H3C Opinion: Digitalisation is Crucial for Enterprises to Survive in the Post-Pandemic World

By Rockies Ma, General Manager of H3C Malaysia

On 9 December 2021, ​​H3C Malaysia successfully held the first-ever Malaysia H3C Day 2021. Themed “Together for Better”, H3C Day aims to build an open and collaborative communication channel for industry leaders and experts to take part in a discussion. As the Malaysian economy is gradually recovering and the government is focusing on investment in digital solutions, the event invited H3C’s partners and customers to share their thoughts on the digital transformation process of their organisations along with the government’s plans in building a digital nation.

In this new digital era, it is said that it is not the CEOs who have forged digitalisation, but it is COVID-19 who has urged organisations to enhance their digital infrastructure. The need for digital transformation is well reflected in the education industry. When the pandemic hit, physical lectures had to be shifted online for students studying locally and internationally. Many educational institutions faced network and connectivity issues as they had to cater for a huge surge in data traffic. From increasing internet bandwidth to upgrading a university's internal cloud server, it is a huge challenge for the education industry as they need to take a big leap in their digital transformation journey.

As much as the Malaysian government has stressed the significance of digital transformation in the country’s economic recovery efforts including the country’s MyDigital initiative, where Malaysia aims to become a technologically advanced digitally-driven country and a regional leader in the digital economy by 2030^[1]. Many local enterprises are still hesitant to adopt digitalisation. Some companies think that digital transformation requires huge investment cost, some are afraid of the increased risks that digitalisation might bring. They have heard that ‘in order to stay afloat in this global crisis, they need to embrace digitalisation to progress’. However, many corporations are still unclear of where to start off with.

In order for the nation to move forward and digitalise together, more awareness and education efforts need to be done through public-private partnerships to uplift the digital literacy, skills and knowledge of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Digital solutions providers should instill trust and confidence in their end-users while organisations who have successfully embarked on their digital transformation journey can share their experience and learnings to create awareness in the industry. Looking at the bigger picture, Malaysia can be a digital hub if MSMEs start to digitalise their day-to-day operations.

Recently, the Malaysian government has outlined several key areas to catalyse the recovery of the MSMEs, which are the pursuits of innovation, digitalisation and the use of technology. Besides that, MSMEs need to inculcate sustainability principles comprising environment, social and governance (ESG) over the long term. With the government’s plans and efforts intensified in building a digital economy in Malaysia, the country is on track to have 875,000 MSMEs embrace digital e-commerce by 2025, aiming to bring 80% of public service online by 2025^[2].

Moreover, to support the digital transformation of local enterprises, the Malaysian government has continuously increased its capital investment in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) field, promoting the economic development of MSMEs. To survive in this rapidly changing economy, MSMEs should consider the advantages of digital solutions such as cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), information security, as well as Internet of Things (IoT). These tools are essential for enterprises to improve the everyday efficiency of their operating processes, from doing manually to mostly automated, aiding them to expand and be more profitable to cater for the fast-moving ICT changes.

Digitalisation is a never-ending journey. It is like getting a smartphone, there will always be a better and more advanced smartphone in the market every other week. Having said that, there is always room for improvement in the digital world. Starting from transitioning pen and paper to cloud, to analysing customer behaviours and improving user experience, almost every aspect of business can be digitalised. It is apparent that the companies that have acquired digitalisation are more successful than the ones who have not. Hence, it is of utmost importance for us to learn and acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for digitalisation before it is too late.