As the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining.

We have been caught off-guard by the unprecedented pandemic. However, Covid-19 can be looked at as a game-changer to accelerate the digital transformation of our nation. Until two months ago, the actual transformation has been rather slow for many. Now, companies are speeding up the adoption — which was either in discussions for years or put on hold — as they see digital readiness is no longer a choice, but a must.

Both organisations, in the private or public sectors, must rethink their strategies to invest in more integrated digital infrastructure to manage current disruptions and stay relevant in the future.

Viewing it in a wider context, the use of technology has seen a rapid uptick during the Movement Control Order (MCO). Many digital solutions have been innovated and are energising an ecosystem which were in a transitional stage of transformation. We have seen business behaviours reshaped, consumer activities shifted to online platforms, social and conducting business done across online conferencing tools.

By using robust connectivity, complemented by the most effective digital infrastructure, TM One is playing the role in providing the most effective platform to help drive Malaysia’s digital strategy forward.

Equipped with newly launched comprehensive digital solutions, TM One, the enterprise and public sector business solutions arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad is determined to help businesses rapidly adapt and continue operations in these challenging times. As an enabler of the Digital Malaysia, TM One is well-positioned to enable the ecosystem for digital society, digital business, and digital government.

In an exclusive interview with Ahmad Taufek Omar, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of TM One, the leader explains why with every crisis there comes an opportunity.

Without a doubt, technology played a key role during the MCO in keeping us connected and safe, Ahmad Taufek points out. We have witnessed an increase in cloud adoption as businesses leverage the power of the cloud to stay in operation and connected.

At TM One, we aspire to spearhead the digital transformation for the nation but as it turns out, the pandemic has accelerated many of our initiatives,” Ahmad Taufek says. When the government enforced the first MCO in March, I threw a challenge to the team to come up with a digital solution to help businesses during the pandemic.

Hence, towards the end of March, they launched TM One Cloud α (Cloud Alpha), the key enabler of the digital transformation for Malaysian businesses and public sectors. Its objective is to help organisations to reduce information technology infrastructure complexities towards cloud adoption and particularly to boost their resilience amidst the challenging times.

“Forging resilience through optimisation and technology-driven strategies is crucial across industries”

Cloud Alpha’s robust and resilient infrastructure is hosted in our highly secured, Tier III certified, and global standards-compliant data centres within Malaysia.

“We want to ensure our customers are able to fulfil their data residency requirements, and ultimately, data sovereignty,” Ahmad Taufek explains, adding that customers then will have peace of mind, allowing them to focus on their business.

In a response to a question, the CEO also points out the key factor that differentiates Cloud α from other cloud services is the comprehensive offerings and multi-cloud offerings that provide flexibility to complement multiple deployment models customer’s cloud adoption strategy and business objectives.

Case in point was when our valued customer needed a scalable solution as a stop-gap measure for the temporary surge on their website. Cloud α was deployed as the solution and within one week, from capacity planning to deployment to testing, the government’s backend system was put in place to support the wave.

As with the recent collaboration with Huawei, it will enable TM One to offer an additional array of cloud computing services under the umbrella of Cloud α. With the additional of Huawei and existing collaborations with other hyper-scale cloud providers such as Microsoft, AWS and VMware will further strengthen TM One’s position as Cloud Aggregator and to become the leading Cloud Services Provider in the country.

“It is another testament of TM’s promise and prominent role as the enabler of Digital Malaysia aspirations.”

According to Ahmad Taufek this partnership will enable them to accelerate the digital services and solutions to the nation, forging ahead as the only Malaysian-owned end-to-end cloud infrastructure service provider.

This adds another milestone for TM One as they now have full cloud capability as a core offering to capture growth in Malaysia, which is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27 per cent in the next five years.

In May, when the government announced the extension of the conditional movement control order (CMCO), it meant that more Malaysians are beginning to return to work. This has raised its own set of questions, primarily on how businesses can ensure a safe work environment for its employees.

One such solution has presented itself. TM One, unveiled their smart digital health screening solution – TM One Predictive Analytics Screening Solution, or One PASS. It works by screening the body temperature of individuals as they enter business premises.

It is a purely local product developed by their own software designers, software architects and coders.

One PASS is aimed at providing business continuity for organisations to declare their building as a ‘safe zone’ to work by implementing state-of-the-art health screening solutions, Ahmad Taufek elaborates.

One PASS is a non-contact connected solution with three main digital service features such as visitor management, thermal sensors, and monitoring and contact tracing. The real-time digital solution includes an employee and visitor management app for self-declaration assessment and deployment of thermal cameras and sensors to check body temperatures prior to entering a building.

“We leveraged on the opportunity to launch two key products which are beneficial to the nation while working at home, Ahmad Taufek remarks proudly.

“In essence, this is congruent to TM One’s actual plans, where our role is towards the nation’s digitalisation process.”

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS KEY TO SURVIVAL

In this Covid-19 period, a digital transformation is no longer an option for businesses. It has become a necessity for operational efficiency and business survival.

International Data Corporation (IDC) reported that by 2020, cloud-based IT spending will reach up to 60 per cent on IT infrastructure and 60 to 70 per cent on all software, services and technology, whereas Global Data estimated Malaysia’s spending on cloud computing is RM10 billion.

The CEO is optimistic and remains committed. “TM One’s role as part of TM Group is to deliver a Digital Malaysia, hence the pandemic has allowed us to really show our support for the country and its entire ecosystem.”

“Malaysia is on the right track towards digital transformation, and Digital Malaysia sums up what we are as a developed nation,” Ahmad Taufek says positively.

On another note, the CEO tells Business Today that some businesses are not able to embrace the transformation coherently. Previously, digitalisation was largely seen as IT-driven and required high investment. Technology moves so fast but not all companies are able to keep up in terms of financial capability. Hence, because of this, they become irrelevant very quickly.

And, digital transformation requires agility and speed. There is a saying “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If the culture of the organisation does not embrace agility, business leaders will find that their digital transformation strategy will falter.

Ahmad Taufek explains that for businesses to embrace a coherent transformation, firstly they must be customer-centric. It is always customers first – creating the best experience for them. It applies to all business strategies as well as digitalisation.

Secondly, business leaders must ensure that people strategy evolves to support their business transformation. When the whole team has a common objective, the journey will be smoother, and things will fall into the right places.

And finally, you must have strong collaborative partners, Ahmad Taufek emphasises. Trusted partnerships with other players in the technology ecosystem will help your customers achieve their digital journey.

Nevertheless, TM One is part of TM Group, and each line of business within the Group has its very own part to play in driving transformation and helping Malaysian companies transform digitally.

“We remain committed to playing our part in improving the ecosystem. TM One is the only local player with its own state-of-the-art core Data Centres and Cloud infrastructure with full data residency, locality and sovereignty in Malaysia. Our twin-core data centres are located in Cyberjaya and Iskandar Puteri respectively,” Ahmad Taufek says with conviction.

With these digital infrastructures and services, TM One offers a comprehensive data residency and locality in Malaysia. Holistically, they are an ideal cloud services provider for the nation.

Regarding why businesses should no longer be hesitant about their transformation journey, the CEO says it is the only means of staying relevant in these trying times.

“We have the capabilities to support them,” Ahmad Taufek affirms. If they turn to us from an infrastructure standpoint, TM One has the network, software, and platform and most importantly, full data sovereignty, but if it is from an advisory perspective, we have the expertise from top solution consultants.

“Our role as a responsible organisation is to support businesses to elevate to an era of digitalisation”

Furthermore, TM One, also working is with the Government to support local small and medium businesses (SMEs) so that they #stayinbusiness in these challenging times.

“We are offering some free services for businesses to leverage, according to their specific needs. Hopefully, they will get a perspective of where they want to head towards by adopting the necessary applications for digitalisation in their business,” Ahmad Taufek says.

WEATHERING THE COVID-19 STORM

To some extent, during the MCO, the use of technology has already been proven to enable many business operations and social connectivity to remain in place. However, the increased deployment of technologies will also speed our path in the post-COVID world.

Undoubtedly, Ahmad Taufek stresses that during any crisis, telecommunication is one of the critical sectors, and at TM One their role is to ensure business continuity for their customers to stay in operation.

“It is business as usual. We are committed and ever ready to serve our customers in these trying times,” he states. The team’s responsiveness to address the demands of our customers and our scalable offerings have helped many businesses and public sectors to stay connected, stay in business and stay served.

Understandably during this time, businesses are pulling the handbrakes and accessing the overall expenditure of their business for survival. Hence, to convince the market to spend, Ahmad Taufek says they must ensure the services they offer are well managed and serviced.

“We are here for the long-term.”

THE ADVENT OF IR4.0

This is the biggest objective for the TM Group, according to Ahmad Taufek. “We fully support TM in the Group’s role as a national telecommunications infrastructure provider of Malaysia’s Digital Nation aspirations.”

TM Group will continue to lay the foundation for Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) and roll out 5G nationwide if it is awarded to us – serving a more digital society and lifestyle, digital businesses and industry verticals, as well as digital Government – to enable a Digital Malaysia.

“We fully engage ourselves around key industry verticals, and with the team and industry experts to enable us to gain a deep understanding of industry needs to exploit the market quicker,” Ahmad Taufek points out.

“We believe in long term partnerships and customer-centricity.”

Ahmad Taufek also shares that TM One will continuously develop and deliver digital solutions enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“Through our end-to-end digital solutions, we will fulfil the dynamic needs of the various industries in today’s hyper-connected ecosystem,” he says.

STEERING AHEAD

Now, acceleration is key. “We are focused on taking transformation forward for every one of our customers, buoyed by our digital solutions, Ahmad Taufek says with commitment.

“Our role is to enable a reliable hyperconnected ecosystem, one which will empower Malaysia’s enterprise and public sectors to realise the the full potential of their digital opportunities through our end-to-end digital solutions and industry experts, he adds.

“We are fully committed to combating this pandemic, to help industries, and the nation move forward – stronger than ever before!”

The digital enabler’s approach opens the avenue for growth in a post-MCO landscape and helps to build resilience for future upheavals.

“At TM One, we want to provide technologies which will further assist businesses and organisations to bounce back safely and responsibly to revive our economy,” Ahmad Taufek concludes.

With technology advancing at its rapid pace, digital transformation has become a priority for many organisations, regardless of industry. Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to revolutionise existing, as well as non-digital business processes and services to create new ones in order to meet the market’s evolving needs.

Many businesses seek digital transformation for a number of reasons. Among them, having access to more in-depth data may equate to understanding customer insights better and, thus, having the ability to create a strategy that connects with them better. On top of that, there is also room for cost reduction as a result of time savings in operational processes.

Strategic partnerships may also be a strategy to employ when undergoing a digital transformation, as it allows different businesses to leverage and learn from each other in order to better meet any challenges the future may hold.

Tune Protect, Huawei Malaysia & TM Partner Up To Shift Existing GIS

In March, Tune Protect, Huawei Malaysia, and TM announced an exciting new collaboration to re-platform Tune Protect’s existing General Insurance System (GIS) on Cloud via Huawei Malaysia and TM’s Cloud infrastructure, Cloud Alpha Edge. This significant shift signifies that Tune Protect is the first insurer in Malaysia to host its core insurance system on Cloud.

As part of the Cloud First strategy, the core system includes a collection of SAP HANA and SAP apps that will be comprehensively housed in TM Cloud Alpha Edge with full landing dependability and confidence.

According to Muhammad Ghadaffi Bin Mohd Tairobi, TM One’s Vertical Director of Banking & Finance Sales, “TM One is committed in accelerating the digital transformation journey of our customers by helping them to provide the best digital experience to their end-users. This is particularly true in these times where digital transactions have increased exponentially. Tune Protect’s success in adopting Core System in Cloud Alpha Edge is a benchmark for all companies in the Banking, Finance and Insurance industry to embark on the public cloud journey confidently. Not limited to just cloud adoption, we provide end-to-end digital solutions for innovative product development while providing the best solutions and infrastructure such as cybersecurity and big data analytics enabling omni-channel, data monetisation agenda, leading to cost optimisation.” 

Tune Protect, on the other hand, always had Cloud as the centrepiece of the digital transformation. Prasanta Roy, Group Chief Technology Officer of Tune Protectshares that having the SAP insurance core platform on Cloud helps to fast track innovation in their products and services, achieve speed-to-market, and provide differentiation in service to their customers. “Being the first insurer is a mere coincidence, but it has definitely the right step to set up the right foundation for technology transformation,” he adds

Cloud Alpha Edge: The Only Malaysian-owned Hyperscaler Public Cloud

Besides being a product of two large scale companies, Cloud Alpha Edge has an array of unique distinctions to its name. To date, it is the only Malaysian-owned Hyperscaler Public Cloud that actively advocates data sovereignty.

To date, Cloud Alpha Edge is the only Malaysian-owned Hyperscaler Public Cloud that actively advocates data sovereignty.

TM One is also the only local player with its own twin-core data centre, cloud infrastructure, with complete data residency and sovereignty. This infrastructure is strengthened through AI, and advanced cybersecurity solutions. This is especially suited for industries that are at high risk for cyber threats such as Public Sector and Healthcare. In fact, Cloud Alpha Edge already has multiple footprints in these industries, as well as Manufacturing.

Personal Data Kept Secure And Locally

With the rise of Insurtechs across the globe, it is quite evident that insurers will partner with various players in this space to bring in differentiation. Taking a closer look at data privacy, data residency and PDPA has to be taken into account. Tune Protect’s risk, governance/compliance and technology team worked together on all these aspects carefully while considering various public and private cloud options available within and outside of Malaysia. Cloud Alpha Edge came closest to meeting this need as the cloud data centres are based in Malaysia and customers are assured that their data remain preserved with the highest data sovereignty and confidentiality, as shared by Prasanta.

This also implies that data on the Cloud is stored in Malaysia rather than overseas, addressing the issue of data sovereignty. “They (Huawei Malaysia and TM One) are the right partner for Tune Protect based on all the considerations such as availability zones, SAP partnership with TM, and support availability around SAP from Cloud service provider,” explained Prasanta.

Created For Users To Enjoy An Overall Better Experience

The working together between Tune Protect, Huawei Cloud, and TM One seek to improve a number of things. For one, Tune looks to support improvements in the area of speed-to-market, leveraging the agility and scalability of cloud services whilst also accommodating to the spike and decline of the market. In addition to that, enhanced customer experiences are also something they look forward to through improved IT productivity and a seamless user experience.

“As technology progresses and customers demand more personalisation, it is the right time for us to build the new SAP core system on Cloud to collaborate with other ecosystem partners to deliver a personalised experience for our customers in terms of product and claims,” continues Prasanta.

Upskilling Employees For Future Demands

Not only will this partnership benefit existing and future users of Tune Protect, but the re-platforming also benefits company employees. With the presence of Cloud services like “racking and stacking” which can be completed by the Huawei or TM One team, this would free up the time of their internal technology team.

It’s only realistic for this transition to face its own set of unique challenges, such as converting the legacy on-premises software to Cloud-native. In preparation for any transitional friction the team may face, Tune Protect has lined up a mitigation plan that includes various Cloud certifications, online training, and on-the-job training for the respective team members to ensure a smooth and seamless process.

Prasanta also shared that the Infrastructure and Security teams will be upskilled so they are able to manage hybrid data centres, consisting of both on-premise and Cloud.

A Brighter Prospect For Malaysians & The BFSI Industry

Migrating the critical systems to Cloud where on-premise hardware is nearing expiry would be next for Tune Protect, he adds. Consumers can look forward to new services such as health tech and other innovative solutions from Cloud that would enhance customer-centricity and experience as they aspire to grow more digital partnerships in the near future, in alignment with the overall Group’s business trajectory. 

Huawei Malaysia believes that this collaboration is a strategic move that encourages data sovereignty in Malaysia, especially as no other public cloud service providers currently offer this, as mentioned by Lim Chee Siong, Vice President of the Cloud Business Unit at Huawei Malaysia. It marks a major breakthrough in FSI digitisation in Malaysia and Huawei Cloud also hopes they are able to help accelerate digital transformation in banks and insurance companies across the country.

Industry leaders during a recent conference on the latest trends in Malaysia’s retail sector as tantamount to a ‘digital revolution’. The retail segment is steadily recovering from Covid-19 headwinds by ramping up digitalisation efforts akin to almost all other economic sectors.

Businesses are seeking ways to thrive and search for opportunities to move forward with especial focus on enriching and personalising their delivery of enhanced customer experience and engagement as a key priority.

The essential dots to delivering the prize of excellent customer engagement involve actionable stepping stones such as smart shops, customer analytics, omni-channel shopping experiences, enterprise-wide inventory visibility, and many-to-many fulfilment agility.

This was the consensus among keynote speakers at the Embrace to Survive the Digital Storm, a virtual event held to address current challenges and share digital insights with retailers, suppliers and partners. The leadership event was organised by TM One, the enterprise and public sector business solutions arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), with Huawei Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. as the technology partner, and supported by Malaysia Retail Chain Association (MRCA) and AFAB WORLD Sdn Bhd.

The New Frontier

The pandemic effect has certainly accelerated the digitalisation of traditional business and consumer behaviour. For the retail industry, delivering a digital-enabled retail strategy and digital transformation is key to supercharge the retail operations.

According to the latest report from Facebook and Bain & Company, 70 million more people shopped online in six Southeast Asian countries since the pandemic emerged, and foresees the total online numbers in the region will reach 380 million by 2026.

This switch to online was noted by the Hong King Trade Development Council’s market research report which said that while offline retail constituted 91% of ASEAN’s total retail market, more than three out of five people in the region are now online. The strongest uptake being Indonesia, followed by the Philippines and Malaysia.

As with most sectors, the pandemic has pushed the retail industry into the digital revolution. This can be seen from a study conducted by VISA on Consumer Payment Attitudes 2021, which states that online purchases have increased by 72%, compared to a decrease of 44% who shopped at physical stores.

The Power of Knowing Your Customers

In the first keynote session, Stan Jit Singh, the secretary general of MRCA said that “the technology revolution has evolved at an unprecedented speed and depth, causing huge disruptions and are heavily impacting retail today.”

He emphasised that it is imperative for retail businesses to take advantage of the available technologies to avoid being left behind. “The ‘Digital Age’ is here today and technology and connectivity can be used to keep people, processes, positions and performance tightly connected and drive breakthroughs in the digital transformation.”

“Capturing business and customer data points, gathered through multi-channel and omni-channel offerings, will help in understanding customer habits, and give the ability to segment customers based on alignment with their needs.”

“The future of retail will not necessarily rely on developing an extensive variety of products, but will involve winning over consumers with thoughtful curation of products, experiences and innovations through building customer-driven new business formats,” added Stan Jit Singh.

This demands a comprehensive digital platform to help organisations make a quantum leap to harness the relevant technologies needed to pivot into the future, he said.

As the retail industry comprises multiple segments, often including ‘sub-industries’ that are independently managed, there is a need to comprehensively connect all the data points to enable end-to-end visibility of the entire business ecosystem.

Stan spoke about the revolution in retail as encompassing revolutions of technology, culture, information, social media and knowledge management. “This new era is about the retail landscape moving to the next level to conduct business, commerce, services, and provide options to utilise multi-channel and omni-channel capabilities: these will help to deepen customer engagement with their desired brands.”

“The ‘Digital Age’ is for everyone and today is the right time to start thinking and making those digital changes to transform your organisation to take advantage of all the technologies that are available in the marketplace for retail,” he declared.

“However, understanding where you are and where you want to be is key,” Stan cautioned. “This needs to be carefully weighed and sieved to ensure the business starts on the right footing. We need to use technology to keep people, processes, positions and performance tightly connected in order to break positively into the digital landscape.”

Extreme Reinvention

Maintaining a visionary element was a key point in the leadership session presented by Datin Patricia Pee, the founder and chief strategist of AFAB WORLD.

“Retail digitalisation should go beyond eCommerce today,” said Datin Patricia. “Digital Revolution is a phrase which has been used for more than two decades, now the force that really accelerated digitalisation and digital adoption so suddenly during the past two years is Covid-19.” – Datin Patricia Pee

She said the pandemic has boosted digitalisation globally with consumers adopting digital technologies more rapidly than most companies. “Changing consumer behaviour has become more sophisticated as seen in online engagements. Many companies, on the other hand, are digitalising faster because of FOMO (fear of missing out) pressure.”

Datin Patricia opined that retailers need to go beyond the notion of eCommerce in order to formulate strategies to deepen the engagement with their customers while building strong ecosystem partnerships to remain relevant in the digital economy.

“Fostering strategic alliances is vital as technology is developing fast and retail digitalisation is going through an extreme re-invention, as consumers become more sophisticated in their online behaviours. Artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and metaverse are the technologies that will reshape the future especially the retail business.”

“Due to the complexity of technologies, the most important thing is seeking the right talent in technology deployment. It is best for retail businesses to have strategic technology partners to prevent from being lost in digitalisation – resulting in waste of money and time,” Datin Patricia added.

Cloud: The Lifeblood of Transformation

Underpinning the importance of key technology partnerships, Eng Chiew Hian, Business Development director of Huawei Cloud said that the company, as a global technology leader with local cloud presence in Malaysia, is proud to collaborate with TM One on α Edge (pronounced as Alpha Edge), the TM One hyperscale cloud service. As a collaborative initiative, this has resulted in the provisioning of additional expert technical assistance and guidance in helping SMEs to transform and stay relevant both during and in the post pandemic era.

“Huawei remains committed to work with customers and partners in providing intelligent solutions to help brick and mortar businesses survive during this challenging time,” he said. “Our cloud technology helps to accelerate industrial digital transformation, where retail business owners can move part of their operations onto the cloud to maintain lower overhead cost.” – Eng Chiew Hian

“Furthermore, working closely with partners like TM One and AFAB has provided an integrated platform for local businesses to go online with the aspiration to go global and uplift their sales, all these is made possible with cloud technology,” he added.

In the final keynote, the head of Innovative Solutions of TM One, Maznan Deraman presented insights to help retail business leaders pivot to a new mindset aligned to embracing the digital retail landscape evidenced by rapidly shifting consumer buying patterns.

He also highlighted the rationale in utilising cloud-based solutions to stay relevant and resilient in today’s rapidly changing environment. Consumer buying patterns have dramatically shifted from physical transactions towards eCommerce-centric behaviours, which deliver a huge impact to existing brick and mortar retailers.

“Cloud technology is able to manage the end-to-end retail ecosystem by syncing inventory with customer’s demands and interest while improving customer experience, driven by the data obtained via online and offline. A cloud-based platform provides greater insights on daily retail operations, for better visibility and decision making.”

“Cloud technology is able to manage the end-to-end retail ecosystem by syncing inventory with customer’s demands and interest while improving customer experience, driven by the data obtained via online and offline. A cloud-based platform provides greater insights on daily retail operations, for better visibility and decision making.” – Maznan Deraman

Customer’s Digital Journey

His presentation included case studies demonstrating TM One’s understanding of the scenarios and challenges retailers are facing today. Addressing these challenges with digital enabling strategies and solutions with smart retail applications provides a practical move forward, he said.

“As Malaysia’s only leading cloud service provider, the immediate value of TM One’s solutions to unlock consumer and in-store behavioural analytics, smart inventory management and single integrated platform is evident. All of these are hosted on TM One Cloud α (pronounced as Cloud Alpha) and can be connected seamlessly with third-party retail applications, to help build more meaningful customer loyalty,” concluded Maznan.

“Providing a digital option to customers and stakeholders is absolutely essential as today’s B2B and B2C business models are increasingly calling for end-to-end solutions, which connects manufacturers, logistics, supply chains and other key components in order to fulfil and excel customer demands,” he said in his concluding remarks.

Compelled by lockdowns and social distancing measures, retail businesses in Malaysia have uncovered a digital passion to seek out the most effective ways to survive and even to thrive beyond the current fragile conditions. Formerly factored by the industry as a ‘good-to-have’ option, the pandemic has now pushed the adoption of a digital ecosystem strategy to the top of the agenda moving forward.

This article was first published by Disruptive Asia.
(https://disruptive.asia/taking-stock-of-malaysias-digital-retail-revolution/)

Reflecting the global surge of upskilling people for the increasingly digital normal, Asian countries are exploring new avenues of equipping their citizens with essential skills. Singapore, for example, is using computer games to train its naval officers while Thailand is tapping YouTube to help prepare its citizens.

Malaysia remains steadfast on its vision of becoming a regional digital leader as evidenced by the launch of its MyDIGITAL, a 10-year bid to revitalise its digital economy vision. As part of a nationwide implementation campaign, two digital companies – Cloud Connect and TM One, the enterprise and public sector business arm of Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) – have collaborated to establish the Cloud Connect Academy. It aims to upskill government officials, and is part of a wide-scale effort to digitalise Malaysia’s public sector.

The academy will inculcate individuals with the necessary skills to work with digital technologies associated with Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT). Hanafiah Hassan, Managing Director of Cloud Connect shared further insights into the academy’s role in supporting Malaysia’s overarching digital transformation.

Pivoting to ‘future-ready roles’

We have seen a significant shift in public sector careers, Hanafiah said. System analysts and website developers are in the process of being replaced by ‘future jobs’ – such as ‘cloud consultants’ and ‘cloud engineers’, he said.

“Cloud Connect Academy aims to upskill civil servants to meet new demands on the job. It will equip them with knowledge on AI, big data, IoT and cloud computing,” he noted.

According to Hanafiah, public sector staff will learn how to create apps through the academy, which will enable the government to expand its digital services. One example is MySejahtera, Malaysia’s all-in-one app for managing its national Covid-19 vaccination programme as well as to help with contact tracing, connect citizens with testing and support facilities, and mapping Covid-19 hotspots.

Public sector workers will be introduced to DevOps, a systematic approach that helps development and operations teams to build and roll out tech services more rapidly and efficiently, he explained.

In addition, the academy’s offerings include new methods of website creation for public sector IT services, Hanafiah said. “Previously, it took three months to build a site; however, the introduction of these new systems will reduce the development time to a matter of just 15 minutes – without requiring any change to the coding language.”

He revealed that the programme was initially aimed solely at IT staff within the public sector agencies but later was extended to include all public servants. “This is in line with Malaysia’s digital transformation strategy, which plans to have 100 per cent of civil servants become digitally literate, and 80 per cent of the government will use Cloud storage.”

Cloud’s pivotal role

When the Malaysian government’s Economic Planning Unit (EPU) announced the MyDIGITAL initiative in February 2021, one of its key goals was to reskill the current workforce. This would ensure Malaysians ‘stay relevant’ in a world rapidly moving into the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).

Cloud technologies and systems form a fundamental part of the MyDIGITAL initiative, wrote the IDC. TM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have been appointed to build and manage Cloud services in Malaysia. These initiatives will help to reduce operating costs and enhance analytical efficiency, IDC highlighted.

Hanafiah confirms that: “TM has helped to support the academy’s Cloud computing curriculum. Its lead role as a Cloud service provider to the government is testament to TM’s world-class level of skills and extensive experience.”

Extending the talent base

Looking ahead, Hanafiah commented: “Cloud Connect Academy can play a significant role as an upskilling platform, not only for the public sector but also for graduates. The academy’s vision extends to support the new generation that is now entering the workforce to acquire the essential future-ready skill sets to greatly enhance their employability level.”

“Students will be taught ‘modern application’, ‘modern infrastructure’ and ‘modern processes,” he further explained. “Modern applications require moving away from older programming systems like Java and pivoting to programming frameworks that are more convenient and useable by a greater range of staff.”

“Modern infrastructure involves transforming legacy hardware into a Cloud environment,” he added. “The curriculum for graduates encourages the incorporation of new Cloud-native technologies into existing infrastructures, as part of an essential and timely shift from legacy systems.”

“Additionally, a modern process which involves Agile practices that advocate adaptive planning, cross-functional teams, evolutionary development, early delivery and continual improvement, encourages flexible responses to change,” concluded Hanafiah.

The upskilling of public sector staff is vital as key component of Malaysia’s vision to accelerate the implementation of digital technologies into its public sector. In addition, this talent push will help smooth the transition from old job roles into the future ready roles.

Many digital transformation conversations among business leaders used to revolve around how to manage the transition from traditional brick-and-mortar to digital models and processes. Today, almost all  businesses, whether fully online or bricks and clicks, would be considered digital businesses. Even roadside hawkers have supplemented the way they do business by using Grab or Food Panda services, compelled especially by lockdown requirements in the COVID-19 period.

People are incredibly adaptive when facing a crisis, and Malaysian businesses have robustly turned to seek out better, faster and more agile ways of innovating. With COVID-19 becoming endemic over time, digital transformation continues to accelerate as an ideal path to growth and recovery.

The escalation of digital adoption has been confirmed by IDC’s latest release of Worldwide Black Book: 3rd Platform Edition, which shows Asia/Pacific’s ICT spending, including IT spending in addition to telecom services and new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, Cloud, Analytics, and IoT, will increase by 9.3% in 2021 to reach US$1.3 trillion. 

This healthy growth reflects the pivot by organisations towards rapid adoption of new technologies to face business disruptions as well as to drive growth.

Intelligent Cloud – A checkpoint of your cloud journey

From my conversations with customers and partners, I am pleased that more business leaders in Malaysia increasingly recognise that Cloud computing is the heart of productive  digitalisation. This bodes well for the nation as it demonstrates that almost all organisations are now ‘getting it right’ – by leveraging the power of Cloud in one way or the other.

However, success is relative, not absolute. As a winner is usually the one who runs ahead of others, just getting it right is not enough anymore. The real prize today rests in whether your business is ‘intelligent’ enough.

Of course, winning does require enterprises to be able to meet customers’ consistently changing needs, at speed. It also demands agility and data-driven, automated processes. Compared to a traditional cloud system, an Intelligent Cloud approach takes transformation to a higher level of performance because it is aligned to the ongoing journey of digital transformation. 

An intelligent Cloud will include the use of edge computing to process data closer to where it is collected, and it will make use of AI and machine learning (ML) to deliver actionable  insights, at greater speed and enhanced efficiency. 

Real world business benefits from intelligent cloud are demonstrated by the example of a large logistics company which saw speed and efficiency wins. Some of the gains included improvements of 30% in pickup efficiency and 5% in transportation path planning through use of AI in pickup path planning; while waybill single-check improved 3 times and VAT invoice processing rates improved by 10 times.

To become an intelligent digital enterprise, organisations need to leverage three (3) main elements – intelligent infrastructure that is flexible, scalable, automated and predictive;  intelligent data, which is secure and collected at a massive scale; and intelligent applications and business processes that are powered by AI/ML.

To take stock of your current Cloud execution and to assess whether it is intelligent enough, I would suggest the IDC’s Cloud Maturity Framework.

At the ad hoc level, an organisation may still be exploring project-specific Cloud applications as a reaction to the competition. As it starts to build more applications on the Cloud, it evolves into becoming a digital explorer, but is still considered to be in a reactive mode, and therefore results in a poorly integrated solutions environment. 

Only by moving up the Cloud maturity level, to becoming a digital transformer or disruptor – will it possess the capabilities to survive and move upwards in this fiercely competitive and challenging era.

Indeed, in some sectors where digital transformation has become an absolute imperative, such as the financial services sector, more organisations have grown into becoming digital players or transformers to stay ahead.

Cloud intelligence – the Cloud that matters

Powered by AI, the application of Enterprise Intelligence in the Cloud is helping to successfully modernise industries. Rapidly evolving technologies have helped to form a foundation of core Cloud benefits, which include enhanced efficiencies, facilitating core expertise and to create trend-setting achievements.

Examples of what these frontier technologies offer include data enablement services such as big data, data lake and data warehouse – as well as containerisation and microservices – which are tantamount to a key engine to upgrade industry intelligence.

Together with intelligent edge and intelligent network connectivity, which will be further enhanced by the emergence of 5G, we can confidently look forward to an even greater surge of implementations of innovative services and solutions in the market in the near future.

The additional critical attributes of a well envisioned and managed digital transformation strategy comprise: robust, reliable, and low latency connectivity; excellent Cloud and  cybersecurity design and implementation, which must be effectively tailored to the needs of your organisation; and probably the most important in my personal opinion is the best team of  professional and managed services to help facilitate and optimise your Cloud journey throughout the pre-, during- and post-deployment phases.

TM One Alpha Edge – the Intelligent Industry Cloud Platform

Deeply committed to taking transformation forward for Malaysian enterprises and the public sector, TM One’s Alpha Edge, the hyperscaler Cloud service and part of Cloud Alpha offerings, is powered by AI capabilities to enable organisations to seamlessly onboard the intelligent Cloud. We are also continuously developing tailored solutions for key verticals in collaboration with partners and customers.

Our comprehensive suite of solutions encompasses intelligent Cloud, robust and multi-type digital connectivity, cybersecurity, local expertise in professional and managed services, and which rightly positions TM One to help industries revolutionise themselves, reshaping businesses and cities, and bringing new possibilities to Malaysia in the important days that lie ahead.

There is no limit to innovation. Any organisation, big or small, can innovate ground-breaking solutions to better serve its customers. To deliver the best solutions and customer experience, TM One works with the best partners. This is an important aspect of our commitment to taking transformation forward for all Malaysian enterprises and public sector institutions.

Click here to know more about TM One Alpha Edge.