Tag Archives: Digitisation

Business, Contributed

Navigating the Transformation Paths in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry

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This article is contributed by Márton Kiss, Vice President of Product Success at Graphisoft

Today, the once-solid blueprints of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) have morphed into fluid sketches, adapting to the evolving customer needs and technological advancements. As we march into 2024, the industry is expected to become more digital, data-driven, and sustainable. Every innovation, from the most intuitive design software to the most earth-friendly material, is bound to fill the canvas of buildings for a better future.

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Photo by Pixabay

Here, we will delve into the vibrant palette of trends and key areas that may help navigate this transformative path in the AEC industry.

1. Bridging the digitalization gap

Despite being slow to embrace digital transformation, the AEC sector has shown promising signs in recent years, with technology adoption and awareness of its benefits steadily rising. However, a noticeable gap emerges when transitioning from the design to the construction phase. While current tools enable detailed digital models, the actualization often relies heavily on on-site workers, creating a disconnect in the integrated workflow.

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Photo by Minku Kang on Unsplash

Bridging this gap and driving the push towards greater digitization and automation requires a two-pronged approach – first, fostering a demand for digital design practices, and second, reducing legal and regulatory barriers that impede the implementations. Additionally, a global trend towards collaborative building lifecycles is gaining momentum. As the integration across the building lifecycle strengthens, so does the impetus for comprehensive digitalization, highlighting the critical role of quality design in this process.

2. Unlocking the potential of BIM

While Asia Pacific trails developed nations in Building Information Modelling (BIM) adoption, progress is evident. Governments like Malaysia, aiming for 80% adoption by 2025, are actively driving its implementation due to proven productivity and competitive advantages—however, BIM’s true potential lies beyond mere data and 3D models.

It is about integrated design, where architects, engineers, builders, owners, and technology providers collaborate within a single model, eliminating the inefficiencies of traditional handoffs and discrepancies. This ‘single source of truth’ fosters early alignment of building systems and informed decision-making across disciplines. At Graphisoft, we champion OPEN BIM, a future-proof approach to AEC collaboration. OPEN BIM ensures workflow transparency, longevity, and data accessibility for built assets. Recent developments, like seamless structural engineering integration and cloud collaboration, reflect our commitment to this collaborative future.

BIM will continue to see greater interoperability and capabilities. However, the key to maximizing what it can offer eventually lies in fostering a culture of openness and information sharing.

3. Driving the shift towards sustainable design

The green buildings market is expected to cross USD1,948 billion by the end of 2036, with Asia Pacific estimated to account for 32%[1]  Sustainability pressures are pushing the industry towards innovative materials and energy-efficient design. Net-zero buildings will remain a focus, achieving energy savings through renewables, smart design, and storage. Building performance and management will also be key, tying into the digitalization trend for optimal efficiency.

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Photo by Pixabay

Cost-effectiveness, however, remains crucial. While adopting these practices might seem daunting, firms can start small. Explore concepts, experiment with materials, and utilize BIM as a bridge between elements. Integrating building systems, structures, and architecture early on makes informed decisions about materials, shapes, and even programs possible. Ultimately, the effectiveness of this shift requires a closer alignment between design decisions and long-term outcomes, driven by the overarching goals of sustainability and efficiency.

4. Making the most of AI and other emerging technologies

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) goes beyond automation. It is becoming the industry’s secret weapon, empowering professionals across the project lifecycle. From design optimization with photorealistic visualization to predictive analysis and BIM integration, AI transforms how we overcome challenges and make informed decisions.

The future is not just about scratching the surface with AI. We see a convergence of technologies, where Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) enhances collaborative BIM workflows, and digital twins evolve beyond virtual models, becoming real-time data oracles. This will redefine our standards for efficiency, accuracy and profitability, allowing designers to focus on their true value – creativity. Graphisoft remains at the forefront of this revolution, investing in emerging technologies that assist and empower, not replace.

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5. Emphasis on continuous learning

The future sprints, not strolls, and therefore upskilling is an essential ticket to the ride. But it is not a solo journey. Organizations must be bold co-pilots, investing in the latest tools, processes, and training. Fear of the unknown is natural, but the changing roles of AEC professionals are inevitable. Technology like AI excels in crunching data and optimizing processes but still lacks the human touch that breathes life into novel designs. And that is the true power of real architects – crafting beauty that is not just aesthetically pleasing but also functional and meaningful. Technology is the hammer, but people are the architects of change. Those who embrace continuous learning will be the ones shaping the future of AEC, brick by innovative brick, pixel by inspiring pixel.

The future of the built environment demands active participation. Architects, engineers and contractors must embrace digital tools and progress alongside advancements. BIM will be their blueprint, green principles their guiding star, and emerging technologies their canvas extension. The opportunity to create great architectures is boundless when we successfully integrate people, workflows and real-time information.

[1]   Green Buildings Market Size & Share, Research Nester (Nov 2023)

Business, Editorial

Back to Normal Comes with Recruitment Woes & An Increasing Role for AI in SMEs

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Recruitment and the tech industry are things that aren’t going hand in hand at the moment. With the unprecedented growth of the tech industry during the COVID pandemic, it is experiencing a large number of layoffs as it continues to return to “normal”. However, with the contraction of large tech MNCs, comes an opportunity for Malaysian SMEs to acquire the talent they sorely need.

Kevin Fitzgerald Employment Hero
Source: Employment Hero

“Amid the pandemic, many tech firms flourished as people embraced online activities. However, the return to regular work patterns led to significant layoffs due to economic strains. Currently, the tech sector is cautiously recovering, showing restrained spending on innovation despite abundant growth potential, especially driven by AI’s widespread adoption across various industries“

Kevin Fitzgerald, Managing Director of Asia at Employment Hero

A Need to Stay Competitive and Look Beyond Local Borders Despite Higher Costs

Employment Hero, recently highlighted in its “State of Recruitment” whitepaper, that Malaysian SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are facing stiff competition when it comes to recruitment. Not only are they competing with MNCs when it comes to benefits, culture and remuneration, but they are also facing gaps when it comes to integrating technology into their recruitment processes. This is further compounded by the outlook of potential recruits who vie for positions in MNCs and conglomerates for stability and equity.

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Photo by GR Stocks on Unsplash

There’s no denying that there has been a steep increase in the cost of talent over the years. However, this increase corresponds to a steeply increasing cost of living thanks to a projected economic downturn. In fact, Employment Hero’s report notes that 52% of recruiters see this as a main factor in the increasing cost. That said, should SMEs take the lead in providing or realigning their minimum wages to a more livable wage beyond the current RM1,500 requirement? That’s a question for SMEs to ponder as they continue to form an increasingly important contributor to the Malaysian economy with a contribution of over 38% in 2022, a 3.4% growth year on year from 2021. Not to mention, they account for over 60% of employment nationwide.

SMEs can no longer sit idly by vying for the scraps of larger corporations and MNCs if they want to remain competitive. Like the Malay proverb “Bagaikan cendawan tumbuh selepas hujan” which indicates that mushrooms sprout increasingly after the rain, the Malaysian SME industry is a dime a dozen when it comes to competition. SMEs need to ensure that they are catering to a market larger than just Malaysia. They need to vie for a piece of the international pie and they can only do this if they set their sights and benchmarks at that level.

Kevin Fitzgerald Employment Hero
Source: Employment Hero

“To stay ahead of their competitors, local tech SMEs can emphasise their distinctive strengths within the company, such as a supportive and positive work environment, growth opportunities and customise recruitment and retention strategies to resonate with the needs and aspirations of potential employees. Sharing their narrative and embodying values is crucial for SMEs, especially since millennial candidates actively seek employers with whom they can form genuine connections.“

Kevin Fitzgerald, Managing Director of Asia at Employment Hero

Malaysian SMEs can also differentiate themselves with intangible benefits such as workplace culture, work environment, growth opportunities and even retention strategies. These items, which are totally in the hands of business owners and board members in SMEs allow them to offer a better, more coherent work environment that caters not only to the company’s bottom line but also to the well-being of their workforce. An increasingly weighty consideration for candidates is a remote work policy. The Malaysian government has also mandated that companies need to have a remote work policy. While this may seem to be a remnant of the COVID pandemic, it’s become an increasingly crucial consideration for workers, particularly young parents. However, it’s not the only younger ones that look for this, it’s an increasingly sought-after mode of work. What’s more, research has shown that remote work is as effective as – if not more effective than – working in person.

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Photo by Headway on Unsplash

That said, the Malaysian government continues to invest in the tech industry. This is particularly true when it comes to 5G- and AI-related technologies at large. Drilling down, the country is also investing in segments for animation, game development and even manufacturing when it comes to tech. With these investments, SMEs can expect more talent to come their way. It falls on their plate whether they are willing to invest in long-term wins rather than short-term gains when it comes to talent.

More Candidates Does Not Mean More Quality or Shorter Lead Times

Even with those considerations, the Malaysian hiring landscape is not an easy one especially when it comes to SMEs. A staggering 70% of hiring leaders state takes up to a month to fill a vacant position. This is despite getting a large number of applicants. In fact, the larger the number, the longer it took recruiters to fill a position. What’s more, things get a little more complex when it comes to retaining new talent. About 43% of hiring managers report that less than 5% of new recruits actually last beyond their probationary period.

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Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

According to Employment Hero, this could be a mismatch between the candidates and the job role or expectations. To minimize the mismatch, Employment Hero recommends that a job description (JD) should be as detailed as possible. JDs should provide enough insight into the role. Companies should provide a deep dive into the skills required and indicate where this role fits into the larger corporation. It should be a launching pad for the candidate for the rest of the recruitment process.

Kevin Fitzgerald Employment Hero
Source: Employment Hero

“As more hiring leaders implement AI in their hiring processes, they are likely to see a wider talent pool, better candidate matching and reduced bias. Importantly, we expect it to greatly reduce the entire recruitment lifecycle tremendously. So where something previously took hiring managers 41 days, it is now likely to be done in a much more accelerated time frame.”

Kevin Fitzgerald, Managing Director of Asia at Employment Hero

This level of detail helps leaders filter candidates better. In fact, the whitepaper indicates that over-hiring leaders who interviewed a smaller number of candidates saw better retention of their candidates. The number was as high as 63% of hiring leaders reporting this. In essence, companies need to look at vetting their applications from the get-go with a detailed JD followed by a precise, targeted approach to vetting job applications with a truncated timeline.

Using AI to Improve Hiring Outcomes

Of course, with technology seeping into nearly every crevice of work, it comes as no surprise that it is leaving its mark on recruitment as well. The integration of technologies like AI will undoubtedly help bolster the quality of candidates as well as the rate of retention of new talent.

However, it’s also posing a hurdle as SMEs continue to wrestle with investing both monetarily and when it comes to skills. Unfortunately, when it comes to skills, SMEs are eventually going to have to choose between upskilling the talent they have or investing copiously in third-party recruiters who have the know-how. That said, it’s again a choice between short-term gains versus long-term gains. It falls to SMEs where their appetite for investment is and how they see their organization benefiting.

There is, however, another option – leveraging AI technology. AI is simplifying the search for talent in many ways. In fact, Employment Hero has noted that 99% in Malaysia are already using some form of AI in their recruitment practices. AI is being leveraged to improve decision-making and detect anomalies in applications. It can also be used to gauge the candidate’s suitability for the company.

With AI integrations, recruitment timelines are being shortened while increasing the quality of candidates. It’s even making changes to how companies onboard new candidates. It can even be used for background checks.

A Balancing Act between Recruitment, Growth and Investment

As much as the climate for recruitment is improving, it is increasingly becoming a balancing act for SMEs. SMEs need to determine where their priorities are; be it in recruiting high-caliber talent, upskilling and retaining current talent or even investing in technology to improve the overall recruiting process. The bottom line lies with the priorities of SMEs themselves.

Business, Contributed

Thriving Forward: Embracing The Digital Lifeline of Restaurants for Continued Business Resilience And Growth

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This article is contributed by Jay Ar Juan, Senior Commercial Director, foodpanda Malaysia

In the rapidly evolving food industry landscape, digitalisation has become more than just a trend – it is now a necessity for survival and growth. The surge in technological advancements has propelled restaurants into a new era, reshaping the way they operate and connect with customers. Embarking on a journey through the impact of digitalisation on the food industry, we’ll explore recent changes and how food delivery platforms navigate this transformative landscape, with a specific focus on its implications for local vendors in Malaysia.

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Photo by Chan Walrus on Pexels.com

From a restaurant’s perspective, digitalisation is about leveraging technology to enhance customer experience, streamline operations, and drive business growth. This is a crucial aspect of driving the business as a whole. The benefits of it are extensive, ranging from increased efficiency to data-driven insights that enable personalised customer interactions. Particularly in the last few years, we’ve witnessed a profound impact on communities as restaurants adapt to these changes. The food industry is inherently competitive, and the digital shift provides a competitive edge.

The evolution of the food industry has resulted in several fundamental changes. One prominent shift is the rise of delivery services, enabling restaurants to expand their reach and increase revenue. Additionally, data-driven insights have become invaluable, allowing businesses to tailor their offerings to suit customer preferences. These components will put small business owners on a level playing field with mammoth chains. The community impact is substantial, with local businesses gaining visibility beyond physical constraints. Even small roadside vendors can now showcase their offerings to a vast audience using platforms like foodpanda.

Digitalisation upscales businesses, including food

Embracing delivery services has not only expanded revenue streams but has also eliminated geographical barriers, allowing restaurants of all sizes to compete on a level playing field. The convenience of ordering from anywhere has become a customer expectation, providing businesses with a broader reach.

Being part of a marketplace like foodpanda democratises visibility, giving even the smallest establishments a chance to showcase their offerings. A roadside stall will have the same opportunity for eyeballs via the app as a massive restaurant chain at the most valuable rental space in a busy shopping district. With just a few taps, customers will be able to discover even the most obscure vendors within seconds.

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Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Additionally, the integration of technology has brought about data-driven insights, enabling personalized experiences by analysing customer preferences. This not only tailors menus and marketing strategies but also enhances customers’ overall satisfaction. The rise of contactless dining, payments, and reservations, coupled with the use of platforms for marketing, has further enhanced convenience and customer engagement, fostering loyalty and attracting new patrons. Digitalisation is not merely about efficiency, it’s a holistic approach aimed at creating memorable customer experiences and ensuring the sustained relevance of restaurants in an evolving landscape.

Supporting the restaurants in their digital transformation is foodpanda with tools at their disposal. The Panda Partner app is available on both Google Play and Apple App Store, providing vendors with insights into sales, operations, and marketing, all from the convenience of their phones. Traditional advertising methods are being replaced by digital marketing through the Panda Partner app, making it easy for restaurant operators to market themselves through several simple clicks, even for those without prior digital marketing knowledge. The transparency in tracking results enables vendors to be more strategic in their marketing efforts, contributing to their growth as entrepreneurs.

In the past, data and results simply weren’t trackable, such as knowing how many customers visited their stores and placed an order from thereon. Restaurants and even large chains normally have had to spend big money to analyse these data for them. But with foodpanda’s digital marketing support, they would know how much they have spent and how much sales they generated from these marketing activities, fundamentally allowing them to be better entrepreneurs.

Going beyond the pandemic lifeline

Amid the challenges posed by the pandemic, there are restaurants that have adapted to digitalisation and have experienced significant differences in their business.  For instance, one of our restaurant partners in Penang, Uncle Lan’z, has strategically leveraged digitalisation to reach customers beyond the usual coverage area and saw a significant surge in sales and heightened brand recognition. Digitalisation became the backbone of Uncle Lan’z’s business, with delivery alone accounting for 70% of total sales during this challenging lockdown period. A partnership lasting over four years has positioned Uncle Lan’z as one of the highest-grossing vendors in the northern region, underscoring the transformative impact of embracing digital platforms.

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Photo by iMin Technology on Pexels.com

Similarly, Gerai Ulique Corner faced adversity during the lockdown, leading to a temporary closure of the outlet. With digital platforms providing support, restaurant owner Cik Norlia started selling her fare from home, ensuring business continuity and fostering loyalty. The adaptability facilitated by digital platforms allowed Gerai Ulique Corner to resume business fully as the economy recovered, showcasing resilience in the face of challenges.

On the other hand, the advent of food delivery platforms has contributed to the rise of F&B operators that exist purely for the food delivery market. For cloud kitchen operator Foodle, the partnership with foodpanda since Q3 2022 has brought substantial growth through exclusive collaborations and benefits. Enjoying priority placement on platforms, dedicated marketing support, and access to specialized promotional opportunities, Foodle thrived as a dynamic and diverse cloud kitchen business. By leveraging digital tools to assess physical store potential, facilitate collaborations, and focus on top-performing items, Foodle’s success story exemplifies the symbiotic relationship between cloud kitchens and digital platforms in the evolving landscape of the food industry. The digital transformation facilitated by platforms like foodpanda is reshaping the restaurant landscape. The benefits of going digital are evident, from increased reach to data-driven insights and enhanced customer experiences. As we navigate the ever-evolving food industry, embracing digitalisation is not just a choice but a strategic imperative for sustained growth and resilience. foodpanda remains a key partner in this transformative journey, empowering restaurants to thrive in the digital era.

Business, Editorial

Recognizing Third-Party Risks & Addressing the Gaps with Identity-Based Security

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Enterprises and businesses are well into their digitization journey. Many have adopted digital strategies and tools that align with their businesses and goals. However, in their swiftness to adopt software and tools that enable them to be agile, many may have overlooked one of the most crucial aspects of their data security – third-party access and control. The issue arises as a result of the adoption of multiple diverse tools and technologies needed for digitization, the acquisition of contract talent, consultants and third-party support. This rings true even for Financial Service Institutions (FSIs). In a recent report, Gartner stated that 59% of organizations experienced a data breach due to third parties and only 16% of them say they are equipped to manage these risks.

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“Today, organizations can manage up to thousands of identities which means more access points that may present significant risks. In order to mitigate the risks of breach and protect digital identities, data and resources, enterprises need a comprehensive identity security solution for complete visibility into all user types and their related access, including all entitlements, roles, and attributes, to ensure employees receive the right access to the right resources to do their job.”

Chern-Yue Boey, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific, SailPoint

While it can seem like a daunting task for IT departments and CIOs to get a handle on the issue, the truth is that it’s a simple task of managing access on a “just-in-time” and/or “as-needed” basis. With an increasing number of such instances, it becomes a conundrum of how to dynamically manage these permissions. One emerging approach is to manage these permissions or instances as “identities”. Using this approach, it’s a matter of mapping these identities and the data they have access to. Essentially, a holistic view of who (identities) can access what data (what), is needed. While it can be a little complicated to administer this on a dynamic level, companies like SailPoint provide turn-key solutions fortified with artificial intelligence (AI) that allow just that.

An Increasing Concern for Financial Service Industries (FSIs)

As banks and other FSIs start embracing digitization and move towards becoming digital services, we’ve seen an increasing emphasis on data security and privacy particularly when it comes to user data. However, like many other enterprises, the digital infrastructure and tools that they have in place may pose a risk when it comes to data security. What’s more, when it comes to FSIs, the consequences of poor security can result in millions of dollars of loss for both the client and the institution itself.

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Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

In Malaysia alone, we’ve seen an increasing number of scams and data breaches in the past 5 years. This seems to have skyrocketed during the pandemic and is not showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, in the past year alone, we’ve had breaches of large service providers like Telekom Malaysia and Maxis. More worryingly, we’ve had breaches of FSIs like Maybank and iPay88. Of course, under the watchful eye of regulators, these issues are constantly being investigated and fines are dolled out for mismanagement.

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“The reality is a large majority of cyber security breaches today occur as a result of non-employee identities. According to a research by Ponemon, 59% of respondents confirm that their organizations have experienced a data breach caused by one of their third parties and 54% of these respondents say it was as recent as the past 12 months”

Chern-Yue Boey, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific, SailPoint

That said, it’s important that these institutions move from a reactive approach to a more preventative and proactive one. This change has to happen with both policy and adoption of security technologies which give CIOs and data security experts a clear view of who is accessing what data and why.

Creating A Data Secure Environment for Business

FSIs like Maybank and iPay88 may point to their apps with features like SecureKey and their implementation of one-time pins (OTPs) as potent security measures. However, as Chern-Yue Boey, Senior Vice President at SailPoint puts it, “Authentication is like giving someone the keys to your front door, but identity security is where you can control whether this person can have access to your rooms and other aspects in your home.”

What’s needed is a system that can cross-check and verify if access to the information is allowed. Mr. Boey weighs in on this, “A complete identity security strategy involves understanding, controlling, and managing user identities and access to all resources holistically, in line with authentication methods. This means building an identity security foundation to enable authentication and comprehensive identity governance.”.

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Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Identity governance will entail creating unique profiles to manage access to data. This also entails structuring data so that it can be accessed on an “as-needed” basis. While many systems for cybersecurity do include options for Zero Trust environments, the implementation of identity management ups the ante and creates an environment where small silos of data can be made available to external users and contractors. This will enable access to data on a restricted basis and allow CIOs and IT Departments to manage data based on job function, role and levels of access.

Mitigating Risk with Identity-based Security

This is where Identity Security can play a huge role for FSIs and even other corporations. The creation of these identities limits the potential exposure even if a breach occurs. That said, in order to mitigate the risk, it falls to the C-suite executives – particularly the CIO or CSO – to understand which job functions should have access to what data. Only with this understanding can they deploy solutions like SailPoint effectively.

Having this understanding – which can be fostered at every level of management – will help mitigate risks associated with third-party workforces. In fact, it helps with a key risk: unauthorized access to sensitive data. As access becomes limited, so too do the entry points for bad actors.

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Photo by Ivan Samkov on Pexels.com

That said, understanding is only one part of the equation, FSIs and other organizations will need better oversight over the identities in their system and the data being accessed across the entire distributed IT ecosystem. This includes the ability to grant or restrict access as necessary. Doing this will create a perimeter of security when it comes to pertinent, sensitive data.

Maximizing Security with Informed Access

This transparency and oversight will allow for better-informed decisions as CSOs and CIOs have access to a central repository of all users – third-party or otherwise – and their relationship to the organization. This includes their job functions and the data they have access to. It helps with managing risk when it comes to third-party access. IT Departments are able to assign risk ratings to individual third-party users based on who they work for, location, access level and other parameters as set by the organization.

It also allows them to better manage the onboarding and offboarding of employees and non-employees as they enter and exit the organization. Essentially, the visibility, relationship data and governance will necessarily give rise to a lifecycle for each identity in the organization. While it may seem like a simple matter of managing the current access of users to the data, it goes further than that with identity management. It gives granular control and visibility to a CIO, CSO and IT Departments allowing them to react effectively and in a timely fashion. It also allows them to automate compliance audits with minimal manual intervention.

A Necessary Measure for Dynamism and Agility

As much as it may seem like an added layer of complications and headaches for IT departments, the shift from managing data based on access vs. through identities is the difference between being reactive and proactive. Managing data access with Identity security is a necessary measure for FSIs and organizations to remain agile in operations as well as respond dynamically to a landscape of uncertainties.

Business, News

Cisco Networking Academy Looks to Equip 141,000 Malaysians with Digital Skills

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Cisco is one of the world’s leading companies when it comes to networking technology. The company provides networking technology for a significant percentage of companies and it wouldn’t be too farfetched to say that a good percentage of the internet goes through Cisco technology. That said, being one of the forerunners, they’ve had to help companies and countries develop the skills needed to successfully take advantage of networking technology.

With networking and connectivity taking centre stage with the advent of the internet and more publicly now with the “metaverse”, there’s an even more pressing need for graduates and even those in the workforce to equip themselves with the skills and know-how for the rapidly changing tech landscape. Realising this, Cisco has pledged to empower 141,000 Malaysians with digital skills over the next 10 years. That’s over 14,000 Malaysians equipped annually to help further the digital aspirations of the country.

Mobilising Cisco’s Networking Academy to Upskill & Empower

Cisco isn’t starting at ground zero when it comes to upskilling and empowering Malaysians. In fact, the company has about 23 years of experience in upskilling and training people across the globe in Cisco’s Net Academy. The Networking Academy started back in 1997 and is now proudly boasting over 3 million students annually 25 years later. The academy is not just a simple top-down experience, in fact, instructors and students build veritable relationships which see them succeed and support each other even after their time at the academy.

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(Source; Cisco) Cisco Networking Academy Global Impact Report.

Malaysia has the unique honour of being one of the first countries to see the rollout of Cisco’s Networking Academy in 1999. Having been in Malaysia for over 20 years, it comes as no surprise that the company is looking to empower 141,000 Malaysians over the next 10 years. Cisco has built partnerships with key stakeholders such as the Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) to achieve this pledge.

The Networking Academy is already working towards achieving this goal. Its curriculum has already been embedded in institutions of higher learning such as Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), University Malaysia Pahang, and Universiti Malaya. These partnerships are simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to empowering Malaysians with the necessary skills. These universities have not only incorporated certain modules into their courses but also offer Cisco’s Networking Academy syllabus as electives that are continually being updated to address the rapidly evolving landscape.

Equipping People Now for the Jobs of Tomorrow

Our current job landscape is quickly evolving. In fact, it’s expected that by 2025, a total of 85 million jobs would have been displaced with 97 million new jobs that we’ve never seen before emerging in that same period. These new jobs will emerge in the wake of new technologies like 5G and the deployment of AI across industries. However, these jobs also bring with them a skills gap that will only widen without support from the industry.

CNA Malaysia Impact Report
Cisco Networking Academy Impact Report for Malaysia

In the wake of the pandemic, there has been an increase in the demand for cybersecurity specialists as companies begin to move to a more hybrid style of work. As the shift to working from home or working from anywhere becomes more mainstream, the need for companies to build in networking and access resilience and security is rapidly increasing. In addition, as 5G increases the number of connected individuals, the threat landscape will increase exponentially. These trends are being used and predicted to help shape Cisco’s Networking Academy’s curriculum to ensure that it is forward-looking and adaptive.

Cisco’s Networking Academy doesn’t just upskill the students, it regularly updates and upskills the instructors. This allows the academy to adapt rapidly and also expand its offerings to address current and emerging trends in the industry. As a matter of fact, Cisco’s Networking Academy has offerings for networking technologies, Python, Linux and more over the past few years as demand for skills increased with the introduction of new technologies like Kubernetes and 5G.

Hana Raja Managing Director for Cisco in Malaysia
Source: Cisco

“Bridging Malaysia’s skills to job gap to create inclusive access for its population to participate in the evolving digital landscape is critical as the country strengthens its digital economy. At Cisco, we have always believed in the power of public-private partnerships to unlock the power of digitalization. This is why Networking Academy has been in Malaysia for 23 years where we have trained over 129,000 students since inception with 419 active instructors today. Our pledge to equip 141,000 Malaysians with relevant digital skills is a testament to the potential we see in the country and our commitment to work with our ecosystem partners to empower the Malaysian digital economy.”

Hana Raja, Managing Director, Cisco in Malaysia

These demands and trends are not merely predictive. Cisco also monitors the industry demands. The increase in demand for certain skill sets by corporations and more in the industry are indicative of a shift in the skills gap.

Gearing for Digital Malaysia with 141,000 Additional Skill Technologists

With over 23 years of success and an impressive track record, Cisco’s Networking Academy is looking to empower Malaysians to take the next step into a digital Malaysia. Cisco has already invested USD4.8 Billion in the upskilling of people since the inception of the Networking Academy. It even has the great honour of being a platform for equality with over 26% of students being females and 21% of instructors being female. Malaysia boasts an impressive 38% of women in Cisco’s Networking Academy.

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(L-R) Guy Diedrich, Senior Vice President & Global Innovation Officer for Cisco; Hana Raja, Managing Director for Cisco in Malaysia; and Dr Yusnani Mohd Yussoff, Associate Professor, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam

The upskilling of Malaysian workers will need to continue as the nation continues on its path to becoming a digital economy. With the pledge of 141,000 trained in Cisco’s Networking Academy alone, it won’t be an impossibility. You can even take the first step by registering at Cisco’s Networking Academy website.

Business, Editorial

Cloud, 5G, Machine Learning & Space: Digital Trends Shaping the Future

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The world is arguably never going to be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic. The sentiment rings true in many aspects and sectors even now, a year on. However, the effects of the pandemic have spurred our normal to take a digital shift in which more companies are accelerating their digital transformation journeys with some further than others. That said, the adoption of technologies has created waves and trends that seem to be influencing everything in our lives.

In a nutshell, these trends are going to change the way we approach a whole myriad of thing from the way we work to the way we shop. We’re seeing businesses like your regular mom and pop shops adopt cloud technologies to help spur growth while digital native businesses and companies are doing the same to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances. The adoption of technologies and, in particular, cloud technologies, is building resilience in businesses like never before.

Our interview with the Lead Technologist for the Asia Pacific Region at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mr Olivier Klein, sheds even more light on the trends that have and continue to emerge as businesses continue to navigate the pandemic and digitisation continues.

The Cloud Will Be Everywhere

As we see more and more businesses adopt technologies, a growing number of large, medium and small businesses will turn to cloud computing to stay competitive. In fact, businesses will be adopting cloud computing not only for agility but due to increasing expectations that will come from their customers. However, when referring to “The Cloud”, we are not only talking about things like machine learning, high performance computing, IoT and artificial intelligence (AI); we’re also talking about the simple things like data analytics and using digital channels.

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Digitization journeys are creating expectations on businesses to be agile and adaptable. That said, businesses with humble beginnings like Malaysia’s TF Value-Mart have been able to scale thanks to their willingness to modernize and migrate to the cloud. Their adoption of cloud technologies has created a more secure digital environment for their business and has augmented their speed and scalability. This has allowed them to scale from a single, mom and pop store in Bentong in 1998 to over 37 outlets today.

The demand for cloud solution is increasing and there’s no deny it. Even businesses like AWS have had to expand to accommodate the growing demands for digital infrastructure and services. The company has scaled from 4 regions in their first 5 years to 13 regions today with more coming in the near future. AWS’s upcoming regions include six upcoming regions, of which four are in Asia Pacific: in Jakarta, Hyderabad, Osaka and Melbourne.

Edge Computing Spurred by 5G & Work From Anywhere

In fact, according to Mr Klein, AWS sees the next push in Cloud Computing coming from the ASEAN region. This will, primarily, be spurred by the region’s adoption of 5G technologies. Countries like Japan and Singapore are already leading the way with Malaysia and other countries close behind. The emergence of 5G technologies is creating a new demand for technologies that allow businesses to have a more hybrid approach to their utilisation of Cloud technologies.

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As companies continue to scale and innovate, a growing demand is emerging for lower latencies. While 5G allows low latency connections, some are beginning to require access to scalable cloud technologies on premises. Data security and low latency computing are primary drives behind this demand. Businesses are innovating faster than ever before and require some of their workloads to happen quicker with faster results. As a result, we see a growing need for services like AWS Outpost which allows businesses to bring cloud services on premises, and with their recent announcement at AWS re:Invent, Outposts are becoming even more accessible.

Edge computing is also part and parcel of cloud computing as the mode in which we work continues to change. With most businesses forced to work remotely during the pandemic, the trend seems to be sticking; companies are beginning to adopt a work from anywhere policy which allows for more employee flexibility and increased productivity. That said, not all workloads are able to follow where workers go. With the adoption of 5G, that is no longer the case. Businesses will be able to adopt services like AWS Wavelength to enable low latency connection to cloud services empowering the work from anywhere policies.

The same rings true when it comes to education. The growth experienced in the adoption of remote learning will continue. Services like Zoom and Blue Jeans have become integral tools for educators to reach their students and will continue to see their roles expand as educational institutions continue to see the increased importance of remote learning.

Machine Learning is The Way

As edge computing and Cloud become the norm, so too will machine learning. Machine learning is enabling companies to adopt new approaches and adapt to changing circumstances. The adoption of machine learning solutions has paved the way to new expectations from customers that has and will continue to spur its adoption. In fact, Mr Klein, tells us that businesses will not only be adopting machine learning for automation but also to provide better customer experiences. What’s more, a growing number of their customers are also going to expect it.

Machine Learning’s prevalence is going to grow in the coming years – that’s a given. Customers and users have already had their experiences augmented by AI and machine learning. This has and continues to create expectations on how user experiences should be. Take for instance, services like Netflix have been using machine learning and AI to recommend and surface content to their users. Newer streaming services which lack these integrations are seen to be subpar and are criticised by users.

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Aside from user experiences, businesses are getting more accustomed to using machine learning to provide insights when it comes to making decision making and automating business operations. It has also enabled companies to innovate more readily. These conveniences will also be one of the largest factors in the increasing prevalence. It will also see increased adoption which will be largely attributed to the adoption and development of autonomous vehicles and other augmented solutions.

Companies like Moderna have been utilising machine learning to help create and innovate in their arena. They have benefitted from adopting machine learning in their labs and manufacturing processes. This has also allowed them to develop their mRNA vaccines which are currently being deployed to combat COVID-19.

To Infinity & Beyond

The growing adoption of digital and cloud solutions is also spurring a new wave of technologies which allow businesses deeper insights. These technologies allow businesses to access insights gained from satellite imaging. Data such as ground imaging and even ocean imaging can be used to gain actionable insights for businesses. Use cases are beginning to emerge from business involved in logistics, search and rescue and even retail.

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However, the cost of building and putting a satellite in orbit is nonsensical for a business. That said, we already have thousands of them in orbit and it would make more sense to use them to help gain these insights. AWS is already introducing AWS Ground Station – a fully managed serve that gives businesses access to satellites to collect and downlink data which can then be processes in AWS Cloud.

These trends are simply a glance into an increasingly digitised and connected world where possibilities seem to be endless. Businesses are at the cusp of an age that will see them flourish if they are agile and willing to adopt new technologies and approaches that are, at this time, novel and unexplored.

Business, Editorial

Digitization – The Key to Business Resilience During a Pandemic

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COVID-19 poses a unique challenge to businesses, forcing them to adopt practices which many only saw further down the road when it came to their digitization plans. In fact, we’ve seen the effects of the pandemic on many businesses who have failed to adapt or adopt plans to build in resilience in these unprecedented times. That said, the big question remains, “How can businesses be more resilient with the COVID-19 reality?”.

There are many factors that lend itself to a business’s resilience but one of the biggest factors is the company’s progress in their plans for digitization. Conor McNamara, Managing Director of ASEAN at Amazon Web Services (AWS), highlights that a company’s progress towards digitization, particularly in their adoption of cloud technologies, has been one of the determining factors of resilience during these times. He has also highlighted that the transition to the cloud isn’t simply a technological one, it’s a multifaceted one that builds in capacity, increases agility, changes mindsets, and transforms the culture of an organisation.

Thriving Businesses Have Used COVID-19 as an Impetus for Digitization

No one can deny it. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that companies and businesses need to operate. Research has shown that the new realities of the pandemic have led to an increase in demand for resources such as the internet. This is inevitably spurred by the increased adoption of work from home policies necessitated by lockdowns the world over – a clear indication that our business realities have changed. This is corroborated by AWS, which reported an increased uptake of services such as Amazon Chime, their web-conferencing platform, Amazon Workspaces and other productivity related services.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of digital transformation across all industries. So far indications are that organizations, including those in ASEAN, have already adopted DX plans and/or accelerated their transformation plans have been known to have coped better with the crisis.”

Daphne Chung, Research Director, IDC Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) cloud services, and software research group

That said, digitization doesn’t happen overnight. Companies have to create an environment that allows and empowers staff and decision makers to adopt technologies such as AWS. The adoption of public and private cloud technologies have allowed many AWS customers to adapt to the new realities more seamlessly. In fact, Globe Telecom was able to spin up virtual call centers with Amazon Connect which allowed them to adapt to the new realities with ease and even increase staff productivity since the pandemic hit. What’s more, the company was able to affect this transition in 24 hours. Of course, the reality is that not many companies will be able to do this.

“Many businesses and organizations have now understood the importance of the cloud and are committed more than ever to get their business on the cloud. At AWS, we keep many organizations functioning, and allow them to adapt when a crisis such as the pandemic occurs.”

Conor McNamara, Managing Director of ASEAN at Amazon Web Services

The new realities of the pandemic have allowed companies to expedite their plans for digitization and cloud adoption. Those who have been successful in taking advantage of the new realities as an impetus for plans already in the pipeline are the ones who have most demonstrated the most resilience with the current situation.

Executive Driven Digitization Policies Spur Resilience

It’s always been said that digitization is a journey. Yet, we never think to ask who would be the best to guide and determine the course the company takes. Conor McNamara stresses that the business resilience of any given orgranisation is very dependent on the company’s executives. Decisions and policies made by CXOs are what will enable companies to maximize the opportunity that COVID-19 has presented to accelerate a company’s digital trajectory.

It’s pretty simple; when the decision to adopt cloud technologies and further advance the company’s digital journey comes from the level of CXOs, it naturally sets off a cascade which will allow companies to think differently. The CEO’s acceptance that the future of business is in the cloud sets off a cascade of events that start with the search for and upskilling of staff to meet the new needs of the business. The demand for skills that enable the company to be competitive and prepared for further advancements in their journey. It also creates a new mindset mired in the need to be agile and proactive to meet customer needs.

IDC sees an opportunity to manage the downturn better by using technology to minimize the impact of the current crisis and emerge on the other side of the curve resilient, more digitally fit and agile, and ultimately, better equipped to capture their share of the new opportunities as part of the “next normal”.

Daphne Chung, Research Director, IDC Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) cloud services, and software research group

This impetus prepares businesses to handle situations like the current pandemic. The skills, demands and needs of businesses literally changed overnight as countries began to lockdown. Brick and mortar businesses were forced to consider adopting digital and cloud technologies to keep their businesses viable. Businesses which were already making the shift to cloud and digital technologies with CXO driven policies have so far been the most resilient and adaptable.

In fact, the current realities have been used as an opportunity to upskill workforces. AWS shares that since the beginning of the lockdowns, there has been a sharp uptick in the demand for certification courses and trainings in their AWS Education platform.

It’s a People Related Change

Perhaps the most important quote we can share from Conor McNamara is this: “[Digital Transformation] is a People related change”. He said this while he was explaining some of the new realities AWS’s customers have been facing – and when it comes to it, it seems like the statement rings true in every aspect of a business’ digital transformation; every step of the way involves dealing with people.

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The digital transformation journey is one that involves a major cultural change. A change that shifts the mindset of preparedness to deal with any given situation. Creating a culture of work which prepares staff for ambiguity and change. In some cases, these businesses have made failure a norm. They adopt providers such as AWS to minimise the cost of failure and continue to innovate. This is one of the hallmarks of a business which has been able to deal with the realities of the pandemic. These companies are ready or have already adopted cloud and are prepared for the new work from home norm; it wouldn’t be too farfetched to say that they may be the ones best prepared for the next norm post COVID.

Adopting cloud and shifting to digital usually has the connotation of being cold and impersonal. However, one take away from businesses that are showing resilience is that it couldn’t be further from the truth. These businesses have shifted their focus to their clients and customers building solutions catered to their needs. Perhaps more importantly, their digital transformation and shift to the cloud has made them more cognizant to the needs of their clients and customers.

Business Resilience is Built from the Top Down and Empowered by the right technologies

Essentially, business resilience is built from the top down with policies spearheaded by CXOs and CEOs that drive a cultural change in the company; one which prepares them for sudden and constant change, allowing businesses to be agile and adaptable. That said, these changes are empowered by companies such as AWS who provide the cost optimizations and technologies that allow this shift to happen. This has been tried and tested with the harsh realities of the pandemic.

Business, Contributed

CFO, CIO Collaboration Is Crucial For COVID-19 Era – And Beyond

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In this COVID-19 global pandemic era, there is not a single CFO out there who isn’t scrutinizing their company’s spend. It has been very challenging for Malaysian businesses as well – with a weakening economy, supply chain disruptions, knock-on effects from troubled sectors and loss of jobs.

Fortunately, data’s role has exploded in the business world and is favourably impacting the situation. To properly assess a company’s financial position, a CFO needs to be able to effectively access data. The key is to take a large amount of information and narrow it down to action items. Effectively harnessing important data can be an issue.

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IT has evolved from being a background cost centre generating reports used to close the books, to a place where data is housed, manipulated and made available, which is key to running a successful business. IT is no longer in the background, carrying out mundane operations; it is capturing vital data and is now a strategic voice in running a business. When a CFO can effectively capture and analyse data, he or she can improve specific strategic areas. As a result, there is an increasing collaboration between CFOs and CIOs as IT formats data and provides insight into what might be most helpful to Finance.

The COVID-19 Challenges

While financial scrutiny is applicable to all areas, IT is different because most CFOs do not know all the specific technological nuances for his or her company. As the pandemic forces businesses to deal with unprecedented financial challenges and pressures, the CIO needs to help provide perspective to the CFO for necessary actions and what items might be able to be temporarily suspended without harming the business.

Buying IT equipment requires cash, and all companies are looking at actions to maximize cash flow and minimize expenses as COVID-19 impacts the global economy. Some expenditures are going to have to be delayed as cash is prioritized away from capital expenses. Most CFOs will not know what IT department costs to reduce without a collaborative conversation with the CIO.

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One strategy I consistently employ with our CIO, which has been extremely helpful during this crisis, is a regularly scheduled, detailed review of all ad-hoc expenses across the company, looking for technology items that should be aggregated or are not compliant with standards. This is an area that requires CIO input and experience.

Relying on Each Other

It is very difficult for CFOs to keep up with IT. It evolves so rapidly and requires specialty knowledge; generalists are left in the dust when it comes to technological progress. A CFO can measure costs but determining capabilities and staying ahead of what is on the horizon requires a specialist, a CIO. At the same time, technology often offers glitzy, fancy new toys, and it is imperative that IT professionals stay focused on what type of capital is available, what they want to spend it on, and how their values are aligned with the business.

Communication and collaboration with our CIO to work on business cases for development projects helps validate the financials of the project. A working knowledge of the ever-changing standards in technology protects financial projections and budgets.

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CFOs are focused on maintaining normal business activity without increasing expenses. Industry analyst Gartner has reported for many years that third party maintenance is less expensive than what OEMs offer. And the service is just as good if not better. If anybody came to you and demonstrated, “You’re paying $100,000 for this service; I can do it for $50,000-$60,000 and I’m going to do it better,” there’s not a CFO who wouldn’t take that deal, but it would require CIO scrutiny and knowledge.

I.T.’s Unique Contributions

In my collaborations with I.T. leaders, I have learned that I.T. is uniquely positioned to scan the entire company for technology-enabled improvements: revenue opportunities, productivity increases and cost savings. When the CIO and the CFO collaborate to find and implement these improvements, the company becomes more effective than if a siloed approach is taken on a per-department basis.

While COVID-19 is a challenge, it also presents an opportunity to identify improvements. As people are suddenly forced into working in a different model, the traditional ways of doing business can be challenged more quickly. A collaboration between the CIO and the CFO in looking at the results of the workforce being sent home may present opportunities in office utilization, software purchases, hardware deployment and other areas.

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While hardware and software expenses are relatively easy to monitor and measure against the company’s metrics, the implementation of IT projects is a key collaboration area for CFOs and CIOs. Every project brought forward to IT can have cost structures that include outside purchases as well as internal labour. Projects need to bring value to the company; and the calculation of that value, perhaps in the form of ROI, requires CIO and CFO collaboration to accurately calculate the value and measure the results after the project is in place.

With our CIO, I consult with an ongoing process analysis team that looks for cost reduction opportunities that won’t impact customer satisfaction. This input is key to make sure a potential financial decision that may benefit the company does not negatively impact customer service.

The Park Place Difference

CFOs will not know that value without CIOs sharing the information. For example, CFOs and CIOs together can protect their business revenues and their business-critical IT by “sweating” their IT assets longer through value-added life-cycle support services. Maximizing payback and ROI on hardware infrastructure can yield financial benefits for the longer term.

There is a new category to look out for: Discover, Monitor, Support and Optimize (DMSO), that Park Place Technologies is uniquely positioned to deliver for its customers. It is a fully integrated approach to managing critical infrastructure that can help businesses manage data centre remotely, optimise network performance with analytics, and simplify the management of complex hybrid environments while realising cost-saving.  

As businesses continue their digital transformations, they depend on data that resides on-premises, in public and private clouds, devices at the edge and networks, and operation centers that span the globe. Managing these complex environments is increasingly becoming more difficult. Exponential increases in time, labor and cost, as well as the complexity of navigating a maze of service providers to establish clear accountability and support, requires a more intelligent and flexible approach as DMSO. We are all hoping the COVID-19 era passes quickly. But the long-term necessity and benefits of CFOs and CIOs collaborating will continue well beyond the current crisis and will remain an ongoing part of any business’s evolution, strategy and long-term health

Business, Contributed

Can cybersecurity keep up with flexible work arrangements?

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2020 will be remembered as the year the world experienced its largest ever work-from-home experiment as the global pandemic forced businesses to move operations online and adapt to a new distributed workforce.

As some markets around the globe gradually ease some restrictions and allow employees to go back to the office, the situation remains in a delicate balance and work as we know it has been redefined for many. Increasingly, organisations are embracing the new work model and the many benefits that come with it including increased employee well-being and better work-life balance. In fact, some organisations are now establishing permanent work-from-home policies with 60 percent of the largest companies integrating flexible virtual-physical collaborative environments by 2021, according to Bain & Company. This is supported by Lenovo’s Work From Home survey which found that nearly half (46 percent) of employees are as productive when working from home as they are in the office, with 15 percent saying that productivity increases at home.

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The survey also found that 87 percent of workers feel somewhat ready to adapt to a distributed, work-from-anywhere environment if required. So too are cybercriminals. The looming uncertainty among employees of the delicate, everchanging global circumstances, combined with their unfamiliarity with the new work arrangement, has created a wealth of opportunities for cyber-attacks. Cyber criminals are taking advantage of the situation to launch COVID-themed attacks, phishing attempts and spread fake news. In Malaysia, cybersecurity cases have seen a surge of more than 90% during the Movement Control Order (MCO) so far compared to the same period last year, CyberSecurity Malaysia revealed.

Watch for your blind spots

With employees accessing confidential data from various devices, locations, and unsecured networks, it opens more endpoints and vulnerabilities for cyberattacks. In our hyper-digital and mobile world, hardware security is becoming ever more critical, as across the globe, each person is expected to own 6.58 network connected devices in 2020. In fact, according to cybersecurity solutions provider Sepio Systems, there has been a 300 percent increase in the number of new connected devices from unknown vendors attached to the enterprise network.

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While a majority of employees are working primarily from home, it is only a matter of time before they begin heading back to shared workspaces, coffee shops and planes and once again enjoy the flexibility of working from anywhere. This means that an organisation’s network, database and confidential files may be accessed from unsecured VPNs, unknown networks, and rogue access points. Without proper security standards put in place, hackers can easily gain access to an organisation’s network via vulnerable devices and execute attacks remotely. Organisations must take this into consideration and be on the offensive to mitigate potential attacks before malicious entities infiltrate company systems and confidential data.

Adopt a Zero Trust mindset

The nature of a distributed workforce removes the luxury of face-to-face identification and validation. Tech Wire Asia reported that cyber scams based on COVID-19 becomes prevalent in recent months, as hackers look to capitalize on the virus-driven uncertainty affecting individuals, enterprises, and governments. This means that organisations must double down on their efforts in credential and access management and continue to educate employees to identify and weed out impersonation scams and phishing attempts. As hackers grow in sophistication, organisations and employees must take a Zero Trust. In order to protect business and employee data, organisations must implement a system to ensure that the right people have access to the right data at the right time, on a ‘need-to-know’ basis.

Empowering a distributed workforce with cybersecurity

To reap the full benefits of a distributed workforce in the long run, organisations must provide employees with secure devices and create a safe digital environment to operate in, allowing them to focus on the job at hand. This shift to a decentralised work environment means that IT teams must have extended visibility over digital platforms and the organisations digital ecosystems in order to identify and mitigate potential threats in a timely manner.

However, with the shortage of cyber talent and growing digital footprint, this can take a toll on IT teams. IT teams must be supported to enhance their capabilities with solutions that provide both hardware and software security. For example, Lenovo’s ThinkShield solution helps secure devices from development through disposal, giving IT admins more visibility into end points and providing easier and more secure authentication. Lenovo has also partnered with SentinelOne to leverage its behavioral AI technology to predict tomorrow’s attacks today and allow ThinkShield devices to predict cyberattacks and enable devices to self-heal from any attack instantaneously, adding another critical layer to our ThinkShield offering.

As employees have quickly adapted to new work structures in these unique times, organisations must also embrace the risk that comes with it and put in place the right measures and solutions to create a secure and robust environment for employees to operate in. One way Lenovo helps organisations empower employees is by offering services that supports remote workers. For employees who do not have access to IT helpdesks, Lenovo’s Premier Support allows for direct, 24/7 access to elite Lenovo engineers who provide unscripted troubleshooting and comprehensive support for hardware and software. This results in less downtime for end users when things go wrong, freeing IT staff up to focus on strategic efforts.

Only then will organisations and employees be able to reap the full benefits of a distributed workforce and build a stronger digital foundation to effectively navigate and succeed in the new world of work.

Business, Contributed

Cracking the Code to Digital Banking Success

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“We live in a time of great change. Thanks to technology, the rate of change around us continues to accelerate,” said Jim Whitehurst, president of IBM. Although today’s banking landscape in Asia-Pacific is proving slow to change, the springboards that could redefine banking are quickly emerging. 

One such springboard is regulators issuing digital banking licenses in the region. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, for example, gave out eight virtual banking licenses last year. Awardees include Ant SME Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Ping An OneConnect Company Limited, Tencent’s Infinium Limited, and Xiaomi’s Insight Fintech HK Limited. Depending on the country, the licenses would allow non-banking entities to conduct banking activities such as taking deposits from retail customers and giving out loans to businesses. Since such firms are not required to have physical branches, they are also called online-only, virtual, or neo-banks. Examples of virtual banks in the region that are already in operations include Tencent’s WeBank in China, and Kakao Bank in South Korea. 

These new entrants, together with fintechs, have raised customers’ expectations of banking services. Recent research from independent research firm Forrester found that 77% of Asia-Pacific banking customers prefer to interact with their financial services providers on digital channels, especially in mobile-first countries such as Mainland China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. Nearly three-quarters of them also believed that they should be able to accomplish any financial task on a mobile device. 

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As the incumbent banks in Asia-Pacific are finding ways to address those changes head-on, they also need to look at their IT infrastructure, which supports and enables their business models. This is because the IT infrastructure handles the most demanding compute transactions such as trading stocks, bonds, currencies, or derivatives, or allowing retail customers to make purchases using a smartphone app. 

Simplifying IT to drive better business outcomes

Established banks today are running on core systems that are often inflexible, expensive to maintain, and difficult to integrate with customer channels. Moreover, while integration is necessary, it is not sufficient to be able to create the technology platform flexibility necessary to lower operating costs, adapt to changes quickly, and optimize customer engagement. To overcome these challenges, banks in Asia-Pacific are working to transform their often monolithic, rigid, legacy IT architecture to a more open architecture that provides the agility to deliver dynamic business needs. This enables them to: 

Optimize operations by streamlining processes

Since a single customer record can have various finance-related transactions associated with it, banking systems based on application programming interfaces (APIs) can better service multiple activities associated with a single customer record. Banks can further improve operational efficiency by deploying an API integration tool, which connects externally facing APIs with the internal banking APIs and systems of record. It transforms and directs incoming API requests to the appropriate endpoint within the IT environment, allowing changes to the back-office without impacting customer engagement services.

The issuing of digital banking licenses and introduction of online-only financial institutions in the region have raised the expectations of banking services of today. With banking customers in the region preferring digital channels to interact with their providers, incumbent banks in Asia-Pacific will have to find ways to address these needs by looking at their IT infrastructure to support and enable their business model.

Additionally, banks can leverage microservices to expose individual functions, facilitating new service implementation as well as existing service updates. A microservices-based architecture can help banks better integrate their services into their partners’ platforms to deliver more services to customers. Since microservices can be reused, they also flexibly support and maintain production services by removing single points of failure in end-to-end flows. To reap the full benefits from microservices, they should be coupled with containers, which enable the portability of decisioning systems, across hybrid cloud environments.

Consistently deliver good customer experience in a standardized way despite changes in the business

Banks were initially built based on the branch office model, and were later supported by call centers and digital channels. These changes call for the IT architecture to be enhanced so that IT can effectively support new business models. However, there might be cases where IT architects missed integrating IT enhancements or new channels with existing operations, leading to data silos.  

This is where standards, which can be critical for processing within the back office, can help. They are able to provide a foundation for a uniform system blueprint that gathers more detailed and consistent customer data that can be more easily combined across different transactions and banking channels. Since banks do not have the luxury of shutting down operations to rebuild, applying consistent standards across the board helps to more easily modify processing while still running and maintaining established levels of customer support. API implementation and reuse from shared catalogs can help to enforce adherence to standards and accelerate delivery.

Support business agility through continuous delivery

As change is the only constant, banks need to be able to rapidly develop and modify servicing logic, business rules, and predictive models to adapt to changing customer demands, comply with new regulations, and respond to new competitive offerings. A modern, microservices-based architecture can help banks gain that agility by enabling them to adopt continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) so that they can build, deploy and manage apps quickly. 

Open source will be key to transforming the back-office

As more banks are embarking on the modernization journey to simplify IT, they are harnessing open source solutions to support customer engagement applications and deliver delightful customer experiences. According to The 2020 State of Enterprise Open Source: A Red Hat Report, 93% of IT leaders from the financial services industry globally said enterprise open source is important to their organization, and cited IT infrastructure modernization as one of the top three use cases for the technology. Respondents cited top reasons for using enterprise open source as being able to gain access to latest innovations and achieve higher levels of  security. 

Thailand’s Kasikorn Bank (KBank) is one bank that has benefitted from enterprise open source. It tasked its tech arm, Kasikorn Business-Technology Group (KBTG), to update and optimize its IT infrastructure to ensure that its mobile banking app is feature-rich, user-friendly and reliable even as the user base grew. KTBG did so by deploying Red Hat’s open source solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP), Red Hat AMQ, and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

Coupling the tech deployment with DevOps and agile methodologies, KTBG achieved the speed and scale KBank needed such that it can now handle 5,000 transactions per second. The open, modern IT architecture also enabled KBank to easily connect with its business partners’ systems to deliver more features on its mobile banking app, and provided a responsive, reliable application environment that reduced application development time from one month to two weeks. All in all, the changes that are reshaping the financial services industry offer established banks in Asia-Pacific opportunities to adopt technology that can increase their competitiveness and agility. In response to this, banks in the region have enhanced many of their customer-facing front-end operations with digital solutions. However, the front-office experience only makes up a small part of the entire process. Most of the servicing happens on the back end, often using numerous manual touchpoints that are rarely exposed to customers. Having a digital banking platform built on enterprise open source can help banks simplify IT and break down barriers between the customer engagement and back-office teams. With a stable yet flexible platform that can scale and adapt, banks can deliver a streamlined and frictionless customer experience that meets their expectations, therefore cracking the code to becoming successful digital banks that can compete effectively with new entrants.