting-edge technology.

The first phase of MyDIGITAL sought to solidify the framework of the nation’s adoption of digital technology. Fabian Bigar from MyDIGITAL shared how the budget for bringing micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) online has now grown from RM175,000 to RM1 million – indicating the appetite among MSMEs to participate in the digital economy.

Collaborations have been the cornerstone to success of the initiative. Fabian also shared about how several organisations, including TM, have contributed expertise and manpower to help spearhead MyDIGITAL’s initiative. These collaborations also include making iterative improvements to the MyDIGITAL framework. As the initiative moves into Phase 2, stakeholders such as the MyDIGITAL team, external organisations and government agencies conducted a thorough review of Phase 1, outlining learnings and improvements to be made. This cooperative approach has been instrumental to the framework’s development and signals the mutual desire across all stakeholders in pushing Malaysia towards a more digitally-inclined future.

Staying Relevant with the Upcoming Digitalisation Trends

However, beyond the first steps of digitalisation, the business world must learn to brace for the rapid advancements of technology and the changes that come with it. Within this year, the advent of 5G alone has hugely elevated the capabilities of smart solutions and its’ potential to streamline operations for several industries – this looks to set off another chain of trends and solutions that may transform the business landscape again.

Effendy and Shawn both shared the key business trends that are looking to greatly impact their industries.

Effendy’s take on the trends which will impact the banking industry include:

• The evolution of core banking systems: Banks must re-evaluate their technology, strategy, delivery strategy, and product origination and production to be on par and capable in delivering new consumer expectations effectively.
• Partnerships to generate customers: Banks need to work with multiple partners to complement their weaknesses in creating a holistic offering and encourage customer growth.
• Motivating and upskilling available talent: Many of the changes required from banks can be driven by internal manpower – banks must invest in their available talent and ensure existing teams have the skills required to thrive in a digital ecosystem.

Meanwhile, Shawn shared his thoughts on key business trends that are set to change Aerodyne and many other tech organisations:

• Hyper-competition: As markets become more saturated, the right application of tech and a solid business model is essential in delivering to customers.
• Reskilling talent for a digital economy:  Companies need to be able to cater to the displaced manpower as smart solutions slowly take over the operations of the company.
• Pivoting for an inclusive ecosystem: Digital tools must be built to strengthen the current ecosystem and empower the next level of business for entrepreneurs.

The First Step into Digitalisation for Businesses

It is clear that digitalisation is crucial for a company’s growth and this journey starts by highlighting the priorities of the company which can vary drastically for each company.

• MyDIGITAL values revising the work they have conducted to improve their work in the future.
• CIMB values core decision making which revolves around data intelligence.
• Aerodyne pushes for building a resilient ecosystem and sustainable practice.

In spearheading the digitalisation process, organisation and industry leaders have a big role to play. Hesitance and uncertainty are givens when transforming entire business processes. However, the role of digitalisation in creating resilience and sustainability for today’s business world is not inescapable. The panel concluded that to do this effectively, industry leaders must be open to learning from others, with a strong sense of humility within oneself, and have a certain degree of faith that the digitalisation process will pay off.

To find the ideal digital and smart solutions by TM One which can enable and accelerate your Next digitalisation journey, visit www.tmone.com.my

Panelist:
Datuk Bacho Pilong, Senior Vice President, Project Delivery & Technology, PETRONAS

Moderator:
Shazurawati Abd Karim, Executive Vice President, TM One  

Puan Shazurawati was joined by Datuk Bacho Pilong for a fireside discussion where he discussed Petronas’ digital transformation. This article illustrates Petronas’ journey toward digitalisation and how it has helped them stay competitive and current with trends.

Digitalisation Gives Petronas the Foresight on Upcoming Trends

Well-known as Malaysia’s Oil and Gas company, Petronas is part of the Top 10 Oil and Gas brands globally and is considered to be a valuable ASEAN brand, based on the 2022 Brand Finance Global 500 report¹.  After being established in 1974 by young and eager talents, Petronas first took on a regulatory role by supervising integrated oil and gas companies (IOCs) and then honed in on its oil and gas trades. Datuk Bacho Pilong shared that Petronas aspired to add value to gas molecules, which later catapulted Malaysia’s liquified natural gas (LNG) industry. The organisation made its first breakthrough in 1998 by producing and selling its first cargo of oil through a first successful international venture in Vietnam.  To date, Petronas has impacted over 100 countries such as Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Africa.

Petronas made an early start on its digital transformation journey, which began 5 years ago when advanced tech was still new to Malaysia. Thanks to this decision, the company was able to monitor the market trends closely, giving it an upper hand at predicting and preparing for the consequences of COVID19. While most of the world were struggling to stay connected, Petronas was able to maintain communication among its employees by rolling out collaboration tools as provided by TM’s cloud services. Not only did this result in Petronas being able to continue its operations, the company was able to continue monitoring and managing its international offices. This borderless connectivity between Petronas’ geoscientists, petroleum engineers, and engineers in Kuala Lumpur allowed the team to consistently deliver outputs without disruptions. Within 6 months, top notch cloud-enabled processes and capabilities allowed Petronas to execute its field development plan immediately and seamlessly.

Today, Petronas is moving beyond the fundamentals. The organisation is working to strengthen its essential building blocks, connectivity, and cloud storage to 90%; the systems and processes which proved essential in shoring up the organisations’ resilience and enabled its’ innovations.

The Key Beliefs Propelling Petronas’ Successes

Needless to say, Petronas is a prestigious company known for its’ prosperous growth and world-class operational processes. However, Datuk Bacho shared that the company is still able to scale new heights, mainly in decarbonising its’ operations and creating even more business opportunities. To attain these goals, the organisation is using digital transformation as its’ main weapon and taking a data-driven approach. The approach is powered by three fundamental beliefs:

• Data is an asset: Petronas is looking to harness the millions of data points it gains when its platforms produce hydrocarbons. These data points will be instrumental in creating actionable insights and uncovering new opportunities for the company.

• Digitalisation is an accelerator: Having digitalised its operations, Petronas is also working to deploy automation and robotic tech to streamline its operations

• Tech is a differentiator:  To ensure that Petronas stays ahead of the game and the upcoming trends, the company is looking to continue leveraging on cloud services and automation.

Moving to actualise these components will enable end-to-end transparency and will unlock billions in value for the company and nation.

Leveraging Advanced Tech for Efficient Operations

Petronas in its entirety, has been implementing new technology to streamline its operations. Datuk Bacho also revealed how the decline of production levels and the increase of unit production costs would be detrimental to the bottom line. To overcome that hurdle, advanced technology like robotics, automation, and digital technology have been deployed, reducing the organisation’s OpEx from 30% to 25%.

Recently, Petronas has been utilising remote autonomous operations (RAO) to manage activities offshore and cut back on personnel during offshore projects. The deployment of RAO provides the team with the flexibility to send in a maintenance team to conduct routine and corrective maintenance whereas operations can still be overseen and directed from the headquarters. He also shared how Petronas has been actively deploying robots that communicate with the mother platform. The robots, named ANYmal, are surface operation robots designed for autonomous surveillance and inspection in potentially harmful environments.

The deployment has effectively improved workflows, reduced labour and increased safety by minimising personnel exposure to high-risk tasks.

Petronas’ Future with Digital Twins

To conclude the session, Datuk Bacho shared Petronas’ efforts of introducing digital twins in order to simplify the organisation and reduce residual siloed work processes within the company. During the second-half of this year, Petronas launched its own digital twin, a single system accessible by all employees of the organisation. Below are some benefits Datuk Bacho highlighted:

• Creates comprehensive visibility and transparency across all of the company’s processes, unlocking greater value for the business.
• Makes information visible by providing personnel with equal access to upstream, gas, and downstream business operations.
• Provides each team with a dedicated workstation to encourage collaboration, dialogue and participation across teams.
• Unlocks greater financial value for the company.

Digital twins encourage transparency among all levels of personnel in the organisation. By leveraging on this newly introduced digital twin system, Petronas aspires to be transparent with society with its carbon emission by starting its endeavour in carbon tracking, in hopes of moving Malaysia as a carbon neutral nation by 2025.

Datuk Bacho’s sharing session effectively highlighted how Petronas’s digital transformation and its’ deployment of cutting-edge technology has helped optimise its’ systems and operational processes. He also highlighted how working with select service providers with the right expertise and technology was pivotal in making the transformation a success.

Visit www.tmone.com.my to learn about TM One’s products, solutions and services that can enable and accelerate the Next digitalisation of your business

1 Brand Finance, ‘Global 500 2022’ (2022), https://brandirectory.com/rankings/global/

Panelists:

Paul Nicholls, Digital Transformation Practice Leader, Telstra Purple
Matthew Pearson, Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Airspeeder
Jeremy Chong, Finance Director, Bata Shoe Singapore Pte Ltd

Moderator:

Ching-Fong (CF) Ong, Managing Director and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group

In the first panel discussion during our LEAP Summit 2022, we saw Mr Ching-Fong (CF) Ong from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) moderate a discussion between Paul Nicholls from Telstra Purple, Matthew Pearson from Airspeeder and Jeremy Chong from Bata Singapore Pte Ltd. The panelists shared how their companies’ mastered evolution in the new world, by harnessing the powers of digital transformation through partnerships with telcos. This article summarises their discussion with tips on how other companies can achieve the same benefits they experienced through digital transformation.

A Composable Business is the Key to Digital Evolution

As technology continues to prove itself as an essential core to today’s operations and organisations, businesses that have not started digitalising are now racing to get on the bandwagon. Besides streamlining operations, digital transformation has been found to drive customer centricity, create new value pools, and highlight new business opportunities. In short, incorporating smart solutions has helped countless businesses evolve and remain relevant in their respective industries.

Quoting Ching-Fong, “Companies that fail to digitally transform will face an existential trap”.

Paul Nicholls shared a common attribute among the thriving businesses of today – composability.  A composable business is shaped by flexibility, agility and resilience, through systems and processes that are designed to be easily, quickly, and effectively interchanged when necessary; a trait which enables businesses to immediately adapt to its’ changing landscapes.

A composable business can be considered in three parts, all of which play a role in enabling available technology to be independently scaled or maintained:

• A composable mindset: businesses and its’ employees require a forward-thinking flexibility to be able to adapt to customers’ changing needs. This mindset thrives in a culture that encourages entrepreneurial innovation for businesses to seize upcoming opportunities.

• A composable business architecture: designing business models, operating models and talent systems around flexibility and resiliency is key to adapting to new changes quickly.

• Composable technology: businesses should choose platforms, solutions and partners that prioritise reusability, flexibility and adaptability to effectively serve customers while improving efficiency of business infrastructure.

Digital Collaborations with Experts are Key to Successful Digital Transformations

While embodying composability is a necessary value for businesses, there is a sense of reluctance or hesitance among business owners. Harnessing composability in a business is not as easy as it sounds. As technology continues to evolve at breakneck speed, the struggle to learn and effectively integrate the right smart solutions into businesses becomes ever harder.

In alleviating the struggle, collaborations and finding the right support are now paramount to success. Even experts within Telstra Purple have experienced this same issue, but have combined their telecommunications capabilities with other larger technology services organisations such as AWS and Microsoft. Rounding off their services through partnerships has not only improved Telstra Purple’s capabilities, but has helped scale the telco’s business by opening doors to working with larger organisations and federal government agencies.

However, the potential for transformational scalability through partnerships can be reaped by any business with the intention to digitise. The key lies in selecting partners who can provide the correct expertise that can effectively address specific business problems. An example of a successful collaboration would be one between Airspeeder and Telstra Purple. Airspeeder was born out of realising the dream of flying cars and has since evolved into producing an electric flying vehicle racing series. However, in developing the racing series, Airspeeder was faced with the task of developing top-of-the-range infrastructure for a previously unknown form of racing. Challenges such as pilot tracking and location, and connectivity on the track felt insurmountable without adequate support.

Telstra Purple’s Paul Nicholls shared how the telco stepped in by bringing in Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities for Airspeeder to virtually build their desired race track in the sky and low latency streaming services for them to build their audience. This partnership has subsequently unlocked Airspeeder’s business and capabilities by combining the right infrastructure with a composable architecture to enable adaptability and scalability as Airspeeder began to gain traction.

Another example of successful digital collaborations would be between the well-known footwear and apparel manufacturer, Bata, and Telstra Purple. Bata’s Finance Director, Jeremy, shared the experience of upgrading Bata’s legacy systems with Telstra Purple.

As a 125-year-old company, Bata’s digital architecture was heavily siloed and greatly hampered communication across establishments and counterparts across the world. With Telstra’s help, their communications architecture was streamlined and has drastically improved work productivity, while also reducing cost – a huge benefit that helped the company weather the COVID lockdowns.

By turning to Telstra Purple’s expertise, Bata was able to successfully reorient their telecommunication and cloud services towards composability, effectively improving the multinational’s transformation roadmap for the next 2 years.

Providing the Right Solutions to Fit Different Business Requirements for Digital Transformation

While it is crucial for businesses to recognise the need for support from the experts, it is equally important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all approach towards an effective digital transformation process.

For Airspeeder to grow and scale their business, Telstra Purple suggested integrating tech from other industries to better suit Airspeeder’s connectivity needs. Lower latency, 5G connectivity, and edge computing were highlighted as the top priorities of the company in order for them to operate their business seamlessly and efficiently.  

Switching over to Bata, changes needed to occur in Bata’s systems by upgrading and streamlining their systems in seven areas:

• Improving the segmentation of systems with help from cloud ERP solution.

• Asset management via online methods for ease of operations for Bata to oversee their properties and operations worldwide.

• Improving data management to generate actionable insights for Bata to transform into a data driven organisation.

• Fixing warehouse management to ensure the supply chain operates smoothly and prevents sale loss.

• Cloud modernization has eased internal communication with international franchises, making it easy to expand the business.

• Productivity has improved since Bata spends more time making decisions for the company and improving their customer experience instead of collecting data.

• By delving into mobile engagement has increased Bata’s online presence for even a legendary company like Bata.

From leading-edge companies like Airspeeder to traditional companies like Bata, Telstra Purple provided the tools and expertise required to solve the diverse issues faced by these two very different companies. But how has Telstra Purple developed and scaled these capabilities?   Paul shared the three components that have helped the telco build their capabilities:

• Knowing that people give purpose to tech. Telstra Purple heavily invests in the tech professionals who build and run their solutions through training, learning and development initiatives and driving diversity which builds a culture of tech refinement and purpose.

• Understanding the importance of partnerships. Telstra Purple also relies heavily on partnerships with other organisations to complement their expertise and elevate their weaknesses within certain practices.  Currently, Telstra Purple is completing a joint venture with and Australian company to boost their analytics and Machine Learning capabilities.

• Utilising engineering power by understanding a gap for a smart solution and deploying them when it fits. Telstra Purple rolled out a smart solution for Victorian ambulances where the drivers can locate the nearest and available (in terms of beds, equipment, manpower, etc.) hospital in real-time.

As technological solutions continue to evolve and cement its’ way into the business landscape, it is clear that business infrastructure and architecture must have the capability to evolve along with it. The key to this critical evolution is in designing systems that are flexible enough to be adapted and remodelled. However, businesses often need a little boost to be able to do this effectively. As shown by Airspeeder and Bata, establishing partnerships with providers with the right technology, expertise and knowledge can go a long way in helping businesses achieve this mission. The right smart solution is out there, capable in resolving many issues for businesses across various industries. It is merely a matter of finding the right fit for your business.

Visit www.tmone.com.my for more information on how TMOne’s digital and smart solutions can enable and accelerate your Next business transformation