Journey to Impact through Tech & Sustainability: AIBP x MIGHT Working Group Highlights
In collaboration with the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), the AIBP x MIGHT Innovation Day took place on the 22nd of August 2023, which comprises a series of working groups to delve into several topics of interest.?
The first of the working groups, with the support of Oracle explored the topic of Innovating for Impact through Technology and Sustainability.
The AIBP Innovation Working Groups seek to foster collaboration among stakeholders and promote the growth and development of ASEAN’s digitalisation and innovation through sharing knowledge, expertise, and resources.
Following feedback from local stakeholders on common challenges, opportunities, and expected outcomes for digitalisation in their organisations, we curate focused industry working groups which feature sharings of best practices and industry discussions of focused case studies.
Key Challenges
The 2022 AIBP ASEAN Innovation survey unveiled a comprehensive array of challenges that loom over digital transformation in the region. Of which, the top 5 challenges identified in digital transformation in ASEAN were?
Legacy infrastructure often struggles to keep up with fluctuating workloads. Migrating to a hybrid cloud allows businesses to dynamically scale their resources up or down as needed, shared Mr. Tat Peh Lee , Industry Solutions Director at Oracle. Embracing a hybrid cloud model also addresses the cybersecurity concerns that entail legacy infrastructure, with enterprises benefitting from advanced security measures, including machine learning-powered threat detection, data encryption, and access controls.
In-depth conversations with our innovation leaders uncovered additional dimensions to these challenges, with change management, culture, and securing the “buy-in” standing out from a strategy perspective.
The crux of any transformation lies in its ability to reshape existing business models. Altering entrenched business models to embrace consolidation, cloud repatriation, diversification, and strategic partnerships mandates a skillful change management strategy. Achieving the buy-in of stakeholders throughout the organisation is pivotal to ensuring the success of these endeavours.
Mr. Maz Mirza , Chief Digital Officer of KWAP Malaysia (Malaysia's public sector pension fund for civil servants), and Mr. muaz naz , GM Group IT Infrastructure & Systems Application of Ingress Corporation Berhad emphasised the need for a strong top-down vision, with Mr. Mirza highlighting that while the business process may remain unchanged, the potential for innovation lies in embracing cutting-edge technology.
Mr. Muaz underscored the importance of involving all business stakeholders in the decision-making process, highlighting that digital transformation is a collective journey that transcends IT departments. By fostering open dialogue, and quantifying the impact of innovation whilst involving employees in the decision-making process, organisations can create an environment that is conducive to embracing change rather than resisting it.
On the need for synergies between different business units?
Culture is the main hurdle in trying to drive data technology and digital transformation. At Ingress, being a manufacturing company, digital transformation always comes in a little later than most industries. The transformation journey to cloud took four years but the bigger hurdle was securing the buy-in to run the operations from on prem to cloud. I think a lesson learnt was that at first, we tried to run the digital transformation projects from the IT department, but that’s the wrong way to look at it. All business stakeholders must be a part of the decision making and the journey. All departments, so engineering, operations, they have to move together on this journey.
- Mr. Muaz Nazim, GM Group IT Infrastructure & Systems Application of Ingress Corporation Berhad
Amid the quest for innovation, quantifying impact became a focal point. The discussion transitioned to the quantifiable benefits of innovative efforts. From Mr. Teck Lean TEONG , CEO, GDEX Berhad , quantifying impact extended to securing the buy-in for innovation within legacy organisations.?
On “securing the buy-in” for innovation?
We are from a logistics company. So, the key challenge is how do I convince our strategic partners like Yamato and Singpost, who are legacy organisations with very specific business processes? that we need to maybe allocate a lot of funds to change our whole model. Often I am asked, you’re a logistics company, so why isn’t the focus on just logistics? Why do you need to incorporate ML and AI into cybersecurity? But the way I see it, to stay relevant and competitive, you need the commitment to innovation in all aspects of the business. That vision has to be from top down.
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- Mr. Teong Teck Lean, CEO, GDEX
The secret sauce
The anticipation of generative AI influencing industry trends, as described by Mr. Fitri, suggests a trajectory where every enterprise will harness its own version of AI-driven insights. This "secret sauce" will drive competitive differentiation and solidify the uniqueness of businesses.
On the secret sauce and industry trends?
So that I think you can see from a cost perspective, as an industry, we’re seeing enterprises having a preference towards being in a multi cloud environment. So, we’ll see more application and Software-as-a-Service adoption because enterprises are just looking to be more competitive and that comes with automation and data transformation into insights. Now, we are talking more and more about generative AI. Going forward, every enterprise will need to have their own version of ChatGPT, you put in your enterprise data, and it churns out all these insights for you. This will be your secret sauce! You cannot share the secret sauce with anybody. So from Oracle, the emphasis on generative AI also influences our strategic partnerships - we actually have a very strategic partnership with Nvidia.
Fitri Abdullah , Managing Director, Oracle Malaysia
Data governance woes?
The intricacies of talent acquisition and retention emerged as a pivotal aspect of the data governance journey. The centralisation of data stewardship initially stemmed from the shortage of expertise in this domain. The solution entailed leveraging the organisation's own resources to nurture a pool of data stewards from within its ranks. This approach addressed not only the talent issue but also laid the groundwork for cultivating a culture of data stewardship that aligned with CelcomDigi 's unique needs and challenges.
On data stewardship at the end user stage
When we started our journey, when we introduced data stewardship and data ownership, it was a challenge, because nobody wants to take care of their own data. But that was also because there was a talent issue. So the way that we help them is to start from within. When we started as an entity in the very beginning to support the businesses, the data stewardship model began centrally from within CelcomDigi, with a lot of handholding the enterprises with regards to their data management. And then slowly, with enough time and training,we transfer back to the business. So we need to build the knowledge and the process we need. Then we slowly transferred to the business. So that's how we manage the talent issue. Otherwise, everything's centralised, and it’s not efficient.
- Mr. Ts. Jacky Cheong - MSc, P.Tech , Head of Enterprise Data Governance of CelcomDigi
The sustainability paradigm
Pn. NURUL DIANA INTAN ZAFIRAH, ERM , Cyberview Sdn Bhd offered a tripartite perspective, delineating the needs of IT professionals, business professionals, and the masses. The balancing act of catering to these diverse categories while embedding a sustainability mindset reinforced the notion that innovation cannot thrive in isolation but must encompass inclusivity and shared values.
On a sustainability paradigm towards innovation
As a sustainability professional, I think we need to look at this pattern in three categories. So we have IT professionals,business professionals and the masses. So for IT professionals,? it’s about embedding responsible technology and that sustainability mindset during their education journey and they are also the ones charging forward,being a part of frontier technology. For business professionals, it’s all about value for the organisation. And we also have the masses, who just want to know what’s in it for them. Securing the buy-in is all about?the balancing act, making sure these three categories of people have their needs met.
- Pn. Intan, Cyberview
The journey to innovation is marked not only by technological prowess but by cultural transformation, collaboration, and the unyielding pursuit of value. Stay tuned as we unveil additional insights from the other working group discussions in the following days!
If you’ve missed out on the full day summary, read on here !?
If you're interested in gaining more insights into the innovation journey of enterprises in the region or if there are specific topics related to digitalization you would like to explore further, feel free to reach out to us via direct message or at [email protected] .
This article was originally written and posted by Priya Lakshmi .