Next year will witness the 30th founding anniversary of SAP in Malaysia and as 2021 comes to a close, the tech giant hopes that the upcoming National Budget will be geared towards new policies to deliver the MyDIGITAL plan — an initiative aimed at further developing the country’s digital economy into a strategic economic engine of growth.
For Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy), businesses must explore opportunities for digital transformation in Malaysia, as they are critical to the country’s economic recovery efforts and can help contribute to its long-term economic resilience. The MyDIGITAL plan intends to make Malaysia a technologically advanced and digitally-driven country, as well as a regional leader in the digital economy by 2030, he added.
Additionally, the digital economy is projected to contribute 22.6{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} to Malaysia’s GDP and generate 500,000 new jobs by 2025. Cloud services were also highlighted in the MyDIGITAL program, with a focus on a ‘cloud first’ strategy at both the federal and state levels, which will help facilitate the adoption of cloud technologies in the country.
Earlier this year, SAP Malaysia Managing Director Kok Cheong Hong has already expressed support for the initiative and described it as a major “breakthrough yet realistic” digital vision. Hong believes this approach serves as a motivation for local businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to embrace dynamic consumption, establish resilient infrastructure, and utilise cloud solutions to boost efficiencies and productivity.
“Public-private plural partnerships are also important to help drive SME readiness, which in turn further encourages innovation and flywheel digitalisation effect for all concerned,” Hong remarked.
SAP Malaysia Emphasises the Need for Digitalisation among SMEs
Furthermore, Hong put the spotlight on the significance of the SME sector today as many businesses are still lagging in terms of technology use. According to the 24th Malaysia Economic Monitor: Weathering the Surge report, SMEs in the Southeast Asian nation have been underperforming both in terms of output and productivity levels when compared against peer countries. It has also been found that the COVID-19 pandemic has widened the productivity gap. With this, SAP Malaysia seeks to raise awareness for SMEs before increasing uptake on digital platforms.
“Businesses that are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude towards digitalisation could be left behind – and may even become irrelevant. Many solutions that were once the exclusive domain of large corporates have been scaled in capacity – and price – and are now within reach of local SMEs,” Hong stressed.
The likes of glove maker Aspen Glove Sdn Bhd and renowned spice manufacturer Baba Products Malaysia Sdn Bhd have already embarked on their digital transformation journeys towards becoming intelligent enterprises through SAP upgrade projects centered on automation and innovation to enhance productivity and cost-efficiency.
Aspen Glove’s industry used to be labour-intensive but after implementing SAP solutions, it has now automated the processes end-to-end. It has selected SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition for its latest glove manufacturing plant that operates 96 production lines. On the other hand, Baba Products had migrated from its previous all-manual, paper-based operations to the SAP S/4HANA platform, which was supported by Direct Store Delivery with CRM, SAP Payroll, and SAP SuccessFactors.
“Hence, Aspen Glove is able to revolutionise the quality, customisation and speed of delivery to meet the customer demands of today,” Hong noted.
The SAP Malaysia MD further explained that businesses can become intelligent enterprises by first digitising processes where they can “do more with less”, create best-in-class customer experiences, establish sustainable supply chains, and innovate new business models and revenue streams.
