PETALING JAYA: Established manufacturing companies need to adopt digitalisation in order to create support for clients, stay ahead and remain competitive regionally, said OpenMinds founder Jan Wong.
“OpenMinds sees clients becoming digitalised and this way of putting simple efforts of digitalisation into a company will create a system that is more productive and efficient. Companies need to be aware that implementing digitalisation is actually not scary or expensive if the plan is to start with small steps first, then continue accordingly,” he said in an exclusive interview with SunBiz.
Wong noted the lack of awareness among companies in adopting digitalisation and felt it is not because they do not realise that technology is helpful, but it is more about application and on how technology can benefit them.
“OpenMinds finds companies understand the need for technology ... but their lack of awareness appears in applying technology into their businesses, which contributes to how technology can help companies to perform well,” he stated.
Wong said that most of these manufacturing companies are big organisations that have been in the market for a relatively long period, which means the gap and the exposure towards tools and technologies started where companies have more employees from millennials and Generation Z with advanced technological knowledge, while Generation X and baby boomers continue to manage the companies with barriers to adoption of technology.
“The gap was created due to not having many good resources here, especially in Malaysia. Digital skills are not only about social media advertising, but knowledge in the area of manufacturing is important so as to help the companies to stay ahead.
“Due to these reasons, OpenMinds sees a big number of manufacturing companies now choosing to wait and watch, where this turns out to be the most obvious impact that slows down manufacturing companies from achieving bigger accomplishments in Malaysia,” he added.
Wong emphasised that government and private sector should dive deeper into digital skillsets and the focus needs to be shifted to developing deeper verticals, as Malaysia has created too many “getting-started” courses.
“OpenMinds thinks that it will also help if there are companies that can bring their people on a ‘journey’. As improving skillsets needs to be done in steps, OpenMinds proposes that there should be a journey on phases of progression to correct the awareness and bridge the skills gap, then to dive in and provide support for the companies to take the smallest step forward to digitalisation,” he said.
On the benefits that manufacturing companies can derive from implementing automation, he opined that automation plays a major role in speeding up the generation of reports, compared to manual compilation.
“Having automation to take place in reporting, communication and even customer relationship management for better scaling, will contribute much into helping these companies. Some companies are still relying on the traditional methods while these methods can be replaced by portal management, therefore helping them to scale everything faster,” said Wong.
Meanwhile, he said OpenMinds targets to broaden its core areas of expertise in performance, marketing, data analytics, education and consultancies in the next five to 10 years. “The company aims to enhance the Malaysian manufacturing sector by leveraging advanced marketing technology solutions,” he added.
