Key Takeaways: 40th ASEAN Innovation Business Platform Conference & Exhibition Malaysia Day 2
Following Day 1 of the 40th ASEAN Innovation Business Platform Conference & Exhibition Malaysia "The Growth Imperative: Innovating for Impact through Technology and Sustainability", where our esteemed guests shared about?digital transformation, cybersecurity, supply chain resilience, ESG initiatives, and the role of smart cities ?in enhancing the lives of citizens, the second day address key discussions around
Emerging Technologies, Customer Centricity and Financial Inclusion
Emerging technologies are seen as key enablers for digital transformation in the banking and financial services industry, as customer centricity and experience is highlighted as the most important focus for digital banks and financial institutions.?
Kicking off the session with a presentation on “Impact of Emerging Technologies in the Financial Services Industry” by Anil Kumar Saha, Senior Vice President, DBS Bank, the panel then delved into the Malaysian financial services innovation landscape with Raja Teh Maimunah, Chief Executive Officer, ACS Digital Berhad (AEON Digital Bank), Sazulhisyam Samsuri, Designate CTO - Digital Bank, Head of Digital Innovation, KAF Investment Bank, Azleena Idris, Senior Director, Strategy & ESG, PayNet (Payments Network Malaysia) together with Eric Quah, Country Manager, Malaysia, ServiceNow.
For MSMEs who are unable to access financing due to a lack of traditional financial statements, alternative credit models using transaction data and cash flow analysis may provide solutions. Digital identity and eKYC are also important for improving financial inclusion and serving underserved segments. More importantly, digital payments and technology can only reach underserved communities if issues of connectivity and access are adequately addressed.
So where our role is, for the first time to build an alternative credit model to not just look at credit assessment. What if you look at the actual cash flow of (the boy)? How much is he taking in a day? And how much does he pay his suppliers? … You can use all that data and build a credit profile. And ironically, conventionally as a banker we don't think this data is rich. Actually, this is richer than looking at your past information. If I'm going to get information on financial statements, that will be a year ago, but this is really about cash flow. I will be able to see money coming in and money coming out. With the introduction of QR payments… it allows (the boy) to have this printed QR and payment by customers is captured digitally… with that we can build a proxy cash flow, and I think that is going to be the real difference that digital banks can bring…?70% of our GDP is fueled by SMEs, and 70% of that is actually micro SMEs.
Raja Teh Maimunah, Chief Executive Officer, ACS Digital Berhad (AEON Digital Bank)
Innovation and mindset changes are needed for traditional banks to embrace new technologies and become more like tech companies providing financial services. Despite this, with the rapid adoption of new technologies, including?quantum computing, blockchain and IoT, cybersecurity are key concerns for the financial services industry.
The ecosystem of banks, fintechs and regulators need to come together to truly drive innovation in the industry. However, digital payments and technology can only help reach underserved communities if issues of connectivity and access are adequately addressed.
Technology and Human Interaction in Customer Experience
Omni-channel strategies aim to provide a seamless experience for customers across online and offline channels.?
Rajeev Lee, Founder & CEO, Morgan's Grocer, shared about “Delivering a Hybrid Shopping Experience” catered to the Malaysian market.
The other problem that we saw is that there is basically minimal data acquisition in the market right now. And whatever data is gathered, no one's really doing anything with it. So what we've done is we've built this product where every single customer that comes to shop with us, we can gather their data, because they have to use our platform to use our offline solution. We've built a myriad of data analytics products to understand how our customers shop and then provide products that they want… with our hybrid supermarket, we're taking a 100,000 square foot supermarket and fitting it into around 5000-6000 square feet. The biggest problem in the supermarket industry today is retail space.
Rajeev Lee, Founder & CEO, Morgan's Grocer
The panel hosted by Azli Mohamed, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Thinkapital; Advisory Board Member, ASEAN Innovation Business Platform (AIBP), featuring Prince Sabahut Ali, Strategy Director, Carousell, Jit Wei Tan, Chief Technology Officer, MAMEE-Double Decker, Loo Hoey Theen, General Manager, Marketing and Business Innovation, Sunway Malls, explored how data and insights are used to personalise offerings and recommendations. Technology is employed to improve productivity, efficiency and reduce costs.
What we have invested in is actually AI vision. So now merchandisers walk into the retail shop, snap a series of photos of the shop and they can leave. These photos are being stitched on cloud using AI, and because we actually train the model to understand what is MAMEE product, what is a competitor product, including pricing. So now within one day, we will know that MAMEE is at eye-level, with 50% shelf space, MAGGI is next to us, another 50%, but MAGGI is selling (say) 50 cents cheaper. This data is used by sales to understand why MAGGI is (lower priced) … We actually pay the retailers to get shelf space. We also need to ensure the ROI is there and everything is well-managed. So this is how we use technology to ensure that you know things are in order and we don't waste merchandisers’ time
?Jit Wei Tan, Chief Technology Officer, MAMEE-Double Decker
As much as AI, data analytics, AR/VR and mobile apps make it easier to personalise offerings and recommendations, a balance must be struck between technology and the human element of customer service. Web scraping was also mentioned as a tool to gather market insights, but it raises ethical concerns.
The exponential increase in customer touchpoints is also a double-edged sword. Ensuring product quality and mitigating fraud are now key challenges for companies. Grocery retailers are exploring product certification and leveraging seller reviews to build trust. Sunway Malls acts as an intermediary to intervene when customers have issues to ensure both parties are satisfied. Mamee-Double Decker has also adapted product packaging for different sales channels to meet customer expectations.?
We are coming up with solutions that could then become sort of a playbook for other businesses at some point. So we already saw this problem in Singapore and Vietnam were, and we completely banned new sellers or new buyers to share phone numbers, QR codes and that has drastically brought down the phishing scams. Right so they're already working on these solutions and I think once we reach the stage of maturity, these solutions can then become some of the playbooks for other businesses.
Prince Sabahut Ali, Strategy Director, Carousell
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Unlocking Data Value
Proper management of unstructured data can provide significant benefits for organisations. However, before applying data for businesses and implementing AI and machine learning solutions, companies need to have the right data foundations and sound data governance.?
A panel discussion on "Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Data Applications" featured panelists Yew Choong Chew, Chief Data Officer, AmBank Group, Yusri Mohamed, Chief Digital Officer, Johor Corporation (JCorp), Datin Ts. Habsah Nordin, Chief Data Officer, PETRONAS; President, DAMA MALAYSIA.
The monetisation of value from data across Enterprise is only made possible if data could be made available and trusted. This was the journey in PETRONAS anchoring on Data Liberalisation Program which allows for data sharing on vertical and horizontal integration, made possible with establishment of Enterprise Data Hub (EDH) which functioned as the analytics data platform with robust technology stacks, allowing big data processing, advanced analytics with AI/ML capabilities and with solid data governance practices and features built. The data and advanced marketplace are enabled through an immersive portal allowing employees to obtain the data and ML models which extracts key data from documents including engineering drawing, reports, invoices etc, for their analytics purposes. The current focus is to build the right ecosystem for management of unstructured data with the ability to Trace, Trust and Monetise, and this are currently in motion with the use of Generative AI, Knowledge Graph, Cognitive services and relevant technology stacks built in Enterprise Data Hub and Enterprise Knowledge Intelligence Hub, working seamlessly to harvest the data and knowledge contents for employees to experience a faster and smart way of working.
Datin Ts. Habsah Nordin, Chief Data Officer, PETRONAS; President, DAMA MALAYSIA
Proper alignment within organisations is necessary to share data across business units for innovation initiatives, and establishing baseline metrics for data quality is crucial before data is ingested into enterprise platforms. More importantly, access to data must be balanced with relevant controls and data ethics policies.?
Driving Innovation: Collaborative Strategies between Startups and Corporations
Strategic partnerships between startups and corporations are important to provide go-to-market channels, consumer base and data for testing. Differences in scale and maturity among startups also make it challenging for partnership. Startups provide efficiency and customised solutions that large corporations struggle to develop internally.?
We convened Ahmad Kashfi Alwi (Ash), Senior Vice President, Ecosystem Development, Cradle Fund, Jit Nee Lim, Head of Innovation and Ventures, Maxis, Datuk Ir. Megat Jalaluddin Megat Hassan, Chief Strategy and Ventures Officer, Tenaga Nasional Berhad, to discuss how?government agencies and funds play a role in facilitating conversations and connections between startups and corporations.?
Organisations structure their corporate venture and innovation teams in different ways, focusing on strategic verticals for innovation. Beyond financial returns, value and key performance indicators must be defined for innovation initiatives. Culture and mindset shifts are needed to support innovation. Malaysia lacks funding opportunities and venture capital compared to other countries. Comprehensive collaboration between all stakeholders is needed to build a successful startup ecosystem.?
First, the lack of corporate sector participation - we need when we need more private sector and private investments into the space to our local startup ecosystem. Secondly, talent - we have a serious talent crunch. We lack the good market channels necessary for startups to scale. That's why we see the importance of having strategic collaborations with the likes of TNB and also Maxis because we know that we can't do this alone. We need to work with many organisations. And as government agencies, our role is really clear, which is to be the facilitator of the conversations and to provide the necessary connections
Ahmad Kashfi Alwi (Ash), Senior Vice President, Ecosystem Development, Cradle Fund
Culture and mindset shifts towards innovation are also needed, especially in more traditional industries. However, Malaysia lacks funding opportunities and venture capital compared to other countries in the region. Government agencies can facilitate connections and provide incubation support to help startups work with larger corporations, and pilot projects and proof-of-concept are important steps before formal partnerships.?
As part of the main organisation, the benefit is people know you, you know exactly what's happening. And you have access directly to all these business unit leaders, interview them, have constant interaction and engagement and say, “Hey, what are your pain points? Let me help you. I know you don't have resources.” And like all big companies, we think we are very smart, we have a lot of resources or money, people. That's a fallacy. I think there’s a little bit of arrogance, you can do everything, but you cannot. And it takes you maybe a year to have a new product sometimes.
Jit Nee Lim, Head of Innovation and Ventures, Maxis
Updates from the region: Find out more about our 2023?AIBP ?Conference and Exhibition?