PETALING JAYA: Businesses quickened their digital transformation during the movement control order (MCO) period out of necessity as the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a sudden economic shift from physical to digital.
Dropee CEO Lennise Ng said typically many of its traditional wholesalers take weeks to get themselves educated and come onboard its platform.
“That duration got cut in half. During MCO we saw a huge surge of traditional businesses who lost their offline sales bringing their businesses online. They just jumped on board because it’s a necessity. Necessity is also important for change,“ she said at the “Fronting the New Normal with Digitalisation” panel session at the SME Digital Summit today.
Dropee is a one-stop business-to-business (B2B) e-procurement platform and enterprise solution for all types of businesses. Its B2B platform allows businesses to get connected to buy and sell in bulk, and the enterprise solution allows businesses to streamline their operational processes to work more efficiently and effectively.
“Our best-selling product during this pandemic is our software that enables traditional businesses to go online. We created a simplified version so they can connect to their retail customers and wholesale customers without servicing them in person,“ said Ng.
Her advice to businesses? Learn, unlearn and relearn.
Ms Read executive director Kristy Yong said Covid-19 helped the company to accelerate its digital transformation and it worked on three pillars of business continuity, cost control and cash management.
“Digital transformation is not about the destination. It is a journey that involves all levels of the organisation. We’ve been running 24 stores offline and two online platforms for Ms Read, d.d collective and Auri. All the focus just became online. 23 years in brick and mortar, 41 years in manufacturing, none of the history mattered anymore. It’s just one platform (digital) and you either do it or don’t,“ she said.
Yong is the executive director of three home-grown womenswear fashion brands: Ms Read for the curvy UK12-UK24 women, d.d collective a contemporary womenswear label, as well as the new-to-market digital first, Auri, by the millennial community for the millennial community.
“We always operated in a lean manner. The production team in week three of the MCO produced PPEs to get some revenue and help the frontliners. The retail frontline team pivoted to become sales lead for the digital platforms, so that really helped, at least shoulder a part of the revenue.”
Yong opined that going digital does not have to be expensive, which is a big myth.
“In fact it’s supposed to bring down walls and do things more effectively. It’s more targeted and it’s about putting resources in the right place and repositioning it where it matters. There are ways to control the costs involved.”
She advised businesses to adapt. “It’s a continuous journey. Just start. We come from traditional 23 years of retail. It’s possible.”
Meanwhile, entrepreneur, producer, director and actor Tiara Jacquelina started a video-on-demand channel for people to watch its shows and created classes for people to learn performing arts.
“Our dream of bringing our shows to the world just came true!”
Tiara is chief dream-maker of The Enfiniti Creative Universe, founder of The Enfiniti Academy & creator of Tiarasa Escapes Glamping Resort.
“We decided to just put everything on Zoom. Our performing arts classes continued throughout MCO on Zoom. We even started doing corporate training, leadership and team building activities online. Every one just learn everything digital immediately.
“We didn’t realise we’d be breaking borders by going online. We were just marketing to Malaysians and we (unexpectedly) reached out to the world,“ said Tiara, adding that it is never looking back to old, conventional ways again.
“Digital technology is cheaper and more efficient. Leaders of companies need to be first to adopt and understand technology so you can help your team. Businesses need to be agile and know how to pivot,“ said Tiara.
source https://www.thesundaily.my/business/covid-19-forces-businesses-to-fast-track-digital-shift-BD3423146
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