United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd (UOB Malaysia) and The FinLab announced in December 2019 that the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have completed the Jom Transform Program are expected to see productivity rise by up to 30 per cent through digitalization.
The Jom Transform Program is the first business transformation program in Malaysia to help local businesses digitalize their operations to drive productivity and revenue growth. It is jointly organised by UOB Malaysia and The FinLab, an innovation accelerator under United Overseas Bank Limited.
During the three-month program, the 16 participating SMEs gained digital transformation skills and know-how such as business re-engineering and digital marketing. As part of their skills development, they learnt industry secrets from experts at a series of workshops and were matched with specially-chosen technology partners to pilot relevant solutions and to assess the effectiveness of these solutions.
Out of the 16 participating SMEs, 12 piloted solutions to enhance their core business processes such as payroll, human resources and accounting, creating better efficiency and productivity. The SMEs also piloted solutions in digital marketing, lead generation, content creation and e-commerce solutions. These solutions are expected to boost the SMEs’ sales and customer acquisition by up to 10 per cent
How two SMEs adopted technology solutions for growth
Serai Group, a Malaysian family-owned food and beverage (F&B) group with nine outlets across Kuala Lumpur, was one of the SMEs that successfully completed the Jom Transform Program. As part of the Program, Serai Group piloted a digital solution provided by AImazing, a Singapore-based technology firm, to help the business digitalize its receipt and point-of-sale data.
Mr. Najib Hamid, Managing Director and Group Chef, Serai Group, said “The Jom Transform Program has helped us to evaluate our operations and to identify new technology solutions for our business. The F&B sector is competitive, and it is important to ensure our operations run smoothly at every level, from procurement and production through to customer experience.
“We are now implementing the solution from Singapore-based technology firm, AImazing, to reduce the manual workflow of collating sales data from across our nine outlets, releasing our staff to do higher value work, he continued”
Syarikat Letrik Chen Guan, an electrical contractor that provides end-to-end project management, electrical and mechanical services, is adopting UOB SmartBusiness to help drive efficiencies in its procurement and back-office processes.
Mr Choong Pin Hoong, Director, Syarikat Letrik Chen Guan, said, “With projects running at different sites, our business requires many varieties of supplies and inputs. We are keen to implement technology solutions that will make the site planning, supply and management more automated and easier for our site managers to make and to track orders and deliveries.”
“Through the Jom Transform Program, we have come across new technology solutions such as UOB SmartBusiness, which enables us to digitalize our core processes and sales channels. This will help us build a strong foundation for our expansion plans,” he continued.
