Singapore is one of the nations that have put digital technology front and centre of every sector’s advancement–including the food industry– against the pandemic background. As an example of the government’s recent digitalisation efforts, Enterprise Singapore, the government agency championing enterprise development, rolled out a three-stage industry roadmap and corresponding training roadmap to guide 1,000 food manufacturers and 50,500 workers on building digital capabilities in April 2021.

In line with Singapore’s drive for nationwide digitalisation, JUMBO Group of Restaurants, one of the city-state’s leading multi-dining concept F&B establishments, has expanded its digital transformation strategy in partnership with SAP in pursuit of the company’s next growth stage. JUMBO has implemented SAP S/4HANA, S/4HANA Retail, and SAP Customer Activity Repository solutions to ensure enhanced delivery of customer dining experiences, drive operational efficiencies across the organisation, and, essentially, boost the Singapore food culture.

Eileen Chua, Managing Director at SAP Singapore, explained that the pandemic highlighted the importance for the F&B sector, which took a hard hit from the pandemic, to uncover new, innovative ways for thriving in the ‘never normal’ and to invest for long-term growth. She said:

“Underpinning this evolution has been a focus on agility and resilience, which has seen F&B operators like JUMBO accelerate their digital transformation efforts to be an intelligent enterprise and implement a scalable digital core that will lay the foundation for operational excellence, a single source of truth, business analytics for real-time decision making and a platform for innovation and collaboration.”

Innovating to Support Growth Phase

Starting as a Singapore-style seafood restaurant in 1987, JUMBO now offers multiple diverse Asian dining experiences via its portfolio of eight F&B brands and 35 outlets across Singapore, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and other parts of Southeast Asia. This year, the food enterprise has launched three new F&B outfits – a Tsui Wah outlet (Hong Kong-based cha chaan teng/local tea restaurant chain) at JEM in May 2021 and two Kok Kee Wonton Noodle stalls at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands and Toa Payoh HDB Hub in May and June 2021, respectively. 

With a growing business network, the company’s next growth phase required acceleration of digital adoption to achieve its vision of a cross-border integrated system throughout the organisation and its key stakeholders’ ecosystem.

Commenting on the company’s modernisation journey, Ang Kiam Meng, Executive Director and Group CEO of JUMBO, said:

“Food is very much at the heart of people across all cultures and geographies, and while JUMBO has been well-known for traditional crowd favourites like our chilli crabs and black pepper crabs, it is also crucial for us to leverage technology to remain competitive from the internal efficiency and cost perspective, and to utilise data to help us innovate and adapt to the fast-changing operating landscape and tastebuds of consumers in Singapore and across the region.”

Modernisation Goals Leveraging SAP Retail Software

In partnership with Synnove Systems, a System Integration company and an SAP Gold Partner, JUMBO implemented SAP S/4HANA, S/4HANA Retail, and SAP Customer Activity Repository solutions to:

• Standardise data and support its business end-to-end 
• Drive operational efficiency 
• Deliver relevant insights for better decision making to improve the bottom line
• Recognise the changing customer preferences and products on demand
• Uplift human capital competency via automation of processes in line with Singapore’s digitalisation push and the use of data in analysis and decision making
• Streamlining and coordination of workflows across different departments

SAP S/4HANA for Retail merchandise management enables businesses to connect retail processes across the entire value chain to increase efficiency and improve the end-to-end customer experience. SAP Customer Activity Repository applications bundle offers a unified view of customer activity across channels to orchestrate omnichannel order management and power planning applications.

“By tapping on digital innovations in partnership with SAP and Synnove, we have enhanced our operational capabilities and unearthed deeper insights into our business operations that have helped us conceptualise new dining experiences, concepts, and menus, which will be crucial in our future growth and internationalisation plans,” said Ang.

The post JUMBO Group Scales Modernisation with SAP Retail Software appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.

Verizon has been in the foreground of 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC) adoption enhancing enterprise and consumer applications. In 2020, aside from establishing 5GFF, Verizon has forged partnerships with wireless providers Nokia and LG U Plus to bring the power of 5G closer to enterprises and end-users. The Nokia partnership empowered Verizon to deliver an international private 5G platform for global enterprises in Europe and the Asia Pacific region while the LG U Plus alliance made Verizon the first US operator to complete 5G global roaming trials and have a commercially ready 5G global roaming service in South Korea.

Today, Verizon Business, a division of Verizon Communications Inc., continues to ride the wave of the firm’s 5G and MEC capabilities– this time to bring modernisation to the retail industry. In collaboration with global consulting firm Deloitte and software giant SAP, Verizon has designed a retail platform to drive automation with near real-time monitoring, analytics, and insights within stores, distribution centres, and warehouses.

Sharing about the latest co-innovation, Tami Erwin, CEO at Verizon Business, said:

“It’s an exciting moment to unveil this innovative retail collaboration with Deloitte and SAP.

We are entering a new era of technology-led disruption at the exact same moment that every retailer is looking to accelerate digital transformation, increase productivity and improve customer experiences.”

5G and MEC Integration

The collaboration brings together Deloitte’s retail industry and solution engineering expertise, Verizon’s global 5G and MEC leadership, and SAP’s capabilities in transforming organisations into intelligent enterprises. 

Anthony Stephan, principal, Deloitte Consulting, and US Consulting consumer industry lead, said:

“The opportunity for 5G and MEC to enable frictionless retail experiences and improve asset productivity should have a seismic impact on the retail industry.” 

“Our collaboration with Verizon Business and SAP enables us to efficiently and effectively address the concerns of retailers today, providing a best-in-class digital transformation experience that can respond and deliver at the speed of 5G,” he added.

The retail digital platform integrates Verizon’s 5G network and MEC with SAP Customer Activity Repository and SAP S4/HANA to bring business performance sustainability and accelerate profitability to retailers across key business metrics such as revenue, cost of goods sold, and operating margin. Harnessing these technologies will offer retailers better visibility of in-store data with near real-time analytics and, ultimately, improve customer engagement, inventory efficiency, and staff productivity.

SAP Customer Activity Repository applications bundle is a powerful forecasting engine that provides businesses real-time inventory visibility based on a 360-degree view of customer purchase history and demand across all channels. Having a unified view of customer activity across channels significantly enhances omnichannel order management, boosts planning applications, improves the shopping experience, and increases revenue.

The new retail platform is also foreseen to have various enterprise-wide use cases since it is designed as a reference architecture that amplifies back-office application integration value and a customisable approach to accelerate outcomes and return on investment. One example of its use case is addressing out-of-stock shelf inventory management. The platform can automatically alert and communicate to in-store staff and distribution centres to manage inventory and ensure the availability of stocks.

“We are ready to open the doors to Verizon’s transformative 5G and mobile edge compute platform and look forward to helping our customers reimagine everything from their employee experience and supply chain to end-customer use cases,” Erwin highlighted.

The post Deloitte, Verizon, SAP to Modernise Retail with 5G and MEC appeared first on InsideSAP Asia.