IN a matter of months, Covid-19 has pushed corporations internationally to hurry up their adoption of digital know-how by a number of years.
The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia did the identical, however about 80% of Malaysian SMEs stay undigitised, in response to SME Corp chief govt officer Rizal Nainy.
To spice up the digital financial system, Rizal mentioned SMEs – the spine of the nation – together with all different companies and firms ought to use the brand new norms of the pandemic as a push issue to go digital for enterprise continuity and sustainability.
“It’s crucial for the Malaysian SMEs to embrace the digital financial system, not solely to make sure that they don’t seem to be left behind but in addition to additional spur financial progress.”
Citing a research SME Corp performed in 2018, he highlighted that SMEs utilizing social media and eCommerce in enterprise operations noticed productiveness enchancment of between 26% and 27%.
The net presence of SMEs within the nation has doubled from 35.3% in 2019 to 75.8% in 2021, mentioned Rizal, including that there’s a lot to enhance on.
Rizal spoke on the first section of the Microsoft Malaysia SME Discussion board: Leveraging fashionable know-how to drive enterprise progress, together with Lalamove managing director Jane Teh, MyEG info know-how (IT) director Rushdan Anuar and moderated by Astro Awani anchor Cynthia Ng.
Fostering digital change
Underneath the twelfth Malaysia Plan, the digitalisation of the SMEs might be undertaken as an necessary nationwide agenda to remodel the traditional manner of doing enterprise, mentioned Rizal.
“The federal government has introduced eight stimulus packages with an allocation of RM188.4bil to help SMEs climate the impression of Covid-19.
“Of that quantity, RM23bil has been devoted to drive the digital and technological transformation agenda.”
He added that SME Corp offers matching grants to companies for his or her digital transformation journey and has additionally a number of initiatives for SMEs to achieve skilled recommendation on know-how adoption and digitalisation, digital options, and technical assist, amongst others.
A agency believer that transformation begins from inside, Rushdan urged organizations to start their digital transformation journey by always updating their staff on the most recent digital developments, technological know-how and capabilities.
He additionally beneficial utilizing “inside champions” inside the IT division to hasten digital adoption.
“Corporations and IT departments ought to take a step again and construct a transparent understanding of which programs and purposes require probably the most consideration and precedence to these.
“Use know-how as a facilitator. Get inside champions to share finest practices in addition to conduct studying and sharing periods to drive cultural and digital transformation for the corporate,” mentioned Rushdan after sharing on MyEG’s speedy response and motion to prospects’ new wants.
Noting that the shift of shopper habits in direction of on-line platforms is great and has opened up new markets, Teh identified it’s “now or by no means” for companies to go digital.
“Corporations can deal with their core portfolio, enterprise in addition to serve prospects by making value efficient selections and scale their enterprise with out incurring extra value.
“They will do that by making the most of digital options and platforms that assist a market of various wants, affordability and totally different sizes of companies,” she mentioned after sharing about varied initiatives by Lalamove to cut back the barrier of entry for anybody that want to begin a enterprise.
Digitizing SMEs successfully
Microsoft Malaysia SMB gross sales supervisor Tan Shuh Hun urged small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) and SMEs to make the most of Microsoft’s options and digital platform which can be available.
“With the suitable know-how, dimension of a enterprise is not an element to find out success. It creates a stage taking part in area permitting even the smaller companies to develop and thrive efficiently.
“Leverage the facility of contemporary know-how and softwares to cut back value, spur long run enterprise progress, resilience and productiveness in a secure and safe method,” she mentioned throughout the discussion board’s opening remarks.
In the meantime, the second section of the SME Discussion board centered on options which corporations can undertake to make digital transformation extra productive, safe and related in a post-pandemic panorama.
It featured Infront Consulting Group regional managing director Raymond Chou, Softline Malaysia resolution gross sales for Microsoft Trendy Work Hong Zhan Cheng and Leaderonomics Digital studying and engagement advisor Vivian Po.
Chou mentioned SMEs ought to create a three-team tradition to outlive amid and post-pandemic.
“The ‘survival group’ will deal with managing money stream, the ‘in the present day group’ manages operations and what to do for patrons, whereas the ‘tomorrow group’ appears to be like into the following step for the enterprise together with embracing, digitizing and strategizing new enterprise fashions ,” he mentioned.Chou added it’s essential for companies to hunt tech or cloud companions that may match the companies’ tempo and seek the advice of accordingly.
On the significance of information safety within the office, Hong famous that challenges organizations face amid digital transformation embrace a excessive surge of cyber-attacks, steady safety vulnerabilities, and lack of expert cybersecurity personnel, amongst others.“Companies have to depend on a a number of set password for a further layer of safety, be proactive in figuring out and remediating dangers, and conduct cybersecurity analysis” mentioned Hong when sharing about quite a few safety features Microsoft presents to organisations.Po shared about tips on how to construct an ever-ready workforce in 10 minutes, which ties all the way down to an organisation’s resilience, agility and abilities.
She mentioned organizations can assist staff by partaking successfully and making certain their alignment, prioritize empowerment, encourage collaboration, domesticate the expansion mindset, set up a tradition of suggestions and train again, amongst others.
Be taught extra about Microsoft’s options for small and medium-sized companies at www.microsoft.com/en-my/smb or name 1800 889 85252 from Monday to Friday – 8:30AM to six:00PM.
The digital discussion board was organized by Star Media Group in partnership with Microsoft Malaysia. Watch the replay of the periods at bit.ly/microsoft-forum1 (Half 1) and bit.ly/microsoft-forum2 (Half 2).